The fourth of the songs of ascents is a very short prayer. The situation it appears is that the psalmist and his people have endured no end of ridicule from the arrogant, of contempt from the proud. However, he asks that the Lord will have mercy on them. He uses a striking picture to represent his position, one that he would have seen (if this is David or someone like him or near to him) played out many times. As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master he says in verse 2 as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy. The opening verse of the psalm puts his positon very simply - I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven. He is convinced that there is a heaven - an unseen world beyond this one that has an effect on this one. He is convinced that there is a throne there or more accurately someone on that throne who rules over all. He is convinced that he does not live in an anarchy. There is a throne and the one who sits on it rules over all things. So, in his time of trouble, it is to the one who sits on the throne that the psalmist lifts his eyes. It is to God that he looks. He knows that the answer to all his problems is there, the only hope for him and for everyone else. We too must think like this and pray, looking to the throne of the sovereign God.
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