UNTO THEE LIFT I UP MINE EYES

With the above words, the psalmist expressed his implicit trust in the Lord. He looked neither within nor around, but above. He and the people for whom he pleaded were surrounded by scoffers who contemptuously derided them.

The psalm is very applicable to the time of Nehemiah, when the returned exiles began picking up the pieces of their disrupted national life. As they built the wall, they were mocked and laughed at by enemies. Nehemiah was not put off by this, but resorted to prayer, and the work of the building of the wall proceeded, Neh. 2. 19; 4. 1-5.

God spoke to the exiles in captivity through Ezekiel, impressing upon them that they had become the objects of scorn and derision because they had forgotten Him. God, however, promised that the situation would be completely reversed, cf. Ezek. 23. 32, 35; 36. 3-7. See also Psa. 2. 4. This must have given hope and confidence to the remnant.

The eyes of slaves and maidens in servitude looked up to their masters; we lift up ours with hope and expectation. In these last days, we are surrounded by scoffers as predicted by Peter, 2 Pet. 3. 3. Our confidence will not be shaken by these if we keep looking up. We ought not to be surprised if, in school, office, factory, the street or even in the home, we are taunted, derided and laughed at. These have been the portion of the godly, especially when engaged in doing a work for God. Timothy was reminded that “all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”, 2 Tim. 3. 12. Paul became a “spectacle”, and was “reviled” and “defamed”, 1 Cor. 4. 9, 12, 13. Preachers, like Whitfield who travelled the country preaching the gospel, were pelted with stones, ridiculed and sometimes spat upon.

Our sinless Lord was the object of mockery and contempt in His lifetime as well as in His death. Nothing could deter Him from the path of trust and obedience to His Father. Twice it is recorded that He lifted up His eyes heavenward, John 11. 41; 17. 1, but the whole of His life was lived out in the conscious presence of His Father.

“Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners… lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds”, Heb. 12. 3.