Psalm 123:3,4
In Psalm 123:2 the psalmist had said that his eye waits upon God until He has mercy upon him. Now in verses 3, 4 he writes, "Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud."
Now we are not told just what he suffered; but we do know that if we look to God in prayer, and before men confess that He is in the highest heavens, we are going to be scorned and filled with contempt. The world will ridicule us and deny that He created the world and has every bit of it in His hands. In their schools they will not allow prayers to be raised to Him. Soon in the days of the coming antichrist we will be forbidden to pray to Him in our homes and churches.
Then, but also today, there is need for us to pray to God for His mercy to bear that scorn and mockery and pain; we need His mercy to keep us faithful and continuously looking up to Him, never taking our eyes from Him as the God of our salvation, the almighty, sovereign, exalted God Who is high above all creation.
And when the psalmist prays to God until His mercy is upon us, he does not mean that he is trying to wear God out by constant praying till he gets his way. Rather the idea is that when we experience that mercy upon us our prayers are going to be changed to those of praise and thanksgiving.
Sing then this versification of the psalmist's words (PRC Psalter):
O Lord, our God, Thy mercy show,
For man's contempt and scorn we know;
Reproach and shame Thy saints endure
From wicked men who dwell secure;
Man's proud contempt and scorn we know;
O Lord, our God Thy mercy show.
In all the ridicule and scorn that we suffer, we need to have God assure us that His own Son was despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, in order that He might bring us to heavenly glory and everlasting blessedness.
Read: Psalm 136
Psalter versification: #351:2
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #174
Why not sing along??
Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Nehemiah 7:73 ; Nehemiah 8 ; Nehemiah 9:1-21
1 Corinthians 9:1-18
Psalm 33:12-22
Proverbs 21:11-12
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Quote for Reflection:
"Not creation, not the fall, not the church, not the predestination of the elect, not even the incarnation, not the cross, are first in the good pleasure of God; but the firstborn from the dead, the glorified Christ, is first. He is the firstborn of every creature ..." ~ Herman Hoeksema in Reformed Dogmatics, p. 333.
Additional Info
- Date: 14-August
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.