Hear the words of the psalmist, spoken to our God:
To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
As the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.
To us, it may seem obvious why we would lift up our eyes
in order to look upon the throne of God.
He is above us, so infinite, so other, so beyond our thought,
our grandest imagination, or fondest hope.
Yet – as a people who pride ourselves, too much perhaps,
on our freedom – do we understand what it means to look
at the Lord’s hand, for the maid, for the servant?
What does that mean to you?
It might mean that we look to the hand of God
for our providence, for our care – after all,
that is where a servant receives all that they have.
It could mean that we watch the hand of our Lord
to know what we ought to be about next, to seek the
signal that sends us on our next mission, the next task
that allows us to feel a part of the missio dei:
the work of God in this world.
Perhaps it is that we look to the hand of our master
for a sign of divine judgment – are we a good servant?
Are we virtuous, does our life have meaning?
At least in God’s eyes, we believe that we will see neither scorn
nor contempt, for God is not at ease, and God is not proud;
we know because we know Jesus.
It might mean that God is not so far away;
Our Lord is close enough to us for us to receive
something from the very hands that made the universe.
Consider this today:
How do we look to the hand of God to be alive and active
In our lives today?
Blessings,
Ron
Psalm 123 – NRSV
