Psalms

Where Are Your Eyes?

OFTEN servants of God face problems and trialsome circumstances. At such times one needs the aid of the Most High. Do you then earnestly petition Jehovah God for help, looking to him for guidance?

This is the encouragement we can draw from Psalm 123. We read: “To you I have raised my eyes, O You who are dwelling in the heavens.” (Ps. 123:1) Since the Almighty God resides in the highest heavens, it would only be natural for the psalmist to speak of raising the eyes upward when appealing to the Creator for favor. Illustrating the reason for looking to Jehovah, he continues: “Look! As the eyes of servants are toward the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant are toward the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are toward Jehovah our God until he shows us favor. Show us favor, O Jehovah, show us favor; for to an abundance we have been glutted with contempt. Abundantly our soul has been glutted with the derision of those who are at ease, of the contempt on the part of the arrogant ones.”​—Ps. 123:2-4.

Servants and maids carefully watch the hands of their masters and mistresses, with a view to determining just what their wish or will may be. The hands of masters and mistresses can also provide necessities of life and protection for the servants. Similarly, slaves of God look to him, wanting to know his will on matters and desiring to receive his protection, favor and blessing.

The psalmist and his fellow Israelites were being ridiculed. Because of the degraded way in which they were being looked upon by their enemies, it was most appropriate for them to plead that Jehovah show them favor. The contempt heaped upon them came not rarely but as a matter of course. It was abundant. The “arrogant ones” responsible for it were “at ease,” that is, they seemed secure.

Such circumstances existed when the walls of Jerusalem were being rebuilt under the direction of Nehemiah. Regarding what the enemies were saying, the Bible reports: “As soon as Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and highly offended, and he kept deriding the Jews. And he began to say before his brothers and the military force of Samaria, yes, he began to say: ‘What are the feeble Jews doing? Will they depend upon themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they bring the stones to life out of the heaps of dusty rubbish when they are burned?’ Now Tobiah the Ammonite was alongside him, and he went on to say: ‘Even what they are building, if a fox went up against it, he would certainly break down their wall of stones.’”​—Neh. 4:1-3.

It is noteworthy that, despite intense enemy opposition and ridicule, the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt. The main reason for this was that Nehemiah and his fellow workers looked to Jehovah for help. (Neh. 4:4, 5) If we likewise continue to look to Jehovah for his favor and blessing, we will never be disappointed. He will grant us our petitions.​—1 John 3:21, 22.