Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How Do You Approach God?| The Writings | Psalm 123

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

How do you approach God? Who are you serving? What is true freedom? In today's episode, Keith shares how Psalm 123 encourages us to see God as our gracious Master. Prepare your heart this Advent with the 2024 TMBT Advent Calendar! Each day, receive a new prompt for Scripture, prayer, and reflection—designed to help you slow down and reflect on the Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that Jesus offers. Sign up now to receive your free Advent calendar! Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Psalm 123

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. How do you approach God? For a lot of us, if we're honest, we approach God more like he's our servant than our king. We come to him with our lists of demands, our hopes for how he can make our lives more comfortable, and our request for him to fix whatever problems we're facing. In other words, our dear gods have turned into, hey Alexis.

Dear God, I want this. Dear God, do this. Dear God, give me this. It's almost as if we've reversed the roles. We expect God to serve us when we're the ones who should be serving him. Have you ever heard of pet theology? It's been said that dogs have masters and cats have staff. Dogs are eager to please their masters. Cats tend to think you are there to take care of them. A dog says, you pet me, feed me, shelter me, and love me, you must be God. But a cat says, you pet me, feed me, shelter me, and love me, I must be God. In a similar way, many Christians look at all that God has done for them, and while they say he is master, we treat him like the staff. They think life is all about them, and they use God to make them happy. But Psalm 123 gives us a very different picture of how we should

approach God. It begins with an image of humble submission. Here's verses one and two. I lift up my eyes to you, to you who sit enthroned in heaven, 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 mercy. This psalm paints a picture of dependence. Eyes are lifted. The person is waiting for mercy. They're waiting for a word, a gesture, a sign from the one who sits enthroned in heaven. It's about looking to God, recognizing his authority and knowing he's the one we serve. But most of us don't like the idea of serving someone. But it's the reality that we all face. Whether we know it or not, everyone serves somebody. And that's not just an idea you find in the

Bible. It's something people throughout history have recognized. Bob Dylan famously saying, you're going to have to serve somebody. And that's for sure the truth. Everyone worships something. Everyone is loyal to someone. The question isn't if we serve. The question is who or what are we serving. Psalm 123 tells us who we should serve. In verses 1 and 2, the Psalm gives us this image of looking to God like slaves look to the hand of their master. Now, it's an uncomfortable image for most of us because we tend to think of free. freedom as the opposite of servitude. We live in a culture that tells us that freedom is being able to do whatever we want, whenever we want. But the Bible paints a different picture of freedom. The truth is we all serve something. Some of us serve our careers, spending all

our energy trying to climb the corporate ladder. Some of us serve the opinion of others, constantly seeking approval and affirmation. Some of us serve money, comfort, success. And the irony is that in serving those things, we become enslaved to them. David Foster Wallace, the famous novelist, once said in a commencement speech, in the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. Wallace, who wasn't a Christian, went on to say that if you worship money, you'll never have enough.

If you worship beauty, you'll always feel ugly. If you worship power, you'll always feel weak. The things we serve, if they're not God, will eventually consume us. That's what Psalm 123 is getting at. The psalmist knows that serving God is the only path that leads to life. Everything else we serve will leave us empty. So the psalmist lifts his eyes to God, waiting for his mercy, because he knows that God alone is worthy of service and worship.

So who or what are you serving right now? Are you giving your heart to something that will ultimately leave you empty? see, what would it look like for you to lift your eyes to God, to trust him alone to give you purpose and meaning? Our culture tends to think of freedom as having no rules, no boundaries, no obligations, but that kind of freedom often leaves us feeling lost and directionless. The Bible offers a radically different view of freedom. True freedom is found in serving Christ. When we look to God and serve Him, we're free to live out the purpose for which we were created. We're free to be who God made us to be. Paul writes in Galatians 5-1,

It is for freedom that Christ is set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Paul is telling us that freedom in Christ is not about doing whatever we want. It's about being free from the things that enslave us. When we serve Christ, we are free to live with purpose, free to live with joy, free to live with an identity that can't be shaken or stolen. It's not freedom from serving someone, it's freedom in serving the right person. Jesus.

When you serve Christ, you're not a slave to the shifting opinions of others. You're not trapped by the endless pursuit of wealth, success, or status. You're free to live with a purpose that goes beyond yourself. You're free to live in the security of knowing that you belong to God, and nothing can take that away. So let me ask you, what does freedom look like in your life? Are you chasing after the world's version of freedom, doing whatever you want, but still feeling empty? Or are you living in the true freedom that comes from serving Christ, knowing that in

him you have a purpose and an unshakable identity? Psalm 123 not only points us to serving God, but it also reveals something deeper about our relationship with Him. Because when we look to God, as the psalmist says, we're not just looking to a master, we're looking to a father. And that changes everything. See, in the Roman world, the idea of being a servant was often tied to status, but the gospel flips this idea upside down. Yes, we're called to serve Christ, but serving Christ brings us into a relationship with God that is far more intimate than a servant-master relationship. Through Jesus, we become sons and daughters of God. Paul writes in Romans 8, the spirit, and by that he means the Holy Spirit, you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again.

Rather, the spirit you received brought about your adoption for sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. See, when we serve Christ, we're brought into God's family. We're no longer slaves in the way the world sees slavery. Instead, we're sons and daughters of the king. Our identity is secure in him. But when we serve Christ, we find more than just purpose and identity. We also find rest.

This might seem counterintuitive. After all, serving sounds like work. It sounds like something we give rather than something we receive. But Jesus turns that notion upside down. Matthew 11, he invites us, come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light Jesus is saying that serving him doesn't weigh us down instead it frees us to experience true peace unlike the world's masters who demand more of us and leave us drained Jesus gives rest to those who come to him

when we place ourselves in his care, lifting our eyes as the psalmist does, we don't find a taskmaster demanding perfection. We find a savior offering grace. Serving God isn't about striving harder. It's about finding peace in his presence, letting go the pressures and anxieties that burden us. Think about that. When we serve other things they take from us,

and we end up feeling anxious, exhausted, empty, But when we serve Christ, he fills us. He lightens our burdens. He brings us peace. He reminds us that we're not alone. Serving God doesn't drain us. It sustains us. So here's the question. Are you willing to lift your eyes as the psalmist did and trust God with your life? Are you ready to stop serving the things that exhaust you and start living in the freedom and rest that only he can offer? Psalm 123 invites us to approach God with a heart of submission in trust. It reminds us that we all serve someone and that serving Christ is the only path to true freedom, to true rest, and true identity. And serving Christ we find not only a master who is faithful, but a father who loves us deeply and calls us his children. Today, lift up your eyes to him,

release the burdens that other masters have placed on your shoulders and accept the rest, the purpose, and the security that only God can provide. serve him faithfully, knowing that in Christ you are fully known, fully loved, and eternally secure. Amen.