Psalm 123

A Song of Ascents.

1 To you I lift up my eyes,
    O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 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.

3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
    for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than its fill
    of the scorn of those who are at ease,
    of the contempt of the proud.

The psalm is clear – the only hope for mercy, the only possibility of a way forward is to be found in God. For God is the one who is master (vs. 2) and mistress (vs. 2) – the one who is in control able to bring about a solution, justice, hope, freedom, reconciliation, etc. God is the one who will act for the good and care of those who are downtrodden, with care and compassion towards those who are in distress.

The psalm turns in verse 3. While God will respond to the cry those in distress – those who are the people of his pasture – human beings on the other hand treat the lowly, the needy, the oppressed, those in distress with scorn, with contempt, with disrespect. Human beings who have the resources of those world, who live in comfort, so easily respond to the needs of the poor, the downtrodden, with scorn, with derision, with contempt.

God is different, for in Jesus Christ, part of the Trinity, God knows what it is to be poor, hungry, rejected, oppressed, and downtrodden. God knows and God will listen with care to the cries of those who are in distress. God will not speak with scorn or act with contempt.

This is the good news, that God hears and cares for the cries of the needy, offering them care and compassion. We are invited to follow God’s example walking in the footsteps of Jesus in caring for the poor and the downtrodden. That we would not be among those who while living lives of comfort ourselves treat the poor and the needy with contempt and scorn. That we would be transformed in our inner being to be more like Jesus in our relationships with the poor.

PRAYER:

God of mercy and compassion, thank you for hearing our cry when we are downtrodden, thank you for showing your mercy and grace. Take from us, O Lord, any contempt, any scorn, that we might direct towards the downtrodden and the poor. Teach us to live your pattern of mercy in the world. In Jesus’ name. Amen.  

Psalm 122

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

1 I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’
2 Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.

3 Jerusalem—built as a city that is bound firmly together.
4 To it the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord,
as was decreed for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord.
5 For there the thrones for judgement were set up,
    the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: ‘May they prosper who love you.
7 Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers.’
8 For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.

Two tangent pieces to begin. This psalm feels like it was to be sung at the end of the pilgrimage when the pilgrims had arrived in Jerusalem (see vs. 2), so it feels a bit odd that it is the third of the 15 psalms of ascent. Which is a further indication that the psalms are not ordered in the order they would have been sung by the pilgrims as they travelled.

Second, a paraphrase of this psalm was traditionally sung at the end of The Presbyterian Church in Canada’s General Assembly each year. To, at the end of meetings that were challenging and even contentious, sing that peace be upon all those who had gathered, including those had held views in opposition to what I thought was a powerfully humbling experience. 

The invitation to go to God’s house is received with joy – the paraphrase hymn starts “I joyed when “To the house of God go up,” they said to me.” To be invited to join others, to join our siblings in Christ, in worship, in community, together this is a joy, a blessing. Even across division, even across times when we are not sure we agree with the other person, what we do share is that they are our siblings – our relatives – our friends – made so by our common connection and commitment to Jesus Christ.

The heart of the psalm asks, “Can I pray for peace upon those Christians that I disagree with? Can I pray for the good of other followers of Jesus who are difficult to get along with? Can I genuinely pray that they would be blessed by God, simply because they are fellow followers of Jesus?”

PRAYER:

O Lord, sometimes it is hard to get along with the other people who worship you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We are not sure we want their best; we wish they would go away. Teach us the path of praying for good for our enemies, for desiring the best for our opponents. In Jesus’ name. Amen.