Vision Across Your Valley

Sometimes getting through a trial is like Easter Sunday resurrection. But sometimes it is like return from Babylon.

Israel came back from captivity, but it was only to step into a vulnerable, desolate and dangerous, tentative no-nation status. They suffered from the Samaritans, the Ammonites and the Arabs (Neh 2:19; 4:4 cf. Ezra 4).

According to missiologists, more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Sorry to sour your Father's Day.

How do you pray when that happens? Sometimes you pray at the table before you eat. Routine. Sometimes you pray on your bed before you sleep. Doesn't mean much. But sometimes you put physical expression in your prayer (like at the death of a loved one). The old Puritans used to say that you need to pray until you've prayed, and liquid prayers are the best kind. Guess you haven't really "cried" in prayer unless you're crying.

"In every prayer we lift up our soul, the eye of our soul, to God, especially in trouble." Matthew Henry.

In Psalm 123, the songster squeezes a prayer into a look (up). What is begun by the chief musician (v 1) is continued by the choir (v 2) and concluded by the congregation (vv 3-4).

He also looks to his master's hand for
1. Direction
2. Provision
3. Protection
4. Correction
5. Caressing

Subjects of a king. Servants of a master. Children of a heavenly Father. He is full of mercy for the maligned. Mercy to do the right thing. To rebuild the temple and restore worship of the King.

It is not until we read the last verse that we discover something. The thing that is amazing me is that he does this WHILE he is bearing disrespect (for motivation see 1 Pet 4:13). Want to go deep? In this Psalm Jesus credits us with his own faith, and burdens himself with our fear.

Nobody wants to bear disrespect today. Least of all the child of God. The spiritual leader. The head of the home. How does this Psalmist do it?

1) He looks to the throne in faith (v 1).To look to him means to trust him. To trust him means that when you have a problem, you really and actually turn it over to him by faith. Can anybody say "patience"?

2) He looks to God's hand in hope (v 2).The master's hand is the source of your provision. Do you follow his hand? It never fails. Even king’s hearts are in his hand (Prov 21:1). Hallelujah.

3) He looks for God's mercy in pain (vv 3-4).

Seventy years in Babylon. Two generations born and buried. Now we need revival after midlife crisis. The Devil doesn't want us back in the ring. People who promised to help us are not reliable. We are fully disrespected.

But God chooses and uses the despised and rejected. So NOW is our finest hour.