Daily Devotional
Theme
When other people's scorn fills you up
Psalm of the day
Psalms 123:1-4
Read in a low voice
Murmur the words as you read. That is what the Bible calls meditating: hāgâ, in Hebrew.
I lift my eyes to you, O God, enthroned in heaven.
We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt.
We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud and the contempt of the arrogant.
To ponder
A detail in the psalm that is easy to miss.
In verses 3 and 4, the Hebrew word for being fed up is sava', the verb for someone who has eaten until there's no room left. Literally: we are full of contempt. We've swallowed too much mockery.
It's the same verb as in Psalm 90:14, which asks: satisfy us each morning with your love. There, a person wants to be full of good things. Here, he's stuffed with other people's opinions.
And what does he do about it? In verses 1 and 2, he lifts his eyes, like a servant watching his master's hand for a signal. When other people's opinions fill you up, it's time to look to another hand.
Question of the day
What comment about you is still stuck in your throat?
Pray
Pray aloud or in silence, whichever you prefer.
Father, there are things people said to me that I still can't swallow.
A joke in front of everyone, a way of treating me like I was less.
I smiled at the time. Then I chewed on it for weeks.
I'm so done with this. I can't take any more.
Today I stop feeding what they said about me.
What you think of me is what I want to hear first. Amen.
Ask
What's the next step on your road? Ask him to walk it with you.
Take with you
Stay with this line for one minute of silence. Then take it into your day.
We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy, just as servants keep their eyes on their master, as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.