Our Help is in the Name of the Lord.

Psalm 123 was obviously written during a time of trouble for Israel.  But what was the cause of this trouble?  Some have surmised the Psalm was written during the Assyrian King Sennacherib’s threat against Jerusalem in the reign of King Hezekiah (see Isaiah chapter 36- 37).  Others feel that it may have been written during Nehemiah’s rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem’s when he and the people were constantly under threat.  In the end, the time doesn’t particularly matter.  The key thing is that God’s people are under threat are now being ridiculed for their apparent weakness.

My wife Tracy and I love the old ‘film noir’ pictures.  I recall one in particular called ‘Key Largo’ where  Edward G. Robinson plays a notorious gangster who holds guests, the proprietor and his daughter hostage at a hotel on Key Largo.  One is the guests is played Humphrey Bogart.  So the scene is set, we have a hero and a villain and it is just a case of when Humphrey Bogart’s character will act.  That’s very much the case in this psalm.  The Psalmist see’s that God’s people are under threat, but he never doubts that the Lord will act at some point!

In verse 1 the Psalmist looks to the Lord: ‘To you I lift up my eyes, O you who are enthroned in the heavens!’  This conveys two things, firstly the Psalmist is giving God his rightful place, and secondly he’s expecting the Lord to intervene.  This is given added emphasis in verse 2 where he uses the illustration: ‘as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he has mercy upon us.’  In the Ancient Near East hand gestures were important in the relationship between a servant and their master as they were used for summoning the servant for service.  So this illustrates the writer is expectant and alert to the fact that God will act.  He doesn’t know when or how, but he expects it and is watching for it as he’s also expecting to play a part in the Lord’s solution to the problem.  But the illustration of the master – servant / maid – mistress relationship also illustrates his complete dependence on the Lord.  In the last part of verse 2 the writer uses the term: ‘LORD’ which in the original Hebrew text is rendered ‘Yahweh’, the covenant name of God.  And that’s significant as the covenant was made up of God’s promises to Israel, all of which he had kept!  So it illustrates the Psalmist’s supreme confidence, he expects God to answer his prayer!

But the Psalmist does more than just expect God to act.  He requests mercy from the Lord in the face of all the contempt and ridicule that he and others are facing.  I think it’s harder to face ridicule of the Gospel message rather than objections and opposition.  If someone objects to something you say, you can at least reason with them.  But when people just want to make stupid jokes about something that’s precious to you, that’s harder to deal with as it’s far more hurtful!  So the Psalmist is doing the wisest the thing he can, he petitions the Lord in prayer. We could make the mistake of thinking that the psalm ends on a negative note.  After all, the problem is not resolved as we have no indication that the Lord has answered his prayer.  But if we take that approach I believe we’ve missed something very important.  In effect, the writer of the psalm has bypassed the problem.  He has gone over the heads of those who taunt God’s people and appealed to one far greater than the most powerful of enemies as he is: ‘enthroned in the heavens!’ (v1).  The Psalmist looks to the Lord, focusing on him and expecting to be part of the action that he will take.  This is the attitude we to need to adopt in the face of opposition if we are to be effective in our service to the Lord in an age of ridiculed and cynicism!

Would you like to listen to a sermon on this Psalm? Our Help is Found in the Name of the Lord.