It can be easy for our prayer life to devolve into a series of requests: “God can you help me with X…? Can you bring healing to Y…?” And on and on. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Jesus invites us, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). The problem comes when we start envisioning our relationship with God as a customer to vendor or a supervisor to underling.

Psalm 123 reminds us of our proper standing before God. We do not look down on God or view Him as an equal. Instead, the psalmist proclaims, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven” (v. 1). God is enthroned over the universe. Our relationship with Him is of servant to master (v. 2). Being a child of God means waiting upon Him, attending His word and obeying. We are at His service.

Being God’s servant has benefits. We can expect Him to hear when we call. The psalmist had been ridiculed and mocked by scoffers (v. 4). Because he was God’s servant this was a problem for God as well. Would God allow His servant to be treated poorly? It could be that God had His own purpose for this situation, but this psalm models for us that it is appropriate to ask for God to intervene when we face a difficult situation. We can do this not because God is at our beck and call but because we trust in His mercy and unfailing love (v. 3). We know that He cares. As the author of Hebrews instructs, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).

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