Do you ever remember playing a game called Mercy? All I recall is that you were really trying to hurt the other person by grabbing their hand and pushing/squeezing them as hard as you could. When you couldn’t handle the pain and were ready to give up you yelled “mercy.” When you said “mercy” the other person had to stop and the game was over. The other person had mercy on you and stopped the pain because you asked.
Today in Psalm 123 we read that God has mercy on us.
I lift my eyes to you, O God enthroned in heaven.
We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, Just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt.
We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant.
Psalm 123
The first thing this chapter in the Pslams tells us to do is to lift our eyes to God in heaven. This means that we take our eyes off of ourselves and look to God. To put our trust in Him and know that He will give us mercy in our time of need. This is an opportunity for us to tell God who He is, to thank Him for all that He has given us.
God is the one enthroned in Heaven. He is the one who is above all and in control. He has absolute power. We can look to others to help us through a tough situation, but people are human and have their faults. God sits on the throne and is the only one who has mercy on us when we look to Him.
When we keep our eyes looking to God in heaven we allow Him to guide us through all of life’s challenges. We can look expectantly and ask for favor from the Lord our God and He will respond with mercy in His time and in His will.