Psalm 123: The Eyes of a Servant

The Journey
The Eyes of a Servant
Psalm 123

Introduction: Most of us know what it means to be employed by a person or a company. There is the interview, negotiation, and then finally a contract is signed. We usually discover that there is some kind of pecking order and where we fit in that order. We usually feel a measure of loyalty to our employer but we realize we can quit if we so desire and the company can terminate our employment if they choose. This is how things are done. But that makes our psalm difficult for us to understand.

I. Servants on a Journey
What did it mean to be a servant? The words used in the psalm can refer to people who were slaves as the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. This type of chattel slavery was a dehumanizing state where a person had no rights. But there was another type of servitude where one Israelite became the servant of another. This was a free choice though often the alternative was starvation and destitution. But the person who became a servant could choose whom he or she would serve. Once that service was accepted the servant was submissive to the will of his or her master.

As Americans we don’t like this picture and don’t understand it. “All men (what about women?) are created equal.” No person is better than anyone else. Of course we know this isn’t true. People with money, position, education, or even certain skin color often have an edge. But even so the picture in this psalm is foreign to us.

The journey toward God is a journey that brings us into a particular relationship to God. When we begin the journey as if we are distant from some great mountain. The closer we get the more we must elevate our eyes until we come so close it dominates our vision. We lift up our eyes to the one who sits on the throne. If we are to be successful in our journey we must not lose focus on the destination, the throne of God.

So much of the language of the psalms is found in Revelation. “Throne” is one of the powerful images in that book, Revelation 4:2-11. One reason the psalmist has no trouble in humbly serving is that he recognizes greatness. The difficulty many people have is they know of nothing greater than themselves.

The image of servant and service is something we talk about in our congregation. Serving is something we honor, or try to honor and recognize and encourage. Of course, serving God is one thing, serving the people around us is something else. But Jesus made a point to his disciples that he came to serve, Matthew 20:28. How did Jesus do that with men so weak and sinful as the Twelve? Jesus had the ability to see greatness in every human being because each one was made in the image of God. Our service to each other, our service to the weak and sinful of our world is ultimately serving God.

II. Waiting on God
If the concept of service is difficult for us then the next part is worse, waiting. Americans hate to wait. Yet the language of the psalm, “look to the hand” of the master or mistress carries with it the idea of waiting and being ready when the master indicates a need. One of the cable stations I get shows Japanese samurai movies every week. One I was watching this week showed servants who knelt quietly to the side but sprang into action at the smallest hint from the master. They could stay there a long time waiting for that signal. Maybe the closest modern equivalent are the boys and girls who collect the tennis balls during a tennis match where they must stay perfectly still until a ball comes their way.

Waiting on God is difficult and yet almost every servant of God has had long periods of waiting and trial before given a way to serve. Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, even Jesus had long periods of waiting and preparing for a coming ministry. If you mark the place where Jesus first understood God’s calling in his life at age 12, Luke 2:49, until he began his ministry at age 30 Jesus had a period of 18 years waiting. Moses had a 40-year wait, Abraham 25 years, David at least ten years waiting on God.

God undoubtedly has many lessons he is teaching us in the waiting periods of our lives but I think learning to focus on him, on his hand, so that we know when to act is the most critical. How do we know when God wants us to act? The only way is to learn the master and focus on him.

III. Ridicule
The last part of the psalm brings us to even a more difficult aspect of serving God, contempt and ridicule. The cry for mercy is understandable for no one wants that kind of treatment. Our feeling is, “I’m a Christian, one of the good guys.” And yet others don’t see us that way. The increasing contempt some people show toward Christians shouldn’t surprise us because it is not us they oppose but God. Jesus warned his disciples, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. . . If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. . . They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.” John 15:18, 20, 21.

The response God wants his servant to have is surprising. God does not call on us to defend Him or His name but instead He wants us to call on him to defend us. God doesn’t want defenders but obedient servants. Part of that obedience is crying out to God and waiting (again) on his mercy. Defensiveness is a response that often grows out of pride, a desire to defend my rights. Yet defensiveness is not seen in Jesus. Instead “he entrusted himself to him who judges justly,” 1 Peter 2:23.

The journey we are on is one that Jesus also traveled. His eyes were on the Father. He waited patiently for God and acted when God commanded. He accepted what the world dished out and looked to God for mercy and justice.

The journey we are on shapes us in unusual ways. If we continue and don’t turn back it will purge us of self-sufficiency and pride. We will be wounded and hurt but if we don’t stop, if we keep our eyes fixed on the throne and the one who sits there then we will come to a place where all that we have suffered matters not at all. “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

If you want to start the journey toward God, toward what will last forever then we invite you to join us, to confess Jesus as Lord and Savior and put him on in baptism.

Livonia Church of Christ: April 23, 2006