The Lord’s Day Evening

June 3, 2007

Psalm 123

  “Portrait of a Servant”

The Reverend Mr. Bradford C. Mercer

Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 123.

      Before we read Psalm 123, let us pray together.

      Lord God, we are privileged to come and fellowship and be together in Your house with Your people on Your day. We are privileged that You have revealed Yourself to us, that You have given us Your word; that we trust it. It is without error. You have revealed Yourself in it. We pray that as we read Your word tonight, we would hear it; our eyes would be opened to hear Your word; that as Your word is preached that it would enflame our hearts, cause us to think, and make us different in the way we live our lives. We thank You for the tradition of this pulpit and the many who have stood behind it who have loved Your word and preached it faithfully, year after year, after year. Lord God, bless us. Holy Spirit, illumine this text and transform our hearts, even as You are interceding for us as we pray. And we lift these things up in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

      Psalm 123:

“A Song of Ascents.

”To Thee I lift up my eyes,

O Thou who art enthroned in the heavens!

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress;

So our eyes look to the Lord our God,

Until He shall be gracious to us.

“Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious to us;

For we are greatly filled with contempt.

Our soul is greatly filled

With the scoffing of those who are at ease,

And with the contempt of the proud.”

May God bless to us the reading of His word.

      Now before we move into the content of this Psalm, it’s important to remember a very basic fact about this Psalm and every Psalm. Psalms are poems…yes, poems. Now why is that important?

      What does poetry do? Poetry engages us in a different way from other literary genres. Poetry presents us with vivid, concrete images. It doesn’t typically define; it depicts. It engages our heads and our hearts, and our feet…and hopefully, our passions, our affections, our deepest longings. Keep in mind, when you read the Psalms you’ll see one vivid image after another, and your imagination will be engaged—and these are all good things. Notice that this Psalm gives us not necessarily a definition …definitions are good…but a depiction, an image flashed up of a servant and God. What does a servant of God look like? What do servants of God do? Show us.

      That’s what the Psalmist does. Notice he will show us the posture, the expectation, and finally the goal of a servant of God. The posture (or, the disposition) and the expectation of a servant of God, and then finally, a goal…what’s the design, what’s the purpose?

I. Notice first the posture, the disposition of the servant (verse 1).

“To Thee I lift up my eyes,

O Thou who art enthroned in the heavens!

Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,

As the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress;

So our eyes look to the Lord our God….”

Being a servant of God (servanthood) begins with an upward look, an outward look, to God. Eyes up, palms up, knees down…here I am. I’m listening. I’m responding. I’m awake, and I’m aware. What do You want me to do? Here I am.

      We are under authority. It’s not about us. God is sovereign, and we’re looking to His leadership. We want to follow Him. Our eyes begin by looking up. A very vivid image.

      I cannot help but notice initially, right off the bat, the marked contrast to what we see out there everywhere with regard to a disposition, a posture, for God. There is a very real sense that we have moved from a stage in Western culture in the eighteenth century, nineteenth century, in which we could say that science and the scientific method was deified: Look, if you can’t quantify it, test it using the empirical scientific method. You can’t know anything about it in that materialistic, naturalistic way of viewing the world.

      Now I think we can say we’re moving into a period where science is defied: gods are everywhere. Classically, a pagan is not a person who disbelieves in God; a pagan is a person who sees gods everywhere, and that’s where we’re moving in our culture – from science deified to science defied, open to all kinds of invisible realities out there that we might tap into for our benefit, for our good. These new spiritualities (and we’ve heard a great deal about these through the years here in the church) are typically very appealing, and particularly the ones that have emerged since the 1960’s for folks in our culture who want something individualistic and subjective and non-institutional. No ministers, no churches, no books, no hymnbooks, no prayer books…just me and my needs, and how this “force”, this god, whatever it is out there, can meet those needs. It’s everywhere…it’s everywhere…poll after poll after poll. Unfortunately, even those who say that they attend church on a regular basis will say they’re also open to using horoscopes and reincarnation and channeling, and on and on and on.

      I mentioned to some of you a few years ago…I knew this was coming…I was minding my own business in the CD store, standing in front of a CD rack in a music store. And I was thumbing through some music several years ago. And I’m going to date myself a little bit here, but I was standing right in front of The Moody Blues. [Now, I don’t know…hopefully, that means something to some of you…The Moody Blues.] And a girl walked up (I’m minding my own business)…a girl walked up and says, “Do you like The Moody Blues?” I didn’t know how to answer! I…well….who wants to know? And then she went on to say, “They are really in touch with the elusive It.” I don’t want any part of the illusive It, but I knew the drift of popular culture, at least, as manifested through this woman and The Moody Blues…the illusive It.

      The illusive It – whatever it is – whether it is some kind of god or spiritual power that many people believe, embrace, are seeking and looking for, is characterized everywhere. We see it everywhere! We see it in business settings, we see it in schools, we see it in churches, and we see it in homes. For example, Fortune magazine just a couple of years ago had an entire edition on spirituality in the workplace. The entire edition was 2001, and this one struck my eye because it was talking about a Buddhist Texas. When I grew up in Texas, there weren’t Buddhists there, there were cows! And this article said:  “Raised a Baptist in west Texas, Thomas Crismon discovered meditation after experiencing…” Now, hear this! “Thomas Crismon discovered meditation after experiencing a mix of career success and personal discontent. Crismon, a patent attorney and litigator, leaves his business behind every winter to spend a month in silent meditation at a rural retreat in India. He does so to deepen his practice of an increasingly popular form of Buddhist meditation. Crismon has taken a month-long retreat in India every year since 1980. Back home, Crismon and his wife, Tina, operate a website and oversee a meditation center that puts 500-1,000 people a year through a ten-day introductory silent course.”

      Discontentment, personal success, business success, career success… unfortunately… unfortunately…and all you’ve got to do is flip on the screen and you will see Christians advocating the same sorts of things – professed Christians, claiming Christians, the “word of faith” movement – faith as a force to fulfill my felt needs. It’s everywhere, and it is a way of seeing Jesus Christ and God Himself as a means to something else; preaching Christ, teaching Christ, pursuing Christ as a means to something else, whatever that something else might be.

      One more example. I’m holding in my hand Post-modern Pluralism, a new series of travel books. And I know of no better way to illustrate what I’m getting at (this whole idea of approaching God as a means to an end…not with eyes up, knees down, palms up, You’re leading, I’m following…but as a means to an end).

      There’s a whole series by a reputable publisher called The Spiritual Traveler Series. And they have one for San Francisco, one for L.A., one for Chicago, several others. This one is The Spiritual Traveler, and the sub-title is A Guide to Sacred Sites and Peaceful Places. Well, you know what’s coming. And this is for Boston and New England. [And don’t hold it against me, I have relatives up there, and I go up there fairly often!! It’s a crazy place.] But as you thumb through this Spiritual Traveler, you can turn to (for a couple of examples):

 “Park Street Church.  Congregational, conservative. Park Street Church is the most imposing edifice on Brimstone Corner.”

      And it goes on to talk about the preaching that has gone on with the Bible teaching and the conservative theology of Park Street Church. And you turn the page, and you can go the Paulist Center:

 “The Paulist Center is operated by the Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic missionary organization founded in the United States in 1858. Following World War II, the Paulist Fathers had the visionary idea of creating a drop-in center in major metropolitan areas. These would be informal places where Catholics, lapsed Catholics, and non-Catholics could stop by for heart-to-heart conversation with a priest or receive helpful reading material.”

      Well, if you don’t like that, you can go right across the street to the first Unitarian Universalist Church in the United States, King’s Chapel. And not only that, you can walk right next door and you can see Mayflower travelers buried right next door. But where we are, Park Street church, then right across the street the first Unitarian Universalist Church in the United States. And you can visit all of these.

      Or, if you get tired of these, you can go to the “Christian Science Center, which is the mother church of Christian Science. And here…” [I’ll stop!]:

 “… there are so many interesting things to see in the Christian Science complex of buildings that travelers may want to budget an entire half-day to visit them all, and enjoy some leisurely contemplative time by the plaza’s famous fountain.”

      And if you don’t like that, you can go to the Boston Sufi Order, or you can go to the Cambridge Zen Center, or you can go to the Boston  Yoga Center. (I have no idea what that would be.) Or, the Islamic Center of New England.

      You get the point.   Our culture, America, is full of spiritual tourists who never go home, never land, never stay. They taste, they feel, they touch, they sample. The whole approach is ‘What’s in it for me? How can I get my needs met? What’s out there for me?’ And I can’t help but think about Baal worship. The Baal worship that Elijah confronted was all about incantations and blood-letting and dancing, and crying and screaming, and manipulating an idol, essentially. ‘Fire! Rain! This is what we want!’ It’s just one version after another of a modernized, Westernized (and Easternized), worldwide Baal worship. That is not the posture, the disposition of a true servant of God with eyes up, a follower.

“My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work. I have come down from heaven not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me,”

so says our Lord Jesus Christ.

II. Secondly, the expectation of a servant.
      The expectation of a servant…what does a servant expect when he or she looks up? Verse 2:

 “So our eyes look to the Lord our God, until He shall be gracious to us.

Be gracious to us, O Lord, be gracious to us.”

 What do we expect? Grace. Grace. Looking up, serving God, we recognize we need help. It’s not about us. We are dead in sin. We continue to put sin to death in our lives. Sanctification is a process. Help us. Be gracious to us. Be merciful to us. Not “be functional for us.” Not “give us what we deserve because of our accomplishments.” Not “look on us the way we know You should because of what our last name is, or where we go to church, or what neighborhood we live in, or where we went to school,” and on and on and on. Be gracious to us. Show us mercy.

      I’ve read this before. Probably many of you have heard it, but I think it merits another reading, particularly in these times. On the evening of October 22, 1939, a thirteenth century church in Oxford, England, was packed with college students. Why? They were hoping that a professor, and former soldier and professed Christian, could give them some guidance, because World War II has just begun. What do we do? What do we think? Where do we go? How do we face this? What should we expect? If you’ve never read Learning in Wartime, by C.S. Lewis, you should. And he says this – just a brief quote of something that he says to these teenagers, early twenties:

“The war creates no absolutely new situation. It simply aggravates the permanent human situation so that we can no longer ignore it. Human life has always been lived on the edge of a precipice. Human culture has always had to exist under the shadow of something infinitely more important that itself. If men had postponed the search for knowledge and beauty until they were secure, they never would have begun in the first place. We are mistaken when we compare war with normal life. Life has never been normal. A more Christian attitude, which can be attained at any age, is that we should leave the future in God’s hands. We may as well, for God will certainly retain it whether we give it to Him or not.”

And then, this is what I want you to hear. He’s telling these students at the outbreak of World War II, who are sitting out there scared to death:

“Never in peace or war commit your virtue or your happiness to the future. Happy work is best done by the man who takes his long-term plan somewhat lightly and works from moment to moment as to the Lord. It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done, or any grace received.”

      Should I just end? The present—it’s not yesterday, it’s not tomorrow, it’s not two weeks from now, it’s not five years from now. It’s not when we’ve completed our strategic plan. It’s now! Right now! With the person who’s sitting next to you, whether they be friend or foe, we expect grace and we show grace in the present, right now, to people that come across our paths. The present is the only time in which any duty can be done or any grace received. We expect grace.

III. Thirdly, finally, the goal…the end, the design for a servant of God.
      This Psalm does not end the way I wanted it to. We were really cruising, and now this. But in a very real sense it’s beautiful, because it’s real. We’re not—to put it colloquially—we’re not getting a sales job here. Look at the way the Psalm ends:

 “For we are greatly filled with contempt. Our soul is greatly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.”

We have a very sober, poignant reminder that serving Jesus Christ, serving God, serving others, involves sacrifice, pain, disappointment, sorrow. Becoming like Jesus Christ hurts at times. Grace hurts at times. You don’t want to be conformed to Christ. I don’t want to be conformed to Christ. But He’s working in and through me, and I am being conformed to Christ. That is why the speakers, teachers, book writers, that constantly and consistently come to us with the “name it, claim it” approach, the “prosperity gospel” approach, the “word of faith” theology, and something we struggle with here, “Type-A Christianity”, are so wrong. If you’ll just be more disciplined, if you’ll just be more faithful, if you’ll just pray…all those things are good, but it’s like Job’s friends. What did you do?  What sin is in your life? When do we shoot our wounded?

      This promise of grace is in all circumstances, even in the midst of this. Listen again:

“For we are greatly filled with contempt. Our soul is greatly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.”

Does that passage remind you of anyone?

“He was despised and forsaken of men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Like one from whom men hid their face, He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

“Even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, ‘He saved others; let Him come and save Himself if He’s the Christ, the chosen One.’ And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him offering sour wine and saying, ‘If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.’”

 Don’t be surprised in your union with Christ and in your conformity with Christ, and your following the same path as Christ, if you experience the same from a world that is no friend to grace, and is no friend…a world that characterizes us constantly as – you know all the terms.

      Not long ago, CNN had a long special, and the title was What Is a Christian? That would have been unthinkable, not long ago…what is a Christian? And the answers were crazier than the title.

      When I was eleven years old – you have these memories of times with your father. Well, when I was eleven years old, I had one of these experiences with my Dad. My Dad and I drove down the road, got into the train at the train station in Wheaton, Illinois, and we took the train to downtown Chicago, and went to one of these wonderful old big movie theaters with the heavy curtains, and the screen was huge. And I still think, you know, why did my Dad take me? Well, he took me to see this movie, and many of you will remember it. The movie was (is) Patton. You remember Patton? Now I’m not going to quote from the first scene of Patton! But I am going to quote from the last scene. The very last scene of that movie…you can find it online. Just type in “Patton, scenes, script.” The very last scene of Patton. You remember Patton and Omar Bradley are walking across this plain, and he’s been discharged, the war’s over. He’s had all of these victories, all of this glory, and he’s been discharged. And Omar Bradley’s walking out with him, and there’s off in the distance a windmill slowly turning. He’s walking there with his dog and his friend, Omar Bradley. Well, Omar Bradley peels off and goes back, and they’re going to meet for dinner. And he’s alone with his thoughts at the end of the film, and there’s a voice-over of his voice. You remember? And this is what it says:

“For over a thousand years, Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians, and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in the triumphal chariot, the dazed prisoners walking in chains before him. Sometimes his children, robed in white, stood with him in the chariot, or rode the trace horses. A slave or a servant stood behind the conqueror holding his golden crown, and whispering in his ear a warning: ‘All glory is fleeting…all glory is fleeting…all glory is fleeting.’”

      Except for one. Except for one. There is One whose glory is not fleeting. This is the same Person who was despised, forsaken, mocked; a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, who came not to be served, but to serve; Who takes all of the suffering and the pain and the trial and wrath to Himself; the One through whom and in whom we are justified and sanctified, and, yes, glorified, if we’re looking to Him.

      Let me close with this. I don’t always agree with this person, but, boy, here he gets it!

      In a recent book [and I think this is a wonderful way to end]…in a recent book, Eugene Peterson says this:

“There are no experts in the company of Jesus. We’re all beginners, necessarily followers, because we don’t know where we’re going. Following Jesus is a unique way of life. It is like nothing else. There is nothing and no one comparable. Following Jesus gets us little or nothing of what we commonly think we need, want, or hope for. Following Jesus accomplishes nothing on the world’s agenda. Following Jesus takes us right out of the world’s assumptions and goals to a place where a lever can be inserted that turns the world upside down and inside out. Following Jesus has everything to do with this world, but almost nothing in common with this world.”

      You don’t really know Jesus Christ until you follow Him, until your eyes are looking up, until you’re expecting grace, until the goal is Christ-likeness. You don’t know Him until you place your trust in Him and follow Him wherever He leads, however He leads. Wherever He takes you, Jesus Christ doesn’t get you where you want to go: He gets you where He goes. He’s not going to take you where you want to go, but He is going to take you where He goes; and as servants, that’s what we want. That’s what we want…that’s what we want…with eyes up, expecting grace, and seeking to be conformed to His image, to be sanctified, glorified.

      Let’s pray.

      Lord, we thank You again for Jesus Christ. We thank You for His perfect life and perfect death. We pray that even as we have come to worship, we would be changed; that our eyes would be lifted up, and we would seek to be Your servants; that we wouldn’t look for a functional idol that can be manipulated to meet health needs, but we look for a living God. We stand in fear and in awe before Him, and follow Him as He’s revealed in Jesus Christ. We thank You for this day of rest and gladness. Help us, forgive us, transform us as we seek to follow You in Christ. Amen.

      Please stand for the Lord’s benediction.

      Grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.