I Will Look To You

When you need to remember — that You're still my Shepherd.

You can be in a season where contempt has been steady — small dismissals. The look someone gives, the comment that lands sideways, the slow erosion of feeling respected. You manage. But underneath it, your soul is filled in a way you have not stopped to name. You do not need a confidence boost. You need to lift your eyes to the One whose mercy is what actually changes the room — and to keep them there until His hand moves.

This short pilgrim prayer opens with one direct upward look: "Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens." Upward, to the One whose address is heaven. Then the imagery is almost intimate in its dependence: "Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us." The picture is of a servant standing nearby, watching the master's hand for the next signal — fed, dismissed, sent. Total attentiveness. Total dependence. Then the cry that has been building: "Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly filled with contempt. Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud." Two "exceedingly"s in two verses. He is not exaggerating. The soul has actually been filled with what others have poured into it. The remedy is mercy — His. And the way to receive it is the lifted, waiting gaze of a servant watching his Master's hand.

• Right now, lift your eyes upward — physically — and say out loud: "Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You who dwell in the heavens." • Write this down: "What contempt has been filling my soul that I have not actually lifted up to Him?" • Repeat this line when scorn lands again: "Our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, until He have mercy upon us."

Stop. Breathe. Lift your eyes like a servant watching the Master's hand, then tell Him exactly where you need mercy poured in — out loud if you can.

God, unto You I lift up my eyes — and I do not want to look anywhere else for the mercy I actually need. My soul is exceedingly filled with contempt I did not ask for, and I have been carrying it instead of bringing it to You. Like a servant watching the Master's hand, let me wait until You have mercy upon me. Have mercy, O Lord, have mercy — twice, because once is not enough for what I have absorbed. Empty me of what others have poured in, and fill me with what comes from Your hand. You're still my Shepherd.

The lifted gaze of a servant waiting on the Master's hand is the posture mercy comes through.