8/11 Psalm 123:2

² Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maidservant to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he has mercy upon us.

Servants of ancient times would wait quietly watching the hand of their master for instruction. A slight signal of His hand was all that was needed to send them scurrying into action. There were different signals for different duties. Woe to the servant who missed the signal. And so, the eyes of the servants were fixed upon their master's hand.

The psalmist tells us that in the same way, his eyes are fixed upon the One enthroned in the heavens, the ultimate Master of all things. The nation of Israel had suffered the contempt of other nations and the scorn of the prideful, but they were determined not to act without the Master's instruction. To run off on their own and do what they thought best would only make matters worse. They needed God's merciful direction.

That was a lesson they had learned from mistakes of the past and the resultant captivity of the nation. In the same way, we come to a place in our spiritual walk when we learn that acting without God's instruction is a waste of effort at best, and more than likely compounds our problems. We need the merciful direction of the Holy Spirit. We need to see God's invitation to join Him in what He is doing and not play god on our own. We need to fix our eyes on the hand of the LORD and jump into action when we have His direction.

Prayer: LORD, teach us to wait for Your instruction. Help us to remember that without You, we can do nothing of lasting value.