Where do you look for relief? Look to God. There is relief and mercy to be found. Not always escape from our situations, as Jesus’ example teaches. He had to endure the cross, yet he was strengthened by the presence of his Father and his angels. How about you?
1 I lift up my eyes to you,
to you who sit enthroned in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us,
for we have endured no end of contempt.
4 We have endured no end
of ridicule from the arrogant,
of contempt from the proud.
Psalm 123
Where do we find relief? There is a picture here of the slave looking to the master for relief and mercy, which doesn’t align with our view of slavery. We would think that the slave master would not show the slave mercy – we only think of mean slavers. These, however, appear to be more like servants in the household. They have relationships of trust with their masters.
We are pictured as servant-slaves (doulos in the Greek) in the New Testament. We no longer have to be slaves to sin, Paul teaches us in Romans 6, because we can be slaves to righteousness under the freedom Jesus bought for us.
Jesus also took on the very form of a doulos for us (Philippians 2) when he came to earth in the incarnation.
He became a slave, even to death, so that we could be free.
He looked to the Father for mercy and sustenance while on earth. He was comforted by angels in his dark hour in the Garden of Gethsemane. There is relief and mercy to be found. Not always escape from our situations, as Jesus’ example teaches. He had to endure the cross.
His relief and mercy came through the presence and strengthening of his Father. We also have this strengthening in the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit we can find the fulfillment which Paul writes of in Philippians 4:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Where do you look for relief?
Look to God.
Amen.
Marc Kinna
marckinna 