Lifting Our Eyes

Psalm 121:1 A Song of Ascents. I will lift up my eyes to the hills -- From whence comes my help?

As we go throught the course of our life's cirucumstances, where do we keep our eyes? Sometimes I consider just this hour, or this day, or even this week or month. Other times I step back and consider my life as a whole. Still other times, I consider the eternal picture. When my vision is set to close-up, I find that my stress and worry level stay pretty high, but when my range is set to far, far away, I am at peace.

The small book of Habakkuk gives a wonderful picture of God adjusting the focal range of one man's vision. Habakkuk begins with the prophet's focus on the close-up, the here-and-now. Conditions were bad in Israel at that time, and the outlook appeared quite grim.

God, however, had very long term plans, which He shared with the prophet Habbakuk. Habbakuk received God's plan and purpose for his nation by faith. The ending of the book contains a beautiful poem which sharply contrasts the pain of the here-and-now with the joy of God's future.

Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls--
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer's feet,
And He will make me walk on my high hills.

--Habukkuk3:17-19

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Oh, that I as a Christian would learn to keep by faith my eyes fixed on the eternal goal of the upward call in Christ Jesus, my eternal future, and my reward in heaven, rather than on the daily struggles of my present circumstances. Father, may I live my life with eternity in view, rather than just today and tomorrow. In Jesus, Amen.