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Mercy

             I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy. Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured no end of contempt. We have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud. (Psalm 123)

 

          Jesus told us that if we believed, we could ask whatever we wished, and it would be done for us. That seems a long way from looking up to God as a slave to a master. And in our modern culture, we tend to like the ask-receive pattern rather than the look-receive. The former makes us feel more in control. It makes us feel as though we are the master, and that God is supposed to leap from His throne and slide down some supernatural fire-pole the moment we voice a whim.

The image of the slave looking up to the master brings to mind the pitiful look dogs and cats can give - they look, and they look, and your heart melts - or you get fed up with it and give them something so they’ll go away. Sometimes, we wish they could talk so they could tell us what they want, but they just keep looking.

The other thing about servants is that others ignore them, look down their noses at them, or abuse them. This is at least one of the reasons for the “puppy dog eyes” to look to God to give mercy as they endure the contempt of others. What the mercy will look like is up to God, but we may expect it from him rather than from the arrogant and proud.

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