The Grace of Looking Up
A Reflection on the Psalms of Ascent - Psalm 123
Look Up
To thee I lift up my eyes, O thou who art enthroned in the heavens! Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he have mercy upon us.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than enough of contempt. Too long our soul has been sated with the scorn of those who are at ease, the contempt of the proud. Psalm 123 (RSV)
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus were walking away, away from Jerusalem, away from hope. They truly believed God had failed to accomplish what He promised. Downcast, their eyes were fixed on disappointment. “But we had hoped…” Hope was in the past tense.
This is us. We live like this sometimes. In fact, more often than we’d like to admit.
Today’s Psalm of Ascent (123) teaches a great movement of the heart: look up.
We have a tendency, if we are not vigilant, to look in the wrong direction for meaning, help, and purpose. We look horizontally. We seek approval, security, toward the promise of being understood. This often turns inward as we hang on to our interpretations and our own wounded narratives.
The psalmist says to lift your eyes. Not towards the current circumstance but to the one enthroned in heaven.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that: Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God or the requesting of good things from God.” But when we pray, do we speak from the height of our pride and will, or “out of the depths” of a humble and contrite heart? He who humbles himself will be exalted; humility is the foundation of prayer, Only when we humbly acknowledge that “we do not know how to pray as we ought,” are we ready to receive freely the gift of prayer. “Man is a beggar before God.” (CCC 2559)
Psalm 123 is precisely that movement. A raising.
The eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, not in fear, but in expectation. They wait for mercy. They trust provision. They depend.
All of us are dependent in some way whether it’s a spouse, a friend, a colleague, or even our community. But beneath every human dependence lies a deeper one: we are creatures. We live from another.
When we forget this, we become restless. When others treat us with contempt or indifference, something hardens in us. The psalm speaks honestly: “We have had more than enough of contempt.” The soul can become “sated” with scorn. Pride wounds. Hostility exhausts. The world often resists those who seek to live by God’s promises rather than its own.
And so we lower our gaze and stop expecting mercy.
Perhaps we can look to the Emmaus disciples as a model to follow. Even while they walked away, they remained in conversation. When Christ opened the Scriptures to them and broke the bread, the scales fell off. They recognized Him.
They rose and returned to Jerusalem. When the direction of their bodies changed, the direction of their gazed changed.
Psalm 123 asks us: Where are my eyes fixed today? Am I staring at what has disappointed me? At the contempt of others. My own interpretation of events? Or am I lifting my eyes?
To look up is not denial. It is trust. It is the quiet decision to say: My help does not come from below. It comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth (cf. Ps 121:2).
Today, look up. Grace will meet you—our Risen Lord is walking right beside you. Thanks be to God.
© 2026, Lawain McNeil, Mission Surrender, LLC.