Consecration to the Lord Himself


	PSALM 123: Consecration to the Lord Himself - Experiencing the Lord's Hand Taking Care of our Person to Appreciate these Psalms Psalm 123 is written in a fine and delicate manner. For us to appreciate the delicacy of this psalm, and indeed all of these psalms, we cannot be a rough or crude person. It is difficult for a rough person to grasp what is spoken of here. When coming to these three psalms we must exercise to be tender, delicate, and fine in our person so that we may enjoy and appreciate all of the precious details. The Resurrected and Ascended Lord is on the Throne Psalm 123 begins, "To You do I lift up my eyes, You who sit enthroned in heaven" (v. 1). This shows the psalmist has grown in his spiritual experience. In Psalm 121 the psalmist said, "I will lift up my eyes to the hills. From where will my help come?" Originally the writer was looking up to the hills for help from the Lord. Now in Psalm 123 he is looking up to the Lord Himself. Who is the Lord? He is the One who sits enthroned in heaven. He is the resurrected and ascended One, the One who is the government of the universe. He is in ascension and administration. Therefore the psalmist says, "To You do I lift up my eyes, You who sit enthroned in heaven." Being Consecrated by Paying Our Attention To The Lord's Hand The psalmist continues, "Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a servant girl look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Jehovah our God, until He is gracious to us." This verse is very touching, but it is difficult to expound. The psalmist says, "Lord, here I am. I am looking unto You. I am just like a servant who looks to the hand of his master, and a servant girl who looks to the hand of her mistress. I am the same. My eyes are on You. You are the Lord, my God." For us to "look to the hand" means to pay our full attention to a person. In some earlier cultures, especially Eastern ones, the lives of the servants were in the hands of their masters. Their masters even had the right to tell them whether they would live or die. Because of this, the servants were completely and utterly attentive to their "masters' hands." They were attentive to every need of their masters' person. We can see this today only to a much lesser degree. For example, waiters and waitresses who work in a high-class restaurant have a special kind of awareness. As those who are serving their customers they are attentive to the "hands of their masters." If you go to a high-class restaurant the waiter is very attentive to your hand. After the waiter brings you to your table and gives you your menu he seems to disappear. Actually he is very aware of you. As soon as you put down your menu he appears to take your order. When you finish your meal he immediately comes to ask you if there is something else you would like. Good waiters and waitresses notice you the moment you raise your hand to catch their attention. They serve you by being so sensitive to your hand, because your hand just represents yourself. Those who serve in a good restaurant are constantly aware of the "hands of their masters." They are attentive to every move and every action of the customers they serve. This is actually a vivid picture of consecration. Psalm 123 shows us that we who love the Lord in the church life are actually "servants" and "maidens" of the Lord. We are those who pay attention to the Lord's hand. This is true consecration. Our consecration to the Lord should not merely be in a prayerful or theoretical way. We should consecrate ourselves practically to the Lord in our actions and behavior. This means we are like a good waiter or waitress who is fully aware of their customer's every move. We should not tell the Lord, "Lord, I give myself to You," and then go back to live our own life and take care of our own things. Once we tell the Lord, "I give myself to you," then our whole person is focused on paying attention to the Lord Himself. We are utterly aware of our "master's hand." We are focused on all of His dealings and actions. This is the reality of consecration. It is not a theory or a slogan, nor is it merely a proper position. When a person has the reality of consecration it means that they are fully attentive to the actions of the Lord Himself. If we are truly consecrated, then however the Lord leads and whatever the Lord does, we are those who have the proper response to Him. As the "servants" and "maidens" of the Lord we must learn to be so attentive to "the hand of our master." What is the Lord's hand in our experience? It may be a thought or an idea that suddenly comes, or it may be something that happens in our environment. At that moment we have the deep inward realization, "This is the Lord. This is not of man. It is the Lord." We should have numerous experiences of this. There should be many times when we go through something and realize, "This is Christ. This is not just an environment. This is not just a coincidence. This is not something that simply happened. The Lord is here. This is His hand." This psalm gives us a vivid picture of what it is to be consecrated. When the Lord's hand moves, or when His hand is upon us, we have the proper response. In this psalm we first give ourselves to Christ by lifting up our eyes to see Him enthroned in the heavens. When we see Him this way, it is like a servant looking to the hand of his master and a maidservant looking to the hand of her mistress. As consecrated ones we are those who look upon Christ. We are waiting on Him. We are watching for the movement of His hand. The Lord's Hand of Supply and Support:For Us to Receive His Provision and Arrangement In the Bible there are at least four different ways to experience the Lord's hand. Firstly, the Lord's hand is a hand of supply. Whenever we look unto Him we receive the life-supply. His hand is also a hand of support. Support is needed when we are not able to receive the supply. The Lord is very merciful. When we are not able to receive His life-supply, then His hand will come in to support us. When we are able to receive His supply, then His hand supplies us with everything we need. He not only supplies us with life, but also with the proper church life, the best companions, and the best environment. All of these items are out of His hand. He also supplies us with all our inward needs. He supplies us with life, light, strength, and enjoyment. The Lord's hand is a hand of supply that meets all of our needs. Many times, however, we are not able to receive the Lord's provision. For example, when we are younger the Lord will supply us with the best university, but we may think that we know better than Him. We would say, "That is not the university I desire." The Lord always knows what is best for us, but we don't always know how to receive it from His hand. Many times the Lord supplies us, but we refuse His supply. Then His hand of supply becomes a hand of support to us. For instance, when I was younger the Lord provided a good university for me, but I wanted to go somewhere else. The university the Lord provided for me was not prestigious. Eventually I went, but there was bitterness within me. I complained to the Lord that I was not happy. But then there was a support. The Lord was there, and His hand was there. He seemed to be saying, "Look at Me. I am with you. I arranged for you to come here." At that time I had the full realization that it was of the Lord. I had no desire to leave. The university began to appear very differently to me. It actually became quite beautiful. This was because I continued to look to the Lord, and His hand of supply became a hand of support until I could receive His provision. The Lord is a Lord of supply, and He is also a Lord of support. The Lord does everything to supply us, but we don't always know how to take His grace and enjoy His provision. Instead we often argue with Him. We ask, "Lord, why me?" The Lord supplies the best for us, but we complain. At such times the Lord's hand becomes a hand of support. This is surely precious. When we refuse to take His supply, then His hand of support will come. The only thing we must do is continue to look at Him. Our concept is, "Now that I have consecrated myself to the Lord, I will overcome!" But the Lord's divine concept is, "Now that you have consecrated yourself, you must keep your eyes upon Me. When you come to Me, I will give you My very life supply. However, you are still going to make many mistakes, and there will be times when you won't accept My arrangement or My provision for you. But don't worry. Even when you cannot take it, still look unto My hand. Still look unto Me. Still come to Me. I will give you the support you need to receive My arrangement and My supply." The Lord's Hand of Leading: For Us to be Purposeful The Lord's hand is also a hand of leading. As He supplies and supports us, He also leads us. Every time we are clear about the Lord's leading our life is very purposeful. But when the Lord's leading is not clear to us then we wonder what we are living for. All kinds of questions come in. It is when the leading is not clear to us that we struggle. Everything becomes frustrating. However, even then the supply is still there. When we can't handle our situation, the supply becomes support. Even though we are not so sure what is right, we still survive. We still go to meetings, because the Lord's hand is supporting us and supplying us. However, as we enjoy His support and supply, the leading of the Lord should become clear. Once the leading becomes clear, nothing is difficult. When the leading becomes clear everything we do becomes purposeful. For example, we may consider whether we should serve the Lord full-time or not. Because we are not clear, we struggle in our consideration. Finally we ask the elders what they think. Suppose they say "no," and we realize that their "no" is the leading of the Lord. We may try to complain to the Lord about the elders, but He will stop us. We may be frustrated, but by His support and supply we learn to take the practical leading of the Lord through the elders. Then we find that our life becomes purposeful. This is a great blessing. The Lord's Hand of Comfort: For Us to Obey His Leading Out of the Lord's leading, there is comfort. The Lord's hand becomes a comfort to us. For example, if we desire to serve the Lord full-time, but the brothers tell us to get a job, we may need comfort. This is also the case if we would like to work, but the Lord is leading us to serve Him full-time. As His leading becomes clear and we become so purposeful, the Lord comforts us. He tells us, "I am with you." The same hand that leads us also becomes a comfort to us as we obey His leading. The Lord's Hand of Discipline: For Us to Depend on His Mercy The Lord's hand is also a hand of discipline. This is actually most precious and more significant than His support, supply, leading and comfort. The most crucial purpose of the Lord's hand is to discipline us. This is why the psalmist says, "Our eyes look to Jehovah our God, until He is gracious to us." Other translations say, "Until He has mercy upon us." At what point do we need mercy in our experience? We understand that mercy means the Lord reaches us in our low condition, even where grace cannot reach us. When we are far off from Him, the Lord still reaches us by His mercy. But when we experience the Lord's mercy, what do we really experience? We actually experience His discipline. When we realize that we are far off from the Lord, by His mercy we repent and come back to Him. In the process we experience something of the Lord's discipline. Many times, however, we may not be far off from the Lord, but He still comes in to discipline us. In fact, the more we love the Lord and give ourselves to Him, the more we experience His discipline. And the more we are disciplined by the Lord, the more we cry out, "Lord, I need Your mercy." By His mercy we are brought through the disciplinary process. Furthermore, when we ask the Lord for mercy we also receive His supply, His support, His leading, and His comfort. All of these come out of the Lord's disciplinary hand. Even though the experience of discipline can be hard, this verse is so joyful. "Behold, as the eyes of the servants look to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a servant girl look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Jehovah our God, until He is gracious to us." When we have a proper consecration before the Lord we begin to realize, "Lord, with You as my Master I am not so free anymore. I cannot run wild. I cannot do whatever I want to do. All I can do is keep my eyes on Your hand." This is very different from being a "professional consecrator." A "professional consecrator" prays all the time, "Lord, I give myself to You," but he always lives his own life and does his own thing. We must desire to have the reality of consecration, especially in our behavior. This means we must pray, "Lord, I am willing for my whole life to be disciplined by You. I look unto Your hand, and I look to You for Your mercy." After we see the vision of the Lord, we give ourselves to Him. What is the first thing the Lord has to do with us once we have given ourselves to Him? The first thing He must do is to discipline us. All of us are wild and lawless by nature. In a very real sense, we are untamable. Sometimes it seems that the Lord has no way to tame us because of who we are. Yet often we are proud of this. We sometimes boast to ourselves, "Look at how raw and wild I am! I struggle with the Lord all the time! It is so hard for Him to subdue me!" Then the Lord replies to us, "Look unto My hand. Give yourself to Me." If we don't give ourselves to the Lord, if we don't look unto the Lord's hand, then His discipline will not profit us. Every time He comes in to discipline us we won't recognize it. We will just cry out, "It's not fair! I'm so unfortunate!" But if we look to the Lord's hand, then even when He does just a little disciplinary work we will realize, "This is from the Lord." We will realize it is the Lord's hand, and we will know how to cry out for mercy. Then the discipline will be profitable. He will not only provide us with mercy but with the supply, the support, the leading, and the comfort that we need. It is this process of being disciplined and receiving the Lord's mercy that gives us the experience of transformation. The Lord's Discipline Brings Us into a Situation of Contempt The psalmist continues, "Be gracious to us, O Jehovah, be gracious to us; for we are greatly filled with contempt" (v. 3). This verse is very interesting. When we love the Lord, the Lord disciplines us. When the Lord disciplines us, we are brought into a situation of contempt. We become what seems to be an unfortunate and unlucky person. It seems that everyone else is doing fine, but we are in a contemptible situation. For example, there is a young brother among us who graduated as valedictorian from a large high school. But when he applied to the local university to get a scholarship, they turned him down. They were so foolish, turning down a student with such great potential. Yet actually the Lord was using this university to discipline that dear brother. This was something of the Lord's hand. When the brother graduated from high school at the top of his class, surely he was proud. He expected a scholarship from the local university. Meanwhile, all of his friends were receiving scholarships from one school after another, and this brother alone was rejected. He was in a situation of contempt. When we don't love the Lord, people respect us. Once we love the Lord, nothing goes smoothly. Isn't this our experience? Before we love the Lord, we can be a "star." Once we love the Lord, we are under everyone's feet. This is why the psalmist says, "Be gracious to us, O Jehovah, be gracious to us; for we are greatly filled with contempt." People despise us. Why? Because we are looking at the Lord's hand. The Lord's disciplinary hand is upon us. We experience many things that no one else understands. This brother who graduated from high school was under the Lord's hand. Which one of his friends could understand him? What if this brother were to say to his friends, "You got a scholarship, but I got the life-supply. I got the support, the leading, and the comfort from the Lord." His friends would say, "You must be joking! We each got ten thousand dollars! How much did you get? How will you pay your tuition?" This is to be greatly filled with contempt. What can this brother do in such a situation? He can only pray, "Lord, be gracious to me. I need Your mercy." To cry out for mercy is a blessing. When we think that we are doing well it is usually not so healthy. If we think, "I don't need mercy. I am doing fine," then we should be careful. But when we are in a situation of contempt, then we cry out, "Lord, have mercy. Be gracious to me." Suppose a brother is serving the Lord full-time. He may feel that he is very prevailing, so the Lord arranges for him to run into some of his old classmates. They ask him, "What are you doing now?" The brother thinks to himself, "What should I say? I can't say I'm a pastor. I can't say I'm a minister." Eventually he says, "Well, I'm ... serving the Lord full-time." They say, "What? What does that mean? What is it that you do?" The brother doesn't know what to say. He can't say that he is jobless. He knows he is very busy, but he doesn't have any words to portray his commitment. He stammers out something, but he knows he can't possibly convey what he is doing with his life. The more he tries to explain, the more his friends look down at him. Suppose the brother says, "I am just a servant of the Lord." His friends then say, "What Lord? What do you mean?" "The Lord Jesus Christ." "Oh, you are a Christian. Where do you go to church?" Again the brother has no way to answer or explain. This is to experience contempt. When we go through such experiences all we can do is cry out for the Lord's mercy. When we follow the Lord, we have to prepare ourselves to be in contempt. People will look at us and ask, "What are you doing with your life?" This is the Lord's disciplinary hand. Sometimes our parents would say to us, "You have a college degree, but you are wasting your life. When are you going to do something useful?" Then all we can do is tell the Lord, "Lord, have mercy upon me. Be gracious to me. I am greatly filled with contempt." This is to know the Lord's hand. When the Lord's hand of discipline is upon us we often become contemptible in the world's eyes. However, this should lead us to cry out to the Lord for His mercy. Then His hand will come in to supply us, support us, lead us, and comfort us. The more experiences we have of this, the better. The Lord's hand of discipline keeps us dependent on His mercy. When We Love the Lord, the World will Despise Us and Scorn Us The psalmist continues, "Our soul is greatly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud" (v. 4). Again, this is often the experience of those who serve the Lord full-time. Even working saints in the church life may look at full-timers and think, "These brothers don't even know how to get a job. That is why I have to offer for their support every month!" This is a terrible thought, and we should never have such a spirit. But when a brother becomes a full-timer, other people will treat him differently. If a brother gets a job, people will respect him. Even if it is not a high profession, people will respect him for holding a job. But when a brother says, "I am a servant of the Lord," people will say, "What? What does that mean?" Then they may ask him, "What is your hobby?" The brother might reply, "I don't really have one." "What is it that you do with all your time?" "Well, I do a lot of practical serving. I go to meetings. I give myself to the church." This is incomprehensible to the world. Of course, this is not only true of full-timers, but of all those who love the Lord. If you love the Lord, people in the world will think you are some kind of religious fanatic. You will be "greatly filled with the scorn of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud." Everyone on this earth is proud. In particular, when people do not have Christ they are proud. Even when they have nothing to be proud of, as long as they don't have the Lord's hand they will still be proud. But everyone who loves the Lord will be despised, regardless of who they are or what they do. When you love the Lord, people will scorn you. No matter how well you perform your responsibilities in the world, as long as you love the Lord you should be prepared for the "contempt of the proud." When you don't care about Christ, the world receives you. When you say, "I am for Christ," contempt and scorn will come. Sometimes it almost seems unbearable. You may eventually decide that it is impossible to live in this world while being absolute for Christ. This is why we need the next psalm in our experience. To purchase the book Journey of Life; the Psalms of Ascent and Song of Songs