I Will Lift Up My Eyes: A Commentary on the Midday Psalms
Many of us, in our long pilgrimage on this earth, have stopped to take a deep breath of fresh air from the Book of Psalms. We have turned to their pages for rest and comfort and found those things and more. We also find ourselves in need of a daily pitstop. If Americans are anything, we are busy to the extreme. We, as believers, can be even worse than our neighbors since we try to blend the drive to work with a desire to honor the Lord.
God calls us to provide for the members of our own house, and we are warned that the man who does not do so is worse than an unbeliever. Christians should be characterized as working but not idolatrous people. Work is not our god; we are not slaves to productivity or to a timesheet. We are instead their masters as we seek to take every thought captive to obey Christ.
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The Psalms in Midday Prayer
Midday Prayer, structured according to the ACNAโs 2019 Book of Common Prayer, is a good way to reorient ourselves. It is beautifully simple, with no confession of sin or absolution; the prayers also focus more on others than ourselves. The meat of the Midday Prayer rests in its psalms. Four options can be read, though some (like me!) prefer to read all of them daily. These psalms are perfectly chosen: the collects at the end of prayer focus on our work towards others, as the psalms have already aided us in our daily battles. Below are the psalms provided in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer’s New Coverdale Translation.
Psalm 119:105-112, Beati immaculati
105 Your word is a lantern to my feet *
and a light upon my path.
106 I have sworn and am steadfastly purposed *
to keep your righteous judgments.
107 I am troubled above measure; *
revive me, O Lแดสแด , according to your word.
108 Let the freewill offerings of my mouth please you, O Lแดสแด ; *
and teach me your judgments.
109 My life is always in my hand, *
yet I do not forget your law.
110 The ungodly have laid a snare for me, *
yet I have not strayed from your commandments.
111 Your testimonies have I claimed as my heritage for ever, *
and why? They are the very joy of my heart.
112 I have applied my heart to fulfill your statutes always, *
even unto the end. Samekh
Lunchtime is that moment when we all take a deep breath. We sit for a few precious minutes and shut down: the work stops, the files close, the drills go up, and we thank God for some peace. In other words, we are being revived. Our Lord was no stranger to resting like this. He rested so strongly at one point that he slept through a thunderstorm. Our Lord teaches us the value of resting and points us to the source of ultimate rest in him. We do not live by โbread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Godโ (Matt. 4:4). We need His words in addition to our grilled cheese and soup.
This section from Psalm 119 is the gateway to Midday Prayer. It guides by calling out to God for reviving (v. 107): the author needs refreshment in his soul and knows that the only place he can truly get this is from Godโs guiding word (v. 105). These words bring him joy in the midst of daily struggles despite all of the traps laid out for him by his enemies (vv. 110, 111). They are the places the author goes for joy, a joy that leads him to deeper obedience (vv. 111, 112).
Our daily grind will wear us away without the resistance that comes from this psalm. This is our first breath of fresh air, and it does us good to start here. We first come to a portion of Scripture that confesses our need for Godโs Word with us. Without it, we have no joy, no life, no strength. We crave more of it and desire a deeper knowledge of it. We want a greater happiness that flows from it. The Psalmists bring these things to our lips as we begin our Midday reading.
Psalm 121, Levavi oculos
1 I will lift up my eyes unto the hills; *
from whence comes my help?
2 My help comes from the Lแดสแด , *
who has made heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot be moved, *
and he who keeps you will not sleep.
4 Behold, he who keeps Israel *
shall neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lแดสแด himself is your keeper; *
the Lแดสแด is your defense upon your right hand,
6 So that the sun shall not burn you by day, *
neither the moon by night.
7 The Lแดสแด shall preserve you from all evil; *
indeed, it is he who shall keep your soul.
8 The Lแดสแด shall preserve your going out and your coming in, *
from this time forth for evermore.
Youโve taken that last sip of your morning coffee, and you still can barely put one foot ahead of the other. You arenโt just tired: you’re worn. Butter scraped over too much bread would not come close to describing you right now. You have lost all aspirations or illusions over having a โdream job.โ Your position brings in a paycheck, and thatโs about all you can say. You can look back and see where you took a different path that led here; if only you muse, a rewind was possible. You stumble over the officeโs barebones coffee bar to refill your cup.
It is this kind of modern life that benefits from taking a pause. Manual jobs, such as farmers, connect to Godโs creation in a way that others do not: who could not rejoice in the Lord when they are lying in the barn, holding a new calf as it takes its first steps? For those of us in white-collar land, however, we get worn down by the grind. What we need is more than just coffee. We need a kind Word, a Message to come to us and remind us that we are not drudging through life on our own.
This Psalm guides our eyes up (v. 1) to where our true help comes. We do not receive our primary aid from productivity apps but from the Lord (v. 2), the One who will keep us steady (v. 3) without ever taking a coffee break (v. 4). He will protect us (v. 5-6) and preserve us (v. 7-8). What more can we ask than to have the God of the universe on our side? What greater comfort can there be than to have the Lord on our side?
Psalm 124, Nisi quia Dominus
1 If the Lแดสแด himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say: *
if the Lแดสแด himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us,
2 Then would they have swallowed us up alive, *
when they were so wrathfully displeased with us;
3 Then the waters would have drowned us, and the torrent gone over us; *
then the raging waters would have gone clean over us.
4 But praised be the Lแดสแด , *
who has not given us over to be prey for their teeth.
5 We escaped like a bird out of the snare of the fowler; *
the snare is broken, and we have been delivered.
6 Our help is in the Name of the Lแดสแด , *
the maker of heaven and earth.
โWhat ifsโ are among the scariest things humans can personally face. They become more pronounced as time goes on. What if we had done better in high school English or chosen a different major in college? What if we had proposed before they broke up with us? There’s no end to the litany of “What ifs.” The mental anguish of these games is no laughing matter, and the Psalmist deals with something similar error. What if, he asks, God does not help us? What if he leaves us alone with men rising up against us (vv. 1-3)?
Our greatest asset against โwhat ifโs are the hard truths of reality. In the case of the Psalmist, we must set our minds on firm things, which is the reality of Godโs deliverance. God did not abandon his people: he did not let them be destroyed and devoured (v. 4). He was there, freeing us from the pains of sin like a bird freed from a hunterโs trap (v. 5). We might have even tried gnawing off our own leg had not our Rescuer found us in time. But he did. He came, and he always will. He is our covenant God, the one who aids us with the same power he used to create us (v. 6).
The converted soul finds no greater rest than this. Yes, it takes the eyes of faith to see Godโs hand in our lives, and sometimes, we see only the dark storm clouds of Job. In all of this, however, our anchor holds: Christ, our elder brother and forerunner, has gone before us, guaranteeing that we will receive all the aid we need (Rom. 8:32). Our promise of help does not depend on our faith, our virtue, our performance, our Daily Office keeping, or anything else that we โdo.โ It depends solely on the risen Christ.
Psalm 126, In convertendo
1 When the Lแดสแด overturned the captivity of Zion, *
then were we like those who dream.
2 Then was our mouth filled with laughter *
and our tongue with shouts of joy.
3 Then they said among the nations, *
โThe Lแดสแด has done great things for them.โ
4 Indeed, the Lแดสแด has done great things for us already, *
whereof we rejoice.
5 Overturn our captivity, O Lแดสแด , *
as when streams refresh the deserts of the south.
6 Those who sow in tears *
shall reap with songs of joy.
7 He who goes on his way weeping and bears good seed *
shall doubtless come again with joy, and bring his sheaves with him.
Maybe you want to live a peaceful life, but your finances constantly keep you up. You seek a happy marriage, but divorce keeps looming its evil head. You want your kids to follow you, but they seek โtheir own path.โ These tensions, and a dozen more, face us every day. They rob us of what little joy we have under the sun. We feel the weight of a life of sin; we understand why Adam was barred from the tree of life. Who would want to have an eternity like this?
The Lord sees our misery, our helpless hopelessness, and he charges straight into it. He overturns our enemies in a glorious route (v.1). He fights for us, and whatโs more, he fights and gives us joy (v. 2). He puts his victory for us on display for all the world to see; we see it with our defeated foes, and we sing out for joy (vv. 3-4). And yet, despite all of this, we still see enemies around us. We still cry out for deliverance; we still have tears that fall; we still must go out daily and cast our seed on the ground, crying all the while (vv. 5-7).
How do we put the two halves of this psalm together? We come to the glorious reality of the โNowโ and the โNot Yet.โ Paul, the master theologian, speaks of this by telling us, โYou have been saved, you are saved, and you will be saved.โ We as believers have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the presence of sin, and we will one day be saved by the promise of no more sin. Our sin has been defeated on the cross. Any evil passion, any unchaste desire, any bitter feeling: all that and more was defeated by Christ. Do we still feel the effects now? Certainly, but what we feel are the screams of a defeated enemy who is refusing to accept the terms of surrender. One day, the battle will cease. The victory will be realized. Until then, Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
Photo by Chris from Pexels, courtesy of Canva.
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