Would you turn to Psalm 123?
Psalm 123, unto thee lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants
look under the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a
maiden under the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon
the Lord our God until that he hath mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have
mercy upon us, for we're exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are ease and with the contempt
of the proud. Let's pray. Lord, we come into your presence
only in the name of thy son and Lord, we expect. And have confidence that we are
heard for his sake. And we ask in his name. That
you would be in our midst. That you would empower your word
and deliver us from hearing the words and opinions and thoughts
of a man, but that you would speak from your word to each
heart here according to your will for your glory. Lord, we confess our sins. And Lord, how amazed we are that
Before you, because of the work of your son, we have no sin.
But you've told us in your word to, when we pray, to ask for
the forgiveness of sins. And Lord, we do. And we pray
for cleansing. We pray for grace. Lord, we pray
for your guidance on the leaders of this country. We pray that
your will would be done as we know it will. Lord, enable us
all to rest in thy dear son. Be with all your people wherever
they meet together. Bless us for Christ's sake, in his name
we pray. Amen. Unto thee, Lift up mine eyes,
O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Unto thee. Now this is very significant. Unto thee. Not looking at things that are
seen. Don't you love that scripture, the things that are seen are
temporal? The things that are not seen are eternal. We're not looking at things that
are seen. We're not looking at circumstances. You know, you can't really read
anything by circumstances. We don't know what the Lord's
doing in that sense. I'm certainly not looking to
myself. He says unto thee. Unto thee. O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Not to self, not to circumstances,
nothing down here. Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes. O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Now, when he's talking about
the Lord dwelling in the heavens, I don't know, what all to properly
say about this, but I don't think the heavens he's speaking of
is in this physical universe. I think it dwells outside of
the universe. There's the, Paul said he was
brought into the third heaven, remember that? Well, the first
heaven's where the birds fly. The second heaven's where the
galaxies are, and the outer space. And the third heaven's, that's
God's dwelling place. He is not in the universe, the
universe is in him. I love thinking about that, the
ever-expanding universe or contracting, who knows? But he doesn't dwell
in the universe, the universe dwells in him. I'm looking to
him who dwells in the heavens. And I think about when our Lord
taught us to pray in Matthew chapter six. He said, when you
pray, say. Say these words. Memorize this
prayer. Pray it from your heart by the
grace of God, but memorize that you can't beat these words because
the Lord says when you pray, say, say this. Our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Now God's name is his attributes,
the person behind the name. It's not just a name we articulate,
it's who he is. When we call upon the name of
the Lord, we're calling upon who he is to save us. Lord, save
me by an act of your sovereignty, by your will. Save me by your
justice. Save me by your grace. Save me
by your power. Save me by your wisdom. We're
calling on his name. That's who he is. All of his
attributes, his glorious attributes are seen in his name. And I love
the way the Lord teaches us to pray. Our father. He's our father and he's our
father. This is the united prayer of God's people. You know, we
pray as an hour, don't we? All those who are in Christ,
our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Now his attributes are his incommunicable,
I think I'm saying that right, incommunicable attributes. They're attributes that you and
I are never going to have. Only he has these attributes. Only he is sovereign. Hallowed
be his sovereignty. That means holy, revered, other. There's none like him. Hallowed be thy immutability. I love the hymn we sing. Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou that changest not, abide
with me. Hallowed be his omnipotence. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? You know, I think of his power
that he can cause everything that's happening to come to pass,
no matter what it is. He's in control of everything.
You can't take that too far. And it's not difficult. He's
all-powerful. He's sovereign. Hallowed be his
omnipotence. Hallowed be his omnipresence. You can't go anywhere where he's
not. I've even heard people describe hell. They say, well, that's
one place God's not. No, he's he's there. He's there.
I mean, it's it's his. Hallowed be his wrath. You can't
go anywhere where he's not hallowed be his love. So other hallowed
be his justice. Every attribute of God is hallowed. Hallowed be his independence.
Don't you love to think that the Lord doesn't need anything
for his existence? You and I, we're so dependent,
so utterly dependent, he has no needs. We think of his glorious
And that's who the psalmist is speaking of when he says, O thou
that dwellest in the heavens, every believer is a worshiper
and this is worship. Hallowed be thy name. I remember one time I was reading
a commentary on that. The commentator said, that means
let your name be glorified. No, it doesn't. It means hallowed
be thy name. Not so we're gonna let this take
place. No, it is. It is. Hallowed be thy name. Now the height of heaven speaks
of his highness. O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
I love the way David calls the Lord, O thou most high. I just
love that. He is the most high. And the
height of the heavens speaks of the security of his throne.
There's no dangers, no worries. I love to think of him in his
height. He's undisturbed by opposition.
And there's plenty of opposition, but he's not worried about it.
No worries, he's in absolute control. O thou that dwellest
in the heavens. That's comforting. He's in sovereign
serenity in the heavens. Now let's go on reading verse
two. Behold, as the eyes of servants look under the hand of their
masters, and as the eyes of a maiden under the hand of her mistress
So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy
upon us. Now we're given a picture of
a servant waiting for the signal of their master. I'm not gonna
make a move. He motions, that's when I move.
I think of a or a maid waiting on her mistress. She doesn't
know what her mistress is gonna say, she's just waiting for her
mistress to tell her exactly what to do. Just waiting there. Now there's two things that come
into my mind about that. We observe only what directly
comes from him. That's what we're waiting on.
Not man's thoughts. what directly comes from him. Now I entered into the, is this
the 21st or 22nd century? 21st, okay, 21st century. I entered
into the 21st century because I listened to my first podcast
this week. Somebody sent me a podcast and they wanted me to listen
to it. I've never done that before. I'm really getting there, all right.
But in this podcast, the man was talking about what he called
confessional Christianity. We need confessions. That's all
we need. We need confessions, good confessions. And this man was also maintaining
scriptures alone. Scriptures alone. Now, if you
believe in the scriptures alone, guess what? You don't want a
confession. A confession is a man-made document. I don't care how much good stuff
is in it, it's still a man-made document. And if you look to
the scriptures alone, you do not look to man-made documents.
You look to what the Bible has to say. Somebody says, well,
the Bible is such a big book. Yep, it's only got one message.
If you ever learn what the Bible means, you learn it has one message.
It's not, well, it's very profound, but it's simple. It's got one
message, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ is all, that's
the message. Now, am I going to go to some kind of confessional
to try to figure out, well, I like what Greg Elmquist said, doesn't
the Lord know how to speak better than any man? He uses Genesis 1-1 through Revelation
22-21 to speak the gospel exactly as it should be said. And then
men come along and say, I can improve on that. I can make it
more brief and more understandable. No, you can't. God says things
just as they should be said. And we're just waiting on what
he says, not what a man says. I don't care how sound they may
be. We look to the Word of God alone. And as this servant waits for
the hand of his master and the maid to her mistress, I love
thinking about this. John Newton put it this way.
If God had a different command for two different angels, One
angel, he says, come and rule the world and command the world.
And then the other angel, he says, sweep the streets. They
would both obey his command with equal zeal, not caring which
one they were given. Isn't that glorious? Oh, I want
to be that person, don't you? Not caring what he gives me to
do, I just, by his grace, I want to do it. Now, verse two, notice
what he said. Behold, as the eyes of the servants
look into the hand of their masters, And as the eyes of a maiden under
the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our
God. Now look at this next phrase,
until that he hath mercy upon us. Now here's my chief need. Mercy. Now, most people would
use that word quickly, mercy, everybody thinks they have some
understanding of it, but when I need mercy is when my sin is
all my fault. It's only then when I need mercy. As long as I'm a victim, It's
not my fault. It's the circumstances that were
brought upon me. It's the way I was raised. People
can even be victims in their own mind to God's sovereignty.
Like, it's not my fault. What about the man in Romans
chapter nine who said, why does he yet find fault? Who
has resisted his will? If he hardened my heart, how
can he find fault with me? I mean, that's not right. Now,
as long as we have that kind of attitude, we're not going
to ask for mercy. What we want is justice. I want to be treated
fairly. I want to be treated right. But
when my sin is all my fault, that's when I need mercy. Sovereign, saving mercy. And that's what he's asking for.
Mercy. That's what I need. Mercy. If I am one of those people who
hears the gospel and think, well, how could that be fair? How could
it be fair for God to elect some and not elect everybody? How
could it be fair for Christ only to die for the elect and not
die for everybody? Where's the fairness in that?
You know, if I have that attitude, all I expose about myself is
I don't really believe I'm a sinner. That's it. I mean, you can take
it down to that. I don't really believe I'm a
sinner. Now, when I'm a sinner and my
sin is all my fault, that's when I need mercy. His sovereign,
saving mercy. And any objection to this is
grounded in self-righteousness, a sense of entitlement, pride,
and arrogancy. That's it. May the Lord cause
us to be people who need his mercy. Now that's what the psalmist
is waiting on. We're waiting for your mercy. The mercy of God in Christ Jesus,
that's what I need. Now look what he says in verse
three. He repeats himself. Have mercy upon us, oh Lord. Have mercy upon us. for we are
exceedingly filled with contempt. This is why I need mercy, because
I am exceedingly filled with contempt, with evil, with sinfulness. That's why I need mercy. Now,
if you're gonna ask for mercy, do you say, Lord, would you have
mercy on me, because I'm not really that bad. I mean, my sin wasn't
that big a deal. I mean, surely you'll have mercy
on me, but no, that's not the way you cry for mercy. Lord,
have mercy on me, because my sin is so evil. Psalm 25, verse, turn with me there, Psalm
25, because I thought I could quote it, and I know it, but
I can't. Verse 11, for thy name's sake, O Lord,
pardon mine iniquity, because it's not that bad. That's all
he says, isn't it? For it is great. Now, the only person who knows
what the psalmist is talking about is the person who has a
holy nature. A man who has not been born of
the spirit, he knows how sin can get him in trouble. You know,
he knows something about the consequences of sin and so on,
but he doesn't really understand sin. He doesn't understand how
he is exceedingly filled with contempt. He can't see it because
it takes a holy nature to see this. And an unbeliever will
hear this kind of language and they say, well, you're just wallowing
in self-pity and this is just, just ridiculous, you know, to
look at yourself in that way. That's so negative. And it's
because they don't understand. They don't have a holy nature.
A holy nature speaks this way, oh wretched man that I am. Now a merely religious person
will congratulate himself and kind of brag, oh wretched man
that I was, but no more. Paul didn't say Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners of whom I was the chief. but
of whom I am the chief. Now, this is actually a part
of the covenant of grace. This realization that the psalmist
is speaking of, that I am exceedingly filled with contempt. This is
a part of the covenant of grace. Let me show you this in Ezekiel
chapter 36, if you turn there. Let's begin in verse 25 of Ezekiel
36, verse 25. This is God speaking. He says,
then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. And I'll take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and I'll give you a heart of flesh. And
I will put my spirit within you. This is the new birth. This is
regeneration. This is what God does for his
people. and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
in my statutes. And you shall keep my judgments
and do them." That's believing the gospel. That's and you shall
dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You're gonna
dwell in Christ. And you shall be my people, and I will be your
God. I will also save you from all
your uncleanness, and I will call for the corn, and will increase
it, and lay no famine upon you, and I will multiply the fruit
of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you shall
receive no more reproach or famine among the heathen. Then shall
you remember your own evil ways and your doings that notice words
in italics. Talking about right now. This is a promise of the covenant.
Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings
that not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight
for your iniquities and for your abominations. Now, this is what
believers do. Yes, we rejoice in the forgiveness
of sins. Yes, we believe that we stand
before God without guilt because of what Christ did on our behalf.
We glory in the gospel and we loathe ourselves. And that's the new man looking
upon the old man and loathing it. And Romans chapter seven
is the commentary on this. And he concludes that, oh, wretched. And this is Paul speaking. Oh,
wretched man that I am. And this is the healthy state
of the believer. This is not some kind of negative.
This is the healthy state of the believer. If you have a holy
nature, You see sin, and if you don't have this nature, you can't
see yourself in that light. Oh, you can see all the problems
that maybe sin has brought into your life and all the bad consequences,
but I'm talking about the being of sin. Oh, wretched man that
I am. So he says we're exceedingly
filled with contempt. That's why we need mercy. Now
look in verse four, I think he's Speaking of something differently
now, verse four. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt
of the proud. Now, he is speaking of the scorning
and the contempt that those that are at ease and proud, that what
they direct toward the Lord and his people. To see the scornful attitude
of people toward the Lord. Scornful. Proud. Arrogant. They hear the truth and they
don't like it. They feel contempt toward it. They feel contempt toward those
who believe something like this. What's wrong with you? What's
wrong with you? This is so negative. This is
so contempt. Pride. Pride is the most groundless
thing there is. And men are so proud. Proud,
arrogant. And this is what the Lord says
he hates. Six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an
abomination to him. And the first thing he mentions
is a proud look and a haughty spirit. Pride goes before destruction. and haughtiness before the fall. Now, this contemptful attitude
toward the Lord and his people, our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are ease and with the contempt
of the proud. Now, why does this bother us
so much? Well, because we love the Lord. That's why. When people are scornful
toward him, We don't like it because we love him. We love
all of his glorious attributes. And for someone to speak of him
in ways of contempt from their proud, arrogant views of themselves
and their haughty spirits and actually speaking in contempt
of the Lord and his attributes, we don't like it. because we
love him. You see, we take things personal,
don't we? If you love the Lord, if somebody says something contrary
to him, you take it personal. You can't be indifferent about
it. Well, everybody can believe their own way. No, that's your
Lord. You love him. And we're also
aware of the contempt that the unbeliever has toward us in the
gospel we preach. And we don't like it. It's not enjoyable,
but there's a very real sense in which we ought to enjoy it,
because the Lord says you're blessed when men speak evil of
you, how blessed you are. And that is a grace, but still
our inner feelings when people feel contemptuous toward us and
You know, the thing is, it's a difficult thing to be disrespected. When you're disrespected, and
you feel it, you feel it when you're disrespected, when the
unbelieving world disrespects you for what you believe. Anytime
you feel disrespected, you feel Difficult, this is difficult.
And this is what he's speaking of. And one of the things that
makes me want to do, I want to treat everyone with respect. Not with a haughty, arrogant
attitude, but I want to treat everyone with respect. Be a respectful person. But here
we have the psalmist. Our soul is exceedingly filled
with the scorning of those that are at ease and with the contempt
of the proud. But we have confidence in the
mercy of our God, and that is what we are waiting for. That's what we're looking for
from him, his mercy. But God who is rich in mercy. For his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ. Psalm 123 is a great psalm, isn't
it?