Category: Psalm 123 – “We’re Watching and Waiting”

Romans 12:1 (MSG) – So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering.

We have been reflecting and praying through Psalm 123 this week. Read through this psalm again.

“The best New Testament commentary on this psalm is in the final section of Paul’s letter to the Romans…The motivation for service (not coerced, not demanded) is picked up in the phrase “God helping you.” But most significant is the remarkable last phrase logikēn latreian, “place it before God as an offering,” which another translation renders “reasonable service.” The word latreia means “service,” the work one does on behalf of the community. But it also is the base of our word liturgy, the service of worship that we render to God. And it is precisely that service that is logical, reasonable.” [Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction]

Consider how you give service to God among the people of God – is it on behalf of the community or for yourself?

Consider how you view and practice your everyday, ordinary life– is it liturgy, the service of worship rendered to God?

Today, God is helping us. In prayer, let’s bring our bodies, minds, heart desires, goals, career, relationships, marriage or single life, children, finances – and place it before God as an offering. This is how we, as servants and disciples, are to walk the journey until we see Jesus.

– CH

Psalm 123:3-4 (MSG)
We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath,
awaiting your word of mercy.
Mercy, God, mercy!
We’ve been kicked around long enough,
Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men,
kicked when we’re down by arrogant brutes.

“We live under mercy…He rules, guides, commands, loves us as children whose destinies he carries in his heart. The word mercy means that the upward look to God in the heavens does not expect God to stay in the heavens but to come down, to enter our condition, to accomplish the vast enterprise of redemption, to fashion in us his eternal salvation.” [Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction]

The psalmist is confident that God will show mercy. On what or whom are you basing your confidence today?

God rules, guides, commands, loves us as children whose destinies he carries in his heart. Is this the experience in your relationship with God?

What are you trying to accomplish – is it in line with God’s vast enterprise of redemption?

Things can turn today. God is not distant. He is the God of mercy who came to us and is with us. Are you experiencing troubles? Do you need God’s help yet feel that God is distant?

Today, let’s humbly place our confidence in God’s mercy. Let’s ask God to strengthen our believing that he is our loving Father who carries our destinies in his heart and to intervene to fashion in us his eternal salvation.

– CH

Psalm 123:2b-3 (MSG/NIV)

We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath,
awaiting your word of mercy.
Mercy, God, mercy!
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us

“The basic conviction of a Christian is that God intends good for us and that he will get his way in us. He does not treat us according to our deserts, but according to his plan…He is a potter working with the clay of our lives…until, finally, he has shaped a redeemed life, a vessel fit for the kingdom. “Mercy, God, mercy!”: the prayer is not an attempt to get God to do what he is unwilling otherwise to do, but a reaching out to what we know that he does do, an expressed longing to receive what God is doing in and for us in Jesus Christ.” [Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction]

Exodus 33:19b says, “… I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” What does this reveal about God’s nature?

What does the psalmist expect to receive from God?

Prayer is “reaching out to what we know that he does do, an expressed longing to receive what God is doing in and for us in Jesus Christ.” How should this change what we ask in prayer?

Today, bring each of your life concerns to God and cry out, “Mercy, God, mercy! Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us.

– CH

Psalm 123:2-3 (MSG)

Like servants, alert to their master’s commands,
like a maiden attending her lady,
We’re watching and waiting, holding our breath,
awaiting your word of mercy.
Mercy, God, mercy!

“We are not presented with a functional god who will help us out of jams…We are presented with the God of exodus and Easter, the God of Sinai and Calvary. If we want to understand God, we must do it on his terms. If we want to see God the way he really is, we must look to the place of authority – to Scripture and to Jesus Christ.” [Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction]

Servants could not lash out or defend themselves. They had one option – look to their masters to intervene and defend. This describes the servant heart we are to have – humble trust that places all hope exclusively in God.

The servant-master relationship was one of order – servants lived subject to the authority of masters. Reflect on your relationship with God – is it subject to the authority of Jesus Christ?

What areas of your life are you trying to control rather than looking to God with humble dependence and trust?

Today, let’s surrender control of these areas over to the Lord, asking God for his order to reign in our lives, and for help to humbly put off pride and put on trust by placing our hope in Him alone.

– CH

I look to you, heaven-dwelling God,
look up to you for help.

We’ve been kicked around long enough,
Kicked in the teeth by complacent rich men,
kicked when we’re down by arrogant brutes.

“Worldliness is that system of values and beliefs, behavior and expectations, in any given culture that have at their center the fallen human being, and that relegate to their periphery any thought about God.” [Stephen Yuille, Longing for Home]

Jesus said, “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:19).

What kinds of opposition are you facing as you try to live for Christ?

In the face of difficulties, what sins may we be tempted to commit?

According to Ps 123:1, how are we to respond?

God is enthroned in heaven– what does this reveal about his character and power?

Our life journey of discipleship will be marked with opposition until Christ returns. Are you tempted to hold back or to give in to old sinful habits? Are you running out of steam? Look to the Lord for he is enthroned and cry out asking for God’s empowering to restore and sustain us as we journey forward. As we pray, praise the Lord for His majesty and worship with, “Is He Worthy?” by Chris Tomlin (click here).

– CH