If you look in the bulletin, the bulletin says something about Matthew chapter 14. I think maybe we're hacked or something. That'll probably be next week when we'll get to Matthew 14. But I'd like to take the opportunity this Sunday to delve a little bit into the Songs of Ascent that we've been going through slowly in our worship, as calls to worship. And I really, really like the Songs of Ascent. They're good for my soul. They're a good set of Psalms, all 15 of them, to know and to follow the pattern and the topics. And so I'd really, really like you to know and to like the Songs of Ascent as well. Psalms 120 through 134. They're good for your soul. And so one way we can do that is dabble in them some this morning as well. And with the Songs of Ascent, James Montgomery Boyce described them as songs sung by Jewish pilgrims, in their Psalms 120 through 134, by Jewish pilgrims who are making their way to Jerusalem for the annual Jewish feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and the Day of Atonement. Joseph and Mary would have sung these psalms. as they made their way to the city with young Jesus. Jesus himself would have sung these songs when he went up to Jerusalem with his disciples as well. And these songs of ascent are marked by a kind of plaintive note, a mild sadness, which is appropriate for those who are on their way to God's city, Jerusalem, but had not reached it yet. It's also this note of sadness that makes them songs so descriptive of the Christians similarly hard and upward pilgrimage through this dark world but toward heaven. And Boyce rightly saw the Songs of Ascent as discipleship songs, useful for the Christian as he pursues Christ in a long obedience in the same direction. And we've talked about that phrase before. It's actually a Nietzsche quote. But the Christian life can be summed up as a long obedience in the same direction. These songs should be looked at for their teaching about discipleship for a pilgrim mentality. that Christianity is a long obedience religion, one step at a time, serving and following their master. And if we do not know that Christianity is a long obedience religion, Boyce says, then we know very little about Christianity. And in fact, if we are not in it for the long haul, then we may not even be Christians at all. And so we've been Sequentially looking at the Songs of Ascent as our calls of worship recently. And since we're now on the fourth one, Psalm 123, you might have noticed we read that at the beginning of worship. I'd like to walk through the climbing steps of the first four Psalms this morning. Psalms 120 through 123. And recently in our history of the church, we looked through Psalm 119 and the successive stanzas in Psalm 119. And like those successive stanzas in Psalm 119, the 15 songs of ascent are an excellent grouping of scripture to know and apply. And like those stanzas of Psalm 119, there's a certain flow and pattern, even a story that connects the dots between the 15 songs. And the first four songs of ascent, verses 120, or I should say Psalm 120 through 123, flow together, climbing upward from the world to God in a very rich way. Psalm 120 was the beginning of the journey, where the pilgrim is distressed and crying for deliverance from his God, from the falsehood and harshness of the opposing world in which he must pilgrim through. And then in Psalm 121 we find the pilgrim now journeying weary, but he looks up from his despair of the world he's in to the hills that surround Jerusalem. And he says, I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help. And He ultimately looks at the Maker of the hills, even the Maker of heaven and earth, who is His keeper and His preserver and His protector. And then we get to Psalm 122 where He further looks, because now He's approaching Jerusalem even closer. Now He sees the temple, and He looks to the temple, the place where the saints gather to worship their Lord. He says, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. He's here. And that gets us to Psalm 123, which we read at the beginning of our worship this morning. Now he's not just looking at the hills. He's taking his eyes off the world. He's not just looking at the hills. He's not just looking at the temple, but now he's looking to God himself in anticipation of God's mercy and for strength to endure the journey. And in Psalm 123, the pilgrim says, unto you I lift up my eyes. Oh, you who dwell in the heavens. So this morning, I want us to walk on a journey through these first four songs of ascent. You've seen the steps, how they climb up. Moving from the distress of the world to the dependence upon and a singular devotion to our Lord. And we can look at these as a great help to us as well. And generally we have an outline in our bulletin. There's no outline. If you want to write down the outline, you can do this. Point 1 is Psalm 120. Point 2 would be Psalm 121. Point 3 would be Psalm 122. And point 4 would be Psalm 123. And I'll alert you as we get to each of those steps, each of those points in our outline. So let's first look at Psalm 120, the beginning of the journey. Psalm 120, the beginning of the journey. And the pilgrim's going through a strange land. You can almost picture, I grew up in Iowa on a farm and during the summer you get up really, really early to go walk the beans. That means taking a hoe and walking through the rows of the beans and cutting out the weeds Boy, I loved those times, getting up at the crack of dawn or beforehand. When you first get out of the door, your eyes are squinty, the sun is bright, and it's a long hot day, and you think, ugh. I think that's what the psalmist is looking at here in Psalm 120, but a lot worse. It's this idea of This is not what I bargained for. In Psalm 120, you have the psalmist, the pilgrim, coming out on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but he's in distress because he sees the world that he's really not like on his journey. And it really does mimic the Christian's journey. So Psalm 120 goes like this. You can read with me. In my distress, I cried to the Lord, and He heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you? Or what shall be done to you, you false tongue?" He's speaking of the opposition, the persecutors, those wicked who are against God and His righteousness and His people. Sharp arrows of the warrior with coals of the broom tree. Woe is me that I dwell in Messick. that I dwell among the tents of Kedar. My soul has dwelt too long with one who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war." And so you get the impression here that this road to Jerusalem begins with a portrayal of a homesick people who are settled in a strange land. It sets the tone for a joyful upward journey in the songs of ascents that follow. And this represents the Christian who is in the world, but not of it. He's a citizen of heaven. He serves the king whose kingdom is not of this world. But things are not like he'd like it around him. And in Psalm 120, there are two things that bother the pilgrim on his journey. Two things. Verses one through four, we see the lying neighbors. By the way, I'm not telling you to go next door at home and complain about your lying neighbors. It's a generality. But verses 1-4 we see the lying neighbors, and verses 5-7 we see the hostile neighbors of the world that they live in. The lying neighbors in verses 1-4 we see that in distress the psalmist cries out to the Lord, and the Lord hears him, as He always does. He cries out to the Lord to be delivered from the slander of lying lips and deceitful tongues. He calls out for God to repay according to the damage done by the sharp arrows flung by those of false slandering tongue. It doesn't take much for this to remind us of the world in which we live as pilgrims, as Christians, especially with the acceleration and the amplification of social media. There's slander and deceit all over the place. We live in a world filled with lies and deceit, influenced by Satan, the father of lies, and his followers. And so the starting place of our spiritual pilgrimage is to see the world for what it is, in order to turn from it and to reach all the more for Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life, and his followers. And we're to repent of our own lies and our own deceit, and reject the lies of the world and of the evil one, and to take the path to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. walking, and walking together with Him, and walking together with one another according to His Word. So just like today, there is the lying world about them. The deceitful world, the slanderous world. The second thing in verses 5-7, we see the hostile, harsh world about them. The hostile neighbors. The psalmist cries out, and says, Woe is me that I dwell in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar, There's a woe concerning the hostility and the harshness of the world in which he dwells, in which he's traversing through on his way to Jerusalem. And Meshech and Kedar represent individual heathen peoples at the time who raged against God and against one another. It makes you think of Psalm chapter 2, how the nations rage against God. Meshech was a warring people in the far north. And Kedar represented a wild Arab tribe in the desert in the south. So it has this idea about being surrounded by hostile sinning people. And together it expresses the enmity of the pagan world in which the pilgrim lives and journeys through. And so the psalmist, as he's setting out on his journey, he sees the anger, the envy, the jealousy, and the strife of the world. It's not always a very happy place. And he's appalled both at the envy, and the jealousy, and the anger of the world, but also the idea that he would become like it. It's almost like what we'll look at in study hour, and looking at the next petition in the Lord's Prayer. Lead us not into temptation. I hate sin so much I don't want to succumb to it. Don't even let me be tempted. And you have that here. And he is and he wants to remain a foreigner among them. It doesn't mean he wants to be unloving to them and not reach out to them with, in our case, with the gospel of Christ. But he doesn't want to be like this and so he desires all the more the peace of Christ and to be a peacemaker as Christ calls us to be. And we should relate to this because if we're following Christ we will be strangers in the world today. both what we think are important and how we are, there should be a difference. And James Boyce winsomely concludes his study of Psalm 120 in this way, by encouraging us in our pilgrim journey through the songs of ascents in our Christian life. He says, do you have no lasting or real home here? And is your real home in heaven? If not, you're not a Christian. Where your treasure is shows us where your heart is, doesn't it? But if so, but you just do not know it, then although you may be a Christian, you're not a pilgrim. The Apostle Peter is speaking to you when he says in 1 Peter 2, Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world to abstain from sinful desires that swore against your soul. Live such godly lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us. And Boyce continues, if we are Christians, this world is not our real home. We cannot settle down in Meshach or be at home in Kedar. So if you are, stop trying to conform to this world's lies and ways of life, but put on your hiking shoes. Strap your pack to your back. Say goodbye to your sins and start marching to Zion. For the King of Glory is waiting for you there. So that's point one with Psalm 120. It's the beginning of the journey of the pilgrim who's in distress because of the wickedness that surrounds him on his journey to Jerusalem. So he gets us to Psalm 121. You can turn to Psalm 121 now. It should be pretty close to Psalm 120. And in Psalm 121, now we have a looking up, an encouragement. He's still weary in this travel, in his journey, but now he looks up and he can see the hills surrounding Jerusalem in a distance. He says, I lift my eyes up to the hills, and it gives him great encouragement. And so the Psalm reads, I will lift my eyes to the hills, From whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve or keep you from all evil. He shall preserve or keep your soul. The Lord shall preserve or keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forth and evermore. So here we see the tired and discouraged sojourning stranger of the world. He's distressed because of the deceit and hostility of the world. On his way to the highlands of Judah, where Jerusalem is located, And though he's a weary pilgrim, he begins to sing in hope as he looks to see the hills of Judah in the distance. Those hills that represent the city of God, and the city of God that represents God himself. And Charles Spurgeon says, Psalm 121 tells us of the peace of God's house and the guardian care of the Lord. while Psalm 120 bemoans the departure of peace from the good man's abode and his exposure to the venomous assaults of a slanderous tongue. In the first instance, his eyes looked around in anguish, but here in Psalm 121, they look up with hope. So Psalm 121's theme is of God's preserving and keeping care for his traveling children and pilgrims. The same Hebrew word shamar is used six times. It's translated keep, three times it's translated preserved, three other times. It means preserve and protect and keep and watch over. So the theme repeatedly is God's keeping, protecting, preserving care. And so in verses one through two, we see the maker of the hills is our help. In verses one through two, as the pilgrim approached Jerusalem for one of the annual Jewish feasts, the mountains surrounding the city would represent the city itself. Jerusalem, the city chosen by God for his temple, for his presence. And to lift up my eyes to the hills would mean to look beyond the hills to God himself for help. and with the hope of soon being in a special presence with his people in worship and fellowship there in the temple in the city beyond the hills. Even more, his God is the maker of heaven and earth, the psalmist says, not just the maker of the hills, but the maker of heaven and earth. So we too may and must freely trust in the help of our creator God to keep us. His person, His promises, His purposes, His providences are the hills to which we must lift our eyes, and from these our help must come. And then in verses 3 through 8 you have three pairs of verses that make up Three stanzas, each having two verses that speak of the preserving care of our God. We see God is always awake to preserve, in verses 3 through 4. We see God is always aware to preserve, in verses 5 and 6. And God is always active to preserve, in verses 7 and 8. He's always awake and aware and active to preserve His people, so we can rest and trust in Him. Verses 3 and 4, He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel shall neither sleep nor slumber. God is always awake to preserve us. Verses 3 and 4. He's our vigilant watchman who neither slumbers nor sleeps. But He's awake to always keep us and not allow our feet to be moved or to stumble. James Boyce says, How much more soundly should we sleep When God, who never slumbers or sleeps, is guarding us. In verses 5 and 6, He's not only the God who's always awake to preserve us, He's the God who's always aware to preserve us. The Lord is your keeper. Notice He's not just the one who keeps, He is your keeper. That's who He is by nature. The Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. He's always not just awake, but He's aware to preserve us. He doesn't merely keep us, He's our keeper. Because that's His nature to be a keeper, He acts to keep us. And He's just as aware of the visible dangers of the day as He is the hidden dangers of the night. Those dangers that we can't see, but it's no surprise to Him. He's able to give us preserving shade at all times. And then lastly, in verses 7 and 8, God is not only always awake and aware to preserve us, He's always active to preserve us. He shall preserve you from all evil. He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in and from this time forth and even forevermore. He's active to preserve your soul and preserve you from evil over all of your activities and for now and forevermore. It's a summary really of the whole psalm. This should remind us, in the New Covenant era, should remind us of the promise preservation of God we have in Christ Jesus. If you'd like to, turn to Romans chapter 8, starting verse 31. These Psalms are made for New Covenant believers, and when it speaks of Jerusalem and Mount Zion, it's speaking of the Church for us today. But here this protecting care of God is summed up in the protecting care of our Lord Jesus Christ, I think we have to stop and remind you that God is not your keeper, and He cannot be your keeper unless you are kept in and by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except by Him. And if you have not bowed before the Son in repentance and faith, you have not received His sacrifice and His life, You cannot be received by the Father. You cannot be accepted by the Father. You have no part of the Father at all, let alone His preserving care. You must come through the Son. But when you do come to the Son, we have the wonderful blessings and promises of Romans chapter 8. Look at verse 31 and following. If God is for us, who can be against us? This is Psalm 121 in Romans 8. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? In verse 34, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. In other words, there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus. It's finished. It's done in Christ. He protects us and keeps us. He's done everything for us by His works and by His life and His death and His resurrection. Even now he sits on the throne and he's coming again, he intercedes in the meantime. Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet, in verse 37, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded, Paul says, that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height or depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is finished, it is permanent, it is promised. So for us, when Psalm 121 says, my help comes from the Lord, It's a clear reminder that we pilgrims in this life will need help on our journey. There are evils to be preserved from. Our comings and goings are fraught with perils. We wrongly choose and sinfully choose to step on slippery ground where we sadly walk into the night on purpose. But praise be to God for His merciful, watchful, keeping, preserving care in and through Christ Jesus. And even tribulations themselves are under God's direction and decree for our good and for His glory. We can never be outside the watchful eye of our preserving Father. We can never be separated from the love of His Son. We can never be unsealed from the possession of the Spirit. And we can never doubt the promise to be presented faultless before the presence of God in glory. Therefore, with confidence and joy, may we lift up our eyes to the hills. and to the God who made them, even better to the cross and the Savior, the Savior who is no longer on the cross, as we diligently continue in our pilgrim journey in pursuit of Christ, in our long obedience in the same direction, together for Christ and in Christ. So point three is Psalm 122, so you can turn to Psalm 122. We see the distress of the world in Psalm 120. We start to look up far away to the hills that represent the temple, which represents God Himself. But now it gets even better in Psalm 122. Now we're here. We arrive in Jerusalem. The pilgrim arrives in Jerusalem in great anticipation of and preparation for the corporate worship of his God and the fellowship with God's people. And what you have in Psalm 122 is an encouraging account of the pleasures and praises and the prayers for Jerusalem, which in the New Covenant people, with the New Covenant people of God, it's actually the encouraging account of the pleasures and praises and prayers of a greater and heavenly Jerusalem, the Church of Christ. In other words, we need to be pilgrims together, where God has placed us. Psalm 122 begins with, I was glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet have been standing within your gate. So Jerusalem. It's even more joyful when you think of the distress and difficulties they're going through to get there. So we see the pleasures of Jerusalem in verses one and two. The psalmist's great weariness of the world and its opposition to God and God's righteousness and his people is overcome with gladness of anticipation of and participation in the worship of God at his appointed time and place. And so for us, as we journey weekly through six common days to reach our sanctified Lord's day with our Lord and his people, we rejoice as well in the same way. This almost gladness here is especially stirred up by the brethren's urging. The brethren say, let us go into the house of the Lord. There's an encouragement. It's not just internal. When he says, let us go into the house of the Lord, it implies three things. It implies an anticipation, a promptness, and a corporateness that is a joy. Let us go into the house of the Lord. It implies an anticipation. It's like saying, let us finally go. The six days are over. Now it's the seventh. And there's a promptness when he says, let us go into the house of the Lord. It's like saying, let us go and not be late. Maybe we can even be early. Think about that for a moment. I'll go on to the next point. Let us go into the house of the Lord also means there's a corporateness. It's let us go into the house. Let's go together. There's no lone ranger of Christianity. There's no lone ranger of worship. There's no lone ranger of fellowship. It's together. And for us, it's the Church of Christ together. A gladness that's stirred up by the brethren saying, let us go into the house of the Lord. We've said often that private and family worship in the home are necessary and commanded. And it helps us in our preparation for our weekly gathering in the house of the Lord. Actually, in the New Covenant, we are the house of the Lord as His people. But our Lord's Day worship is of greater importance and gladness than anything else during the week. If you could summarize Hebrews 10.19-25, it could be summarized in this way, that by the blood of our great High Priest, the precious blood of Christ that's been shed for us, may we draw near before our Holy God, holding fast and stirring up one another in love and good deeds to assemble together in worship and to fellowship until that great day that this seventh day is pointing to every week, that great day when we will stand within the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem with no sin between us and our Lord, worshiping Him perfectly, and no sin between each other, when the heavenly Jerusalem is perfected in Him. And so verses 1 and 2 speaks of the pleasures in Jerusalem and it's wrapped up for us in the pleasures that is through Christ, through His church. And verses 3 through 5 speaks of the praises of Jerusalem. Verse 3, Jerusalem was built as a city that is compact together. And for us it speaks about the unity. The city of Jerusalem was compact, it was secure, it was built well. And for the church today it speaks of the unity of the church being secure in the church and the unity of the church. And it says, where the tribes go up and the tribes of the Lord. Again, speaking of the diversity that we have. A unity, yes, the compactness, but a diversity that tribes and tongues and nations, people from all of those are being brought in by the Spirit of God through Christ Jesus into the church. It's a tricky thing, this unity of diversity, but it's something that we should pursue with great joy and purpose. And then he says, to the testimony of Israel to give thanks to the name of the Lord. I think that's the centerpiece. The testimony likely refers to the Ark of the Covenant, which was the centerpiece of the Temple. And the Holy of Holies representing the authority in and the access to the Church and our relationship with God. The testimony of the Ark of the Covenant represents authority. The Ark itself represented the presence of God and it contained the law of God, the authority of God. It also represented the access we have to God. It was covered by the mercy seat with the cherubim over the top representing the holiness of God. You have the broken law in the Ark of the Covenant with the holiness of God over it and the mercy seat was over the top and that's where every year they'd sprinkle the blood from the innocent sacrifice to have atonement to cover the sins of breaking the law of below that breaks the holiness of God above. Ultimately, this all points to Christ, who came by the authority of God, as God with us, to give us access to God, by fulfilling God's law unto perfect righteousness, loving God and loving neighbor perfectly. And then by his sinless sacrifice, his blood covers all the sin of his people. All those who repent of their sin and place their faith in Christ, they exchange their sin for His righteousness, and they now have access to God by the authority of Christ Jesus. In verse 5, for thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David. This is fulfilled in Christ as well in His righteousness. He is the Son of David. He is the King that sits on the throne and reigns eternally. And so it's no wonder in v. 4, to give thanks to the name of the Lord, it's no wonder that there'd be a gladness in giving thanks for all of these things. And then v. 6-9, we go from the pleasures of Jerusalem to the praises of Jerusalem to now the prayers of Jerusalem. And again, this translates into our praying for the church of Christ. When you recognize the church of Christ's pleasures and praiseworthiness, it causes us to pray for her out of love, And here this means a praying for the peace and prosperity of the church, and a peace and prosperity of our people. Verses six through nine read, pray for the peace of Jerusalem. May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, prosperity within your palaces. For the sake of my brethren and companions, I will now say peace be within you. Because of the house of the Lord, our God will seek your good. May we pray for the peace within the Church. Praying for our unity and diversity to be peaceful. Praying that we be peacemakers as Christ calls us to be. Taking the peace of God we have in Christ Jesus and being peacemakers for the Prince of Peace. Making our Church family be a respite from the world and a place of true worship. of God and sanctification in God. And may we pray for the prosperity within the church as well, that the gospel of peace would go forth for the salvation of souls and the nurturing for the sanctification of souls as well. So we go from the distress of Psalm 120 to seeing the hills away in Psalm 121 and getting some hope. Now Psalm 122, we're there and gladness envelops us. So we get to Psalm 123, which would be your fourth point of the outline. Psalm 123, and now we're not just lifting up our eyes to the hills or even glad to be in the temple. Now we're lifting up our eyes to God himself, devotedly and singularly. And Charles Spurgeon introduces Psalm 123 in this way. We are climbing. There are steps in these four psalms. We are climbing. The first step, Psalm 120, saw us lamenting our troublesome surroundings. And the next step, that's Psalm 121, saw us lifting our eyes to the hills and resting in assured security. And from this we rose in Psalm 122 to delight in the house of the Lord. But here, in Psalm 123, we look to the Lord Himself, and this is the highest ascent of all by many degrees. The eyes are now looking above the hills, and above Jehovah's footstool, the temple, to His throne in the heavens. Let us know it as the psalm of the eyes. You'll notice the word eyes is repeated often. Let us know this psalm as the psalm of the eyes. Older authors called this the eye of hope. So the theme of Psalm 121, the character of Psalm 121, combines the weariness caused by the opposition that we saw in Psalm 120. It combines that with the turning to God, the God of the heavens that we saw in Psalm 121. As the righteous servant of God feels the weight of the contempt and the scorn from this wicked world, but yet he humbly and diligently looks to his master for help. He cries to the God who reigns in heaven to have mercy upon him that he might endure the contempt of the proud. And if you're a Christian, you've either experienced this already or you can expect to experience this. Because such opposition is actually promised for you. And you have the same need for God's mercy, day by day, in the long obedience of Christianity. I want us to look at verses 3 and 4 first, before we look at verses 1 and 2, just like we did at the beginning of our worship. Because what you have is, there's the contempt that the pilgrim is suffering through. We've already seen that in the first three Psalms. But then verses 1 and 2 actually have the cry of the psalm, looking to God himself for help. So in verses 3 and 4 we have, Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us. For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease with the contempt of the proud. It's an odd wording in the New King James, perhaps. For we are exceedingly filled with contempt. It sounds like we're the ones who are angry, but that's not what's being said here. The pilgrims are exceedingly filled with contempt. It means their souls are filled to the brim with the derision and mockery and scorn of those who are against them. It's a way of saying, oh God in heaven, we are full. We cannot take any more of this. We cannot take any more of this mockery of ourselves and this mockery of you, oh God, and your righteousness. Have you ever been there? I have. So we have an example of crying out to the God who hears. He gives abundantly in his mercy to help. And the mockers here, the scorners, the ones who are having contempt piled upon the pilgrims, It says they're at ease in verse 4. It's an interesting phrase. You wouldn't think ease would be mentioned in contempt and scorn. It doesn't mean lackadaisical. It means they're at ease with and in their sin. They're comfortable in this. They're settled. This is who they are. This is what they want. And it's not just sad for them and their soul's sake, but it's difficult then for the Christian. Because it means when the opposition are settled in their sin, it means their contempt is likely not to relent. It's going to continue. So the pilgrim here calls out to the Lord to exceedingly fill him with abundant mercy to replace the abundant contempt and scorn. To rescue them and to strengthen them. If we had time, but we're already going through, what, four chapters of the Bible, it's probably enough. If we had time, we could look at Nehemiah chapter four. Some commentators would think that this Psalm 123 actually had its context in Nehemiah chapter four, where Nehemiah and the Jews had come back from their exile in Babylon, and they're rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, but the opposition, the scorners, and the contemptors, and the mockers surrounding them don't like any bit of it, and so they're ridiculing them. You're rebuilding that wall. A chicken could go up on that wall. It would just fall apart. But they were not just ridiculing them, they were threatening them. So you have the picture of Jeremiah and his brethren with a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other hand, with protection and security, but with work to do and obedience. It's a wonderful picture of, I think, what's even going on here. And so in verses one and two, We read this, unto you I lift up my eyes. That's the reason for the contempt in verses 3 and 4, but then we see the cry of the psalm in verses 1 and 2. Unto you I lift up my eyes, O you who dwell in the heavens. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of their mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God until he has mercy on us. This is a beautiful two verses, beautiful picture. It's interesting in verses one and two, the initial plea is singular. I lift up my eyes to you who dwell in the heavens. Everything else is plural. I think the point is that there must be the individual and personal and intimate plea to God. Yes, we're all about the corporateness of the people of God. But you come to God one by one. There's no corporate salvation. It's an individual coming in repentance and faith. And there's the individual coming to God with his trials and with his difficulties, with his requests, with his plea for mercy. But then the rest of this is all in plural. Until he has mercy on us, our eyes are looking. So it also emphasizes the necessity, not just of the independence coming to God, but the necessity of the corporateness of the Christian life as well. But notice the word eyes is used four times in those two verses. That's the key to this. That's why Spurgeon says this is the psalm of the eyes. I lift up my eyes to you as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of the maid to the hand of her mistress. So our eyes look to you, O God, until you have mercy on us. The repeated use of eyes and even look to and lift up It verifies, even actually emphasizes, this is not merely a request for something. Give me some help. This is part of a submissive dependence upon God. A God who is both merciful, but He's almighty. It expresses a clear dependence with the whole person upon God. The eyes of a grateful, obedient servant, looking to the hand of his kind and generous master for both direction and provision. And that's how the eyes of God's grateful child should look to the hand of God in time of trial. Looking with personal eyes of faith, with an expectant independence and a loyal diligence to wait on the Lord until he has mercy on us. He's not just looking to a hand to receive something, but for direction on how to serve in the meantime. That's what waiting on the Lord is. Waiting on the Lord is not passive. It's serving Him while you're waiting for Him to act and to help. And so it's not just looking to a hand to receive something from it, but for the hand to give guidance and direction, to point here and there, what do I do? But also seeing that hand as a place of rest. It's in the hand of God that we rest in. What happens with this picture is the psalmist is saying, there's no place else for me to go, because there's no place else I want to be, nor is there any place else I would go for help. In this week, in my Bible reading schedule, which I'm woefully behind in the Psalms, but that's okay. So I was in Psalm 73, and I couldn't help but see the similarities between Psalm 73 and Psalm 123. And Psalm 73 is, I think, a wonderful expansion of Psalm 123. Psalm 123 is only four verses, Psalm 73 is a whole lot more. But Psalm 73 is an expansion of Psalm 123, because in it you have Asaph writing the psalm, and there's opposition. And the opposition here are the wicked who prosper. That's one of the best psalms that deal with, why is it that the wicked prosper and the righteous don't? This doesn't seem fair. And He goes through the whole thing. The wicked are those who are prideful and they scoff and speak wickedly concerning oppression. And it says they're at ease in their sin just like in Psalm 123. And so Asaph struggles greatly because he's first of all focusing on the oppressors themselves and all he can see is them and what they're doing, who they are. He can't stand it. But then his countenance slowly changes and his contentment grows as he moves through the psalm from looking at others with his eyes. Then his eyes turn to himself. Then his eyes turn to God himself. And then in verses 23 through 26, his eyes rest not just on God, but then God and His relationship and His care for him. And now he truly has contentment and confidence. And I love verses 23 through 26 in Psalm 73, where Asaph writes, God is with Asaph, he's holding him by his right hand, guiding him by that hand, and he later will receive him into glory. And then verses 25 and 26 would be excellent memory verses for you. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Asaph looks to God with eyes of faith and love. This is like the servant whose eyes look to the hand of Christ only, devotionally, independently, desiring nothing more than Christ and Christ alone, and his direction in serving him and his mercy in time of need, to endure the contempt and scorn that the Christian takes in place of Christ, fueled by love for Christ and by Christ's love for us. So with our journey through the Psalms, these Psalms 120 through 123, we arrive at Christ, which is really the ultimate destination. We arrive at Christ because we as Christians, we request and wait on the mercy of God in Christ because we've experienced the mercy of God in Christ, which is infinite and sufficient to forgive us of all sins and to save us and to make us His, and then all the promises that flow from it. And in Titus chapter 3, we read, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, and serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. You might turn to Hebrews chapter 12 as we close. Because not only is Christ the destination in our devotion where we are looking to, but Christ is also our example in all of this pilgrimage. Our enduring the contempt and scorn of the world. As we travel on the way to the heavenly Jerusalem, if you will. I really think Hebrews 12, verses 2 and 3 provide a new covenant parallel to Psalm 123, with Christ as the example, the perfect example for the pilgrim. In Hebrews 12, verses 2 and 3, we read, looking unto Jesus, do you see the eyes focused now? The eyes of the pilgrim are focusing on faith. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, speaking of contempt and scorn, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. It is finished. His work is complete. He now reigns and he's returning again. For consider him, Christ, who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, The same hostility, but in a lesser type that we suffer in his place. Consider Christ who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. I might add, lest you become weary and discouraged in your pilgrimage for Christ in this world. Ultimately, Christ is the destination and desire of our journey. We're dependent on him. He is our example, He is our encouragement to endure, and His mercy endures forever for us, as we are empowered by love for Him and His love for us, in our long obedience in the same direction, for Him, through Him, and to Him, and for His glory, in our immediate and eternal good. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we've had a long journey, even the last 45 minutes, through three, four Psalms. I pray, Lord, even that would represent pictorially, even by feeling the long journey that we have serving you with joy and devotion, but still it can be a long step-by-step journey, you know, pilgrimage of a long obedience in the same direction for you. Help us to relate to what we read in the Psalms. seeing the distress about us, being distressed about the things about us, but looking up, seeing the hills in the distance, seeing Jerusalem as we arrive there, but then seeing you and having our eyes focused upon you, and this collection of Psalms focusing our eyes and our faith and our being upon your hand. Everything that we know and can receive that is good comes from your hand, every direction that we know that is good comes from your hand. Any rest and protection that we have that is good is in your hand and through the hand of Christ. Christ himself even says in the book of John that you cannot escape from his hand and you cannot escape from my Father's hand. There's a wonderful picture of being enveloped in the hand of Christ and then being enveloped also in the hand of the Father and sealed by the Spirit we are yours. Inflame our hearts to love you more. Give us a largened heart, as Solomon was spoken of, to have in the scripture reading today for Christ, that all other things would seem trivial and in comparison. That we'd be reminded of what Christ has done for us in the life that he has given us and the promises he has given us. That we'd be willing to walk with him and for him together. as we journey for Him. We do pray, Lord, that those who are outside of Christ, that they would see the blessings of Christ, but also see the dangers, the eternal dangers of wrath that await them outside of Christ. Today would be the day of salvation for them. It's in Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.