Psalm 123

by Doug Floyd

“They’re coming to kill you. They’re coming to kill you.”

The words of Shemaiah struck Nehemiah like a slap in the face.

“Hide in the Temple because they’re coming to kill you tonight.”

The prophet spoke with urgency and impassioned authority.

But Nehemiah wondered. “Whose authority?” He suspected these words. Did they
really come from the mouth of YHWH? These words of fear and flight sounded more
like the blathering mouths of Sanballat and Tobiah.

Day after day after day these God-mockers sought to distract and detour Nehemiah’s
commission to restore and rebuild the walls of the holy city. And day after day
this fierce-some leader faced down their threats and attacks. Operating under holy
orders from King YHWH, Nehemiah had left the court of King Ataxerxes and moved to
Palestine to serve as Governor of Judah.

He could still remember that first night in the land. Before Nehemiah had even
announced his arrival, he rode around the city of Jerusalem to inspect condition
of her walls. He saw a city in disrepair. He saw walls broken. He saw gates
smashed.

In the midst of this crumbling city, he saw something else. He saw the hope of
restoration. He saw a city rebuilt, a land restored, a people renewed.

He spoke, directed, and established a plan for the people to work together,
rebuilding the city. Yet even as he responded to YHWH’s call, he heard the daily
calls from to stop, cease, give up, walk away. The Sanballat and Tobiah schemed
and deceived, wrote letters, sent raider’s, mocked and terrified the people.

LIke a thorn in his flesh, these men poked and prodded and frustrated Nehemiah at
every turn. Yet he persisted. He kept building. He kept leading. He kept standing.

He kept guiding the people even when the people seemed to turn in against one
another. The enemies outside the gates were mirrored by enemies within the gates
who oppressed the poor and refused to unite.

Again and again, Nehemiah called upon the disruptive Word of the Lord to address,
confront and overturn the voices of distraction and destruction. This governor.
This ruler. This father to the people of the land cried out to his Governor, his
Ruler, his Father.

To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
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. (Psalm 123:1-2)

In the midst of his strength, he realized his absolute weakness and desperate need
for the true King to rule and lead and establish the work of His hands.
3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud. (Psalm 123:3-4)

He threw his life and the life of his people upon the mercy and grace of the Lord
Supreme. For only in the presence of God’s disruptive grace could Nehemiah rest
and find refuge from the words and threats of mockers and cynics.