Come back to Psalm 123. Psalm
123. The title of the message, The
Eyes of Prayer. Subject is pilgrim, lifts up
his eyes again unto the Lord. He lifts it up for mercy and
for help. You know, if you notice this,
In Psalm 120, these songs, Psalms, they're songs of degrees. In
Psalm 120, 121, 122, 123, have all started out first very
personal. My, my, my distress, I lift up
my eyes. You know, they've all started
out very personal. And that's because our relationship
with the Lord is very personal, is very personal. Just as our
Lord's relationship with his father is very personal. He said, I and my father are
one. We are one. Now I know there's
a lot said today about accepting Christ as one's personal savior. I know that. But to the true
believer, our relationship is very personal. It really is. And I'm not going to ignore that
or push that aside because of the way it's used today. My relationship
with Christ is a very personal relationship. It's like that
of a husband and a wife. That's what we're taught in the
scriptures. It's like that of a head and
a body. It's like that of the vine and
the branches. You see, our relationship is
very real and it's very personal. He is my Lord and my God. He's
my master. I have a master. I'm a servant. I've been bought with a price.
I realize that now more than I've ever realized it since I
had believed. I'm his. There's not a reason
for me to even breathe. except for Jesus Christ. I don't
have a reason to exist. And I realize that. I told that
someone the other day, it called me. I said, we don't have a reason
to breathe or exist except for him. And I'm glad of it. I'm glad of it. He's my Lord. He's my God. He's my Redeemer.
As I said, I've been bought with the price. I'm not my own. He's my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, and He's my redemption. In the Word of God,
He is said to be our all in all. In every way, every shape, every
form, Christ is my all in all. And we have a real personal relationship
with the Lord. Not when we get there. right
now if it's not now it's not going to be later it's now now
it's evident in this psalm that pilgrim whoever wrote this i
believe david wrote it but david i tell you what david was a king
yes but david also was a pilgrim just like abraham isaac jacob
you and me he was a pilgrim and he knew it he knew his time was
on this earth was short and he was just traveling through But
here it's evident that Pilgrim is looking to the Lord for mercy. It's evident he is now, you see,
he left in Psalm 120 in distress on his journey to Jerusalem,
and now he stands within the house, and now he looks unto
the Lord. He's lifting up his eyes to the Lord, and he's looking
to the Lord for mercy. We see the spiritual ups and
downs of Pilgrim as he journeys through life. We see that, and
such is our journey to heaven. We're journeying also, you know
that? We're on a journey, it's a journey. We're looking for
a city whose builder and maker is God. And on this journey,
we have our spiritual ups and downs. You see, last week Pilgrim
said, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house
of the Lord. This week is in distress again. Such is this
life. Such is the journey on our way
home. On our way home. We have days
when we are glad to go to the house of God. Glad to be there. And then we have spiritual days
when we're down and we have to drag ourselves to worship. That's
just so. I wish I could come here happy, happy. I wish I could
come here full of zest and ready to worship. But it's not always
like that. I know what you go through. I go through the same thing.
Same thing. We have days when sin oppresses
us more than others. We have days when the world and
Satan molest us. And when we have these times,
We have a place to go and cast all our cares on the Lord, a
throne of grace. Now that I have believed and
now that you have believed, you look at the world and you wonder
how in the world they make it. You think, it's no wonder the
psychiatric doctors are full. It's no wonder. without hope, without God, there's
no foundation. If you don't have a foundation,
a real foundation to build on, which is Jesus Christ, you're
just on sinking sand and you need something to numb the feelings.
So you don't realize you're on sinking sand. That's so. But here we have a place to go. We know it as a throne of grace
when God has given it to us and our Lord resides on that throne. And there he dispenses grace,
abounding grace is called in Romans. Where sin abounded, grace
doth much more abound. God's grace is super abounding.
This place we go to is out of this world. It's out of this
world, our Lord is in heaven. Now he's in the church, he's
in you, but his special reside is in heaven also. In that holy
of holies, and in our hearts, in our minds, when we bow to
pray, when we call upon him, we leave this world, don't we?
We leave this world, we go to him. And we've been given eyes
of faith that we may look up, look up in faith. The scripture, look up where
your redemption draws nigh. The believers should always be
looking up to him, looking up to the Lord, believing he will
hear us and help us in looking up when we look up to him. Now,
if you'll notice the shortness of this prayer, it's only four
verses. Prayer does not have to be long to be heard, just
sincere. That's all it needs. Sometimes
it can only be a groan. Sometimes it's just a groan.
There have been times that the only thing I could do was groan. And I'm sure if you've lived
long enough, you know that. If you've lived long enough in
the faith, you know that. You can't put it into words. But
the Spirit of God can. He can. Words we can't find,
He does. Now, verse one, unto thee lift
I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens. I woke up this morning thinking
of this verse, and I thought, our bodies, our physical bodies,
they are a wonder of God's creation. What a wonder our bodies are,
a wonder of God's creation. And I looked at my body in the
mirror, and I thought this, everything about this body has a pair. It's like a mirror image of itself.
Right hand, left hand. Right eye, left eye. Right ear,
left ear. It's just like the body, it's made in such a way
that it helps itself. The body is one. It has many
members, but it's one body. That's what it is. It's one body.
It's a type of the body of Christ. It just dawned on me this morning
so strongly that the reason God made our body like he made it. There's one reason why God made
the body. You know, God, God is God. He could have made it
in many different ways, couldn't it? As far as that goes. But
you know why He made it just like He made it? Because it represents
the body of Christ. When you look into the mirror,
if God has given you spiritual wisdom and understanding, you
can look into the mirror and you can see how the body of Christ
works. It works in union. It works as the head works. You
see, my head directs my body. Christ directs the church's body. And the body is in union. It
helps itself. We help one another. I thought
about when we pray, you know, when you pray, you're by yourself.
And I do this when I'm by myself. I don't put my hands together
like this, but I interlock my fingers almost all the time.
I never noticed it. Never noticed it until today
when I thought about it. But I interlock my fingers like this
most of the time. And I'm like, my thumbs are on
my head. And I thought, it's my body coming
together. It's showing the unity of the
body, of my body, when my hands come together and interlock.
And the body of Christ is so united that she's one. She's one. She just works together. Not against each other. My body
doesn't work against each other. It doesn't. My right hand, left
hand, they just do what my head tells them to do. Pick something
up. It's amazing to me. Now, that
may sound simple to you. You may think, you get on with
it. But that means, I mean, I see a lot in it spiritually, I do.
I see a lot in it when I look at it. And that's the reason
God made the body just like he made it, because it's an image
of the body of Christ, just like marriage. Why did God make Adam
a woman and tell him to produce children and have a family? It
represents Christ in the church. Why does God give us a son that
gives us light on the earth? Why? It represents Christ, the
son of righteousness, who's the light of the world. He said,
I'm the light of the world, not the sun, not that S-U-N. The
S-O-N is really the light of the world. We have all these
examples in creation. All of creation speaks of spiritual
truth. They're just types and examples.
Our Lord used it all the time. The sower, I mean, you just,
go through and he used it all the time listen to this and our lord our
lord prays for the oneness of his body to be like that of the
oneness of him and the father john 17 11 and now i'm no more
in the world but these are in the world and i come to thee
holy father keep through thine own name those whom thou has
given me that they may be one as we are, one body, one union,
one unity. In verse 22, In the glory which
thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even
as we are one. I would to God that you and I
could really understand this oneness that our Lord is speaking
of. It's far more than what we can
comprehend, this oneness. Just like he said about marriage,
he said, two come together, they are what? One. Two shall be one. You know, mom, after dad passed
away, you know, mom's had such a hard time with it. I said,
and I told her, I said, mom, you know, the Lord said that
when two are married, when they're married, they become one flesh.
I said, you just got cut in half. And that's why it hurts so much.
Because you all really became one. You did. They did. They
became one. And I said, that's the oneness
we have. That's a real union we have with
the Lord Jesus Christ. We are really one with him in
spirit. And then here, the lifting up of the eyes, he
said, I lift up my eyes, it's an act of faith. It's an act of faith. You know,
our Lord did this all the time. He lifted up his eyes, and he
knew that the Father heard him. He said, I know you always hear
me. He always believed God. He always believed his Father.
He always did. He had perfect faith. He always
believed perfectly, and that's our righteousness. But now listen,
he looks in faith. He looks to the Lord believing
he will hear his prayer. Why would we even pray if we
think, well, he won't hear me? We are to pray, believing he
will hear our prayer. All things are possible to him
that believes. All things. And then he looks
here, Pilgrim looks with confidence. He looks with confidence. The
scriptures say he that cometh to God must believe that he is,
that he is God. He is who he says he is. and
that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him we look we look believing we
look in confidence and then he looks with hope and expectation
he looks with hope and expectation knowing that the lord will be
merciful knowing that the lord will answer his prayers I wasn't
as confident of that as a young believer as I am now. I'm confident
the Lord will answer. He will answer in His way, in
His time. He'll answer. You know, it says in Psalm 34,
18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. You
see, this prayer right here from Pilgrim is from a broken heart.
And save as such as be of a contrite spirit, God doesn't despise that,
He looks to that. And then here He identifies the
one He's looking to. O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Now, if you don't pray to the
one who dwells in the heavens, if you don't pray to the right
one, well, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. You pray to
one who has hands but he can't help you, he has a mouth but
he can't speak, a nose he can't spell, you're in trouble. You
and I are in trouble. But we don't pray to that. We
don't pray to that. Oh thou that dwellest in the
heavens. Not on a shelf somewhere. Not
on a shelf somewhere, not hanging on a cross like the Catholics
have hanging on a cross. They have Mary up there on the
same level as the Lord. No, we pray to He who dwells
in the heavens. Psalm 115, listen to this, verse
two and three. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. He's sovereign, our God is sovereign. And He's in
the heavens, that's where He is. O thou that dwellest in the
heavens. Many were looking to heaven this
week, but not one looked to the one who dwells in heaven. Everybody,
I mean, all over the world, they were all looking up at the sun,
and some of them were crying, and not one of them, I didn't
hear one of them speak of God. I didn't hear one of them give
God the glory. You know, my first thought when
I saw that, I thought, everybody has to recognize we have nothing
to do with that. That's in the heavens. We have
nothing to do with that. That's a God. That's a God. I did hear two talk about Mother
Nature. I heard two of them say that. I mean, that's pathetic. Our God is in the heavens, though
God is omnipresent at all times and all places. Whither shall
I flee from thy presence? There is nowhere you can flee
from his presence. Yet he resides in heaven. He resides in heaven,
wherever that is. Whatever that's like, wherever
God is, wherever God is, that's heaven. Wherever our Lord is,
wherever he sits at God's right hand, that's heaven. It's not
this earth. It's opposite of this earth.
Opposite. And listen, we never look down
on God. I lift my eyes to thee. The Lord
lifted his. If anyone looks down on God,
they got the wrong God. We lift up our eyes to thee.
It don't matter. You know, when Jonah was in the
belly of the whale, he was lifted up his eyes. He lifted up his
eyes to the Lord. You'd be upside down and lift
your eyes up to the Lord. We're always lifting them up
because God is up. He's not down. He's not down. This shows one's attitude and
their thoughts of God. is how they look at him and then
this prayer is a is one of dependence verse 2 behold now this caught
my attention today because pilgrim here is he you know usually when
we write read behold he's speaking to the people when our lord said
behold he's speaking to the people but here he's asking god He's
asking God to behold his prayer, to behold the sincerity of his
heart when he's saying, behold, behold, as the eyes of servants
look unto the hand of their masters. The hand of their masters. And
I didn't really catch that part of it until I read it here to
you. The hand of the master. Our Lord reached over and touched
that leper with His hand. Many He touched with His hand. They looked to the hand of their
masters and as the eyes of a maiden to the hand of her mistress.
So our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that He have mercy
upon us. What the eye acknowledges, what
the eye pilgrim acknowledges. First of all, I am thy servant. Can I say it like this? I am
thy slave. Bondslave? I am a bondslave of
Jesus Christ. A willing bondslave. He made
me willing, but I am a willing bondslave of Jesus Christ. Now,
this is true. THIS IS TRUE! EVERY PERSON ON
THIS EARTH IS A SLAVE TO SOMEONE! SOME ARE SLAVES TO DRUGS, SOME
TO ALCOHOL, SOME TO THIS, SOME TO THAT! ALL ARE A SLAVE WHO
ARE NOT BORN OF GOD, ALL ARE A SLAVE TO SATAN! THEY DO HIS
BIDDING WHETHER THEY KNOW IT OR NOT! They are children of
darkness. They're all slaves, his slaves.
But listen, I am thy servant. There is real humility in the
look of a servant to the master's hand. It's a look of real humility,
not fake, real. It's not a proud look. It's not
a proud look. It's a look of humility, it's
a look of need, it's a look of hope when he looks to his master's
hand. Because everything is in his
master's hand. How's that song go? He's got
the whole world in his hand. He's got me and you, brother. Parts of that song come to my
mind. I don't know how the whole song goes, but I remember that
part of it. Everything is in the Master's hand. The Earth
is the Lord's, the fullest thereof, and they who dwell therein. They're
in His hands. So everything I need is in the
Master's hand. My Master. My Master's hand. Not a Master, my Master. Everything's
in His hands. Volumes. Volumes are spoken. In a look, you know that? You
can tell when somebody looks at you if they like you or if
they don't like you. In a look, I could tell when
my dad looked at me if I was in trouble or if everything was
all right. Just by the way he looked at
me. Just the way he looked. Volumes are spoken in a look.
When Peter denied the Lord three times, what, did the Lord chide
him? Our Lord just looked at him and
he went out and he wept bitterly. There was so much said in that
look. And it wasn't a flaming eye look. It wasn't a look of disgust.
It was a look of pity. It was a look of love. He just
looked over at Peter, and Peter remembered what he said, and
it just crushed him. And the Lord didn't have to say
a word. Didn't have to say a word. Volumes are spoken in a look.
Get this picture in your mind. A slave looking to his master,
or a maid looking to her mistress for everything they need. They belong to them. That's what
we're talking about here. And I thought about this, the
eyes speak when the heart is too full to utter words. They're
too full sometimes to utter words, but just a look, just a look. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God and there's none else.
Just a look. When Moses took that serpent on a pole and walked
through the camp, all he said was look. That's all he said
was look. And those who looked lived. Look
and live. That's all. Look and live. But what are they looking for?
What's Pilgrim looking for? Well, in short, everything. Everything. Have you realized that everything
you need is God-given? Have you realized that? Just
the very breath you have. I've watched people at the end
of life, I've watched some at the end of life struggle to breathe. Christ said without me you can
do nothing. You can't even rebel without me. Isn't he the one who took those
soldiers, who fell backwards when he made himself known? He said, you know, it's me, it's
I. And they fell backwards. Did
he help them get up off the ground? Like, get up off the ground and
finish this. You can't do anything without me. You can't even rebel
without me. Letting you do it. God has to
let you do it in order for you to do it. The wrath of man shall
praise him, and the rest he'll what? restrain the rest he'll
restrain but listen everything i need my lord and master will
provide the lord jesus christ the master we're speaking here
of is is meek and lowly in heart easy to intrigue that's what
that's what that means easy to intrigue he delights to show
mercy he delights to show mercy And then this look is for direction. He looks to his master's hand
for direction. You know, I read where it was
not polite, when there was company, it was not polite for a master
to tell his slaves what to do in front of the guests. So what
he would do was make gestures. There's a lot said in that. There's
a lot said in gestures. And he'd just take his hands.
Could his servant just point? They look to the hand of the
master. Lord, what would you have me to do? What would you
have me to do? We look for direction. And then
we look for food and clothing. Don't we? Give us, Lord, our daily bread.
You know, daily bread includes everything you need. It doesn't
matter if it's food or rain. It's everything you need. It's
what it is. And then we look to our master for medical needs. I thought about this today. You
know, the slave pilgrim here has to look to him for his medical
needs. We look to the great physician
of our souls, as pilgrim does, We look for spiritual healing.
But you know what? We look to Him also for physical
healing. Whether He does it, just heals
us or whether He uses medicine. It's God who makes the medicine
effectual. He makes it effectual. He's the one who gave it. He's
the one who gave us all the plants and all that we had that we make
medicine with. It's His. We look to Him for everything,
everything. Direction, clothing, food, medical
attention. Lord, heal my soul. Heal my soul. But most of all, and this is
the most important, we look to Him for mercy. Because we don't
deserve anything we're asking for. We don't deserve any of
it. You know, I don't think we've
probably ever lived in a time where people think they deserve
everything. And I'm trying to be careful
saying this because I, you know, I owned a company for 25 years. And it got to the place where
it was like I was supposed to pay him for showing up, then
pay him extra if he did anything. I'm not making that up, that's
so. This generation of people, it's just amazing. It's just,
you owe it to us. No, we don't owe you. God doesn't
owe us anything but the wages of sin. And that's death. Lord, be merciful to me. Be merciful
to me. And then when we ask, we know
we don't deserve what we're asking for. We don't deserve mercy.
We haven't done anything here since we've been here to deserve
mercy. Well, it wouldn't be mercy, would
it? It wouldn't be mercy. And then pilgrim looks to the
master here. We look to the master, because
we're pilgrims too. We look for him to come and call
us out of the field to come home. the master call. It wasn't Martha
who said to Mary, the master has come and call us worthy. And there'll be a time for every
believer here, for everyone in this world, but for every believer,
the master will come and call for you to leave, to come home. That's home. This is not. He'll come and call us home.
And we look for that, don't we? We look to him for these things.
You ought to see my dog. The way he looks at me when I
walk in the house, it is hilarious. Sometimes annoyingly hilarious,
but it's hilarious. He will be on that couch. And
I mean, he perked up. And as soon as I walk in the
house, his ears are up, he's looking at me, and he watches
me. If I walk to the bedroom, he beats me to the bed and gets
on the bed, because he knows I'm going to sit in a rocking
chair. And he puts his head over my rocking chair, and I've got
to pet him. And as soon as I walk towards the laundry room, I mean,
it's like a bullet. He's right in the laundry room
waiting for me to go out the door. I mean, he watches me like
it's unbelievable. And that's just a dog looking
to his master. How much more ought we to look
to our Christ? How much more should we be in tune? to our Lord, a whole lot more than a dog is
to me. But now here, how does Pilgrim endure this? How does
he endure? How are we going to endure to
the end? How are we going to do this? Well, the same way all
of God's saints endure. Hebrews 11, 27, By faith, he
that is Moses, forsook Egypt, the world, not fearing the wrath
of the king. For he endured as seeing Him
who is invisible. Faith sees Christ. It doesn't see a bodily image,
but faith sees Him. He's real to you. He's real to
you. He's not real to everybody. He's
a historical figure to most everybody. except those who believe. He's
not a historical figure. He's my Lord. He's my God. He's
my life. He's my all in all. That's who
he is. So we look to him. And we look
to him in faith. And it's a patient look. We look
to him with patience. So our eyes wait. upon the Lord our God, until
that He have mercy upon us. We ask for it, now wait for it. You ask for it, now wait for
it. We wait for mercy because we
need it, and we wait for it because He has plenty of it. Ephesians
2, 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith
He loved us. Psalm 86 5, with our Lord our
good and ready to forgive. Anybody need forgiven? You really
need forgiven of your sins. Not talking about trying to miss
a place called hell. I'm talking about being really forgiven of
your sins. He's ready to forgive and plenteous
in mercy unto all of them that call upon Him. All of them. all that call upon thee. Now
Pilgrim, here in verse three, Pilgrim prays, his prayer broadens
to his companions. He started out with himself,
but now he prays for his companions because they need mercy. You
need mercy just like I do. Have mercy upon us. Oh Lord,
have mercy upon us. We are exceedingly filled with
contempt. You know, oftentimes our prayer
starts with ourself, but it ends with our brothers and sisters
praying for them. It does. And the plea here is for mercy
because of the world they live in. Remember, he said he was
back over here in 120. Let me find it. Woe is me that
I sojourn in Meshech, and I dwell in the tents of Qadar. Qadar? That's what made him miserable.
Well, he's still in the world, even though he may be in Jerusalem.
He may be standing in the house of God. But we're still in this
world, aren't we? God's house is gathered here
this evening, but we got to go out. We got to go back out here
just a little bit. And he prays here for mercy,
have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us. We are exceedingly
filled with contempt. This is a reason for pilgrim's
prayer. You see, prayer has a purpose. It's not babbling, it's prayer.
You know, the meaning of contempt here in Hebrew is this. Well,
that's not, here's what, I'll tell you something else here
in a minute. But here's the meaning of contempt.
The feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration. It's worthless. deserving of
scorn he's saying that's the way I'm treated that's the way
I'm treated now the Hebrew meaning for exceedingly that's what I
was looking at I was getting ahead of myself but he said exceedingly
you see in verse 4 our soul is exceedingly that word means saturated
in Hebrew saturated with it it just sat completely full of Running
over with the contempt of the proud. God's people are really
hated by this world. They really are. Especially the
religious world. And they feel it, rather than
we feel it. I don't like being hated. Don't
like, don't go around hoping people hate me. We feel it, our Lord felt it.
He felt the contempt of this world. And he's saying here that
whatever that situation was, that what he was going through,
and we go through this a different time, but whatever it was, he
was being ridiculed. He was being ridiculed. And here,
listen to who was ridiculing him. Our soul is exceedingly
filled, it's saturated with the scorning of those that are at
ease. And with the contempt of the
proud, the religious bullies, I call them. religious bullies
that are at ease and are troubling those who are in trouble. Trials. The first thing I thought of
was Job's friends. They were at ease. Their life
was just fine. Everything was going just fine.
Job was being tried hard, tried to the core, and they were adding
to it. He said, you are miserable. Comfort
your physicians of no value. And the reason they were doing
that is because they were at ease. They were at ease. Amos 6 once says this, woe to
them that are at ease in Zion. I think of the Pharisees. They,
they, they were at ease and they just, they just tormented and
aggravated the Lord constantly, scorned him constantly. And the disciples, the apostles,
And you look at the early church. And woe to be a Zion when she's
at ease, because I tell you, when Zion is at ease, she falls
asleep. Listen to this, the church of
Sardis, and I'm going to close. Christ said, I know thy works,
that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. Most of you are dead, he said. There's a few, there's a few,
there's a little bit of life here. It's still in that church.
There's a little bit of life, but most of you are dead. Here
it is. What did he write to the church
of Thessalonica? I mean not Thessalonica, but
Laodicea. Rich, increased with goods, in
need of nothing. And that's exactly the way every
human being wants to be. I was talking to someone today,
and they was talking about a family member. I mean, this is what
she wants. Rich, increased with good, in
need of nothing. That is the worst way to be,
because you don't need Christ. When you don't need nothing,
you don't need Christ. And that church, he said, you are rich,
increased with good, in need of nothing. But you don't realize
you're blind, miserable, and naked. Now, because of their ease of
life and conscience, they scorn the children of God, who are
careful in their walk and their talk. And they scorn them. They ridicule
them. I tell you what, you want to
be ridiculed. You really want to know what ridicule is? Just
stand up for the truth. That's all you need to do. Just
tell the truth when the opportunity is there, and you'll find out
who's your friend and who's not your friend. And you'll find
out what the world really is, the religious world and the rest
of this world. You'll find out they don't really
like you. They don't really like you. Lord, I lift up my eyes to you. Have mercy on me. Have mercy
on me. Have mercy on us as we travel
through this ungodly world. All right.