Look Up, Now Wait

Seated. Well this afternoon's message comes from Psalm 123.

Psalm 123 is in a series of 15 psalms that is called the

Psalms or the Songs of Ascent and what they are is psalms that were gathered together from different times written by different authors in different circumstances and all gathered together to make this series of psalms that the pilgrims that the

Jews would sing to each other as they went up to Jerusalem always up to Jerusalem from wherever they came whether it was higher than Jerusalem or not they came up to Jerusalem and I think up is more than the fact that Jerusalem was situated on a hill up to the

Lord that they were there to worship. There's 15 of these psalms this is the fourth of them the first of them would call for a polemic they're different psalms number 120 what shall be given to you you deceitful tongue a warrior's sharp arrows with glowing coals of the broom tree that's the first psalm how it begins the second psalm reminds us of God's help

I lift my eyes to the hills from where does my help come from my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth and the next one assures that the effort of the journey is worth all the trials and everything they face

I was glad when they said to me let's go to the house of the Lord our feet have been standing within your gates oh

Jerusalem it's worth it because God is the goal and finally we come to psalm 123 the fourth of these psalms and it teaches us that it is a song of faithful dependence a psalm a song of faithful dependence upon the

Lord and in the psalm which we'll read in a moment you hear how they acknowledge openly the deep hurt that they felt that we feel but that they felt then when they were despised for the truth of our faith in Jesus Christ despised and derided and scorned for what they believed psalm 123 leads us to Jesus Christ Jesus said blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you and we could say blessed are we now as we await that reward that Jesus promises for we who do have to endure that scorn and derision of the world around us

I ask you do you sometimes feel your holy patience wearing thin do you feel it wearing out completely the people who first sang this psalm they felt that as well and we join them today and how we respond and the question we need to ask ourselves as we stand for the reading of psalm 123 is whose favor do we seek and what are we looking for and who are we looking for in order to assuage the hurt that we feel that's all in psalm 123 so please stand with me for the reading of psalm 123 the word of the

Lord here unto you I lift my eyes oh 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 her mistress so our eyes look to the

Lord our God until he has mercy on us have mercy on us oh 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 please be seated well in many ways this people who first sang this psalm this people was us and we are this people you see they had been exiles in Babylon released by Cyrus according to God's decree and we were exiles in this world released by Jesus again according to God's decree this people who first sang this psalm their sin had been forgiven after they had paid their price that price being 70 years in that foreign land in Babylon and the

Lord finally cried out comfort comfort my people tell Jerusalem tell this people that her iniquity is pardoned she has received double for all her sins that's the first verse of Isaiah chapter 40 so their sin forgiven after they had paid their price our sins have been forgiven after Jesus paid our price in him we have redemption the forgiveness of sins says the apostle

Paul their captors mocked and derided and teased and despised them because of their defeat which demonstrated or so they thought that their gods were superior to Yahweh the

God of the defeated Israelites even so we are mocked and derided and teased and despised because of the cross where our

Lord in human weakness humbled himself to the point of death even death on a cross which demonstrates or so the world thinks as the

Babylonians might have thought earlier that our God is an object of faith only for weak -minded fools but we hold fast to this that the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men so knowing all this and hearing this psalm read well they said we we've had enough we've had our fill of contempt and scorn

Lord we can't take it anymore and do we feel like that sometimes whether it's you personally from someone at work or a neighbor or even a family member a brother sister cousin a father a mother a child a parent who doesn't believe and respond cynically to your faith sometimes we just get fed up with it all hearing it constantly coming in on the airwaves again if it's not even something personal against us it's just in general against our

Lord Jesus Christ we just get so fed up that we cry out with psalm 123 Lord we've had our fill of this contempt we can't take anymore the world's gone insane we hear this all the time life torn from the sanctity of the womb a world unwilling to know that girls are girls and men are men a world that takes freely of what

Christ has provided through his church all the while boasting that they had done it we hear all this we feel all this it stings us it hurts us you ever feel like you just can't take anymore you know when

I was a boy my favorite cartoon was Popeye Popeye the sailor man and after almost a whole episode of being abused by Bluto his nemesis

Popeye would finally say that's all I can stands and I can't stands no more and down goes the spinach and pop goes his forearms and with one punch

Brutus is off to the moon because that's all he could stand and he couldn't stand no more well our response is not spinach we're arm and arm with the brethren of old we cry out with them that we're exceedingly filled with all this we've had enough and now we need to look at this psalm and see where do we go to whom do we go what do we seek what do we do with this fed upness with crying out with these pilgrims because we too are pilgrims

Lord we are not just filled with it we are exceedingly filled with it

Lord you gave me a big cup that can handle a lot in your power as I pray to you that I stay godly and respond rightly but father

God the cup is overflowing I have nowhere to put what's flowing out of the cup

I can't take anymore where do we go to whom do we go and what do we seek when we go there starts out to you

I lift my eyes this is a worship leader this is the worship leader it's the it's the body who responds behold as the servants of the the eyes of servants look to the hand of masters and so forth it's he who begins and sets the example unto you

I lift my eyes oh you who dwell in the heavens where do we look when you're so fed up when you can't take anymore when you just can't control your tongue anymore and give a godly gentle christ -like response look up look up where God is high and lifted up look up up up and away as the song said years ago look up away from the contempt and the scorn of this world these are spiritualized that look up and see

Jesus these are spiritualized there's something like Stevens before he died when he said behold

I see this heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of God eyes lifted up where Jesus after he had accomplished our redemption sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high he is there he is far away from the travails we suffer so where do we look where do you look need to look away from ourself and we need to look away from this horizontal trouble where it all comes from because it does not come from on high from on high comes our comfort from on high came our redemption came

Jesus Christ look up up and away from these troubles that have overfilled your cup in the second verse the congregation follows the leader's eyes they say so our eyes look to our

God have you had enough sometimes all this whether again it's directly at you personally or it's just coming in through the airwaves through the cable on the radio just constant have you had enough of the world's contempt and scorn sometimes it gnaws at us it creates a sore the way a dog does by scratching and chewing a minor cut and worrying it into a major wound it keeps us up at night it forms words on our lips that should never come forth and we find as this goes on and on that relationships are wrecked and bitterness can dominate and why is all this why does that happen to us to God's people to believers in Christ well too often it's because we look to the source rather than the cure what else can the world do but deride and hate

Christ and mock his people the world is capable of none other than that and so we need to take our eyes off them off of it off of all of that and look not horizontally not to the one or the ones or the thing that is bringing this to you but up to God who in the ultimate sense is the one who is being scorned and mocked and derided held in contempt brothers and sisters do not look at man in whom there is no help but only more trouble do not look at man who is only when you look at him and try to argue with him it's just going to become more derisive and more scornful and more contemptuous no don't look to man where there's no help but only more trouble look to him who dwells in heaven look to the

Lord our God you need to look up the first thing we need to do is get our eyes off of this and look up toward Jesus is seated at the right hand of majesty so we look up and that's first and how do we look how do you look up to God we look with humility we look humbly toward God what does it say in psalm as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master as the eyes of a handmaid to her mistress servants whose every need is provided by their master i mean if you really believe that God is there in heaven if you truly believe that Christ is seated at the right hand of majesty then humility would joyfully say every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights perhaps even a good and perfect gift to give you patience to endure and words to answer back that don't continue the scorn that don't add to their contempt but show