Psalm 123:1-4 NKJV
123 Unto You I lift up my eyes,
O You who dwell in the heavens.
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,
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 on us.
3 Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!
For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is exceedingly filled
With the scorn of those who are at ease,
With the contempt of the proud.
Luther writes: “The 123rd psalm is a fervent prayer against all those secure and proud despisers of the word of God and its true ministers. And the Gentile nations were not the only despisers who contemplated the whole religion of the Israelites and true worship of God, and condemned it as sedition altogether; but the idolators and false teachers which were in the midst of that very people themselves proudly despised and derided the godly, that little flock of God, and the true prophets as Psalms 12 and 14 complain.
And in the same way also our papists and fanatics now, who seem in their own eyes to be more holy than the gospel itself, more proudly and contemptuously than any others despise, trample underfoot, and spit upon all true and good ministers of the word of God.” (A Manual on the Book of Psalms, M. Luther, pg. 348)
Unjust men (meaning, those who have resisted the Lord and have not been brought to believe) do not look up to heaven, for heaven sees into their hearts and condemns them. Those who have been brought to believe and trust in God, however, always look up to heaven, for heaven is the final frontier of their hope. It is ever to heaven that the just man (meaning, those declared and accounted justified in God’s eyes through faith) raises his eyes in trust.
With the just, man is ever thus. Condemned and contemned upon this fallen earth, he lifts his vision and set his sights on high, trust God who reads hearts and recognizes those who belong to Him. Such are you, dear repentant/believing baptized Saints! Rejoice in God’s accounting of you as justified and forgiven through faith — and press on with those eyes of faith fixed on Christ, thanks to God’s Christ-centered Word and Sacraments!
Let us pray: Thank You, Almighty God, for bringing us to repentant and believing faith through Your Word and Sacraments and continue to sustain us through the same. Amen.