This morning’s sermon continued our series on the Songs of Ascent by looking at Ps 123, a short psalm that reminds us of our relationship with God as servants. Ps 121 started with us lifting our eyes to the mountains, but with Ps 123:1, our gaze is lifted even higher! Having an upward gaze is vital if we are to make sense of life and to keep going on the pilgrim journey towards God. Paul reminds the Colossians that the secret to success is to keep our hearts and minds fixed on God: ‘Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.’ (Col 3:1-2)
God sits enthroned in heaven. Ps 9:4 says that God sits enthroned as the righteous Judge. Ps 80:1 says that God sits enthroned between the cherubim, a phrase which brings to mind Isaiah’s great vision in Is 6:1-8 when he saw ‘the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne,’ with angelic seraphim flying around crying out ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.’ These visions continue in the New Testament, for Paul reminds the Ephesians that God’s power raised Christ from the dead and ‘seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.’ (Eph 1:20-21) We will never make any progress in our journey with God if we’ve got our eyes fixed down on what we can see all around us. This psalm reminds us that if we want to get anywhere in life, we need to spend time looking up at God. We need to be alert to what is going on around Christ, because ‘that’s where the action is’! We won’t find the answers we are looking for or the help we need from the media; watching the news and reading newspapers can only tell us about this visible world, not about the invisible, spiritual realm where God is working all things together for good for those who love Him. We won’t find answers or help from social media, however interesting we find other people’s opinions and views. We won’t find answers from our friends and family ultimately, because they too are fallible people like ourselves. Only God can satisfy the ache in our hearts; only God is strong enough to meet our needs and help us every day of our lives; only He can give us the answers and help that we require to make sense of life. Jesus reminds us that our heavenly Father knows all our needs and that worrying is unnecessary (see Matt 6:27-34). We have a God who is more than capable to taking the initiative and more than capable of providing for us. Our everyday human concerns will be met in God. Our part, the thing we have to do, is steep our lives in this God-reality and understand that He is Lord and Sovereign over all.