The songs of ascent (Psalms 120-134) were sung by the Israelites while on pilgrimage to the Three Great Feasts (unleavened bread, weeks, tabernacles). Read Deuteronomy 16:16-17. The songs also were sung by the exiles returning to Jerusalem after Babylonian captivity. Together the pilgrims worshipped, remembered, and conversed with the Lord and one another along the way.  As we pray with the Psalms they can be a help for us as we give expression and voice, and live in honest relationship with God and each other.

I lift my eyes to You, the ONE enthroned in heaven. LIke a servant's eyes on His master's hand, like a servant girl's eyes on her mistress's hand, so our eyes are on the LORD our God until He shows us favor.

Show us favor, LORD, show us favor, for we've had more than enough contempt. We've had more than enough scorn from the arrogant and contempt from the proud.

• Read the text aloud. What do you hear; what stands out to you?
• Can you identify the "what or who you are looking at"?
• What might it be like to sing this song in community and talk and pray about these things along the journey?
• Perhaps you would like to journal about a time of exile.
• Journal your prayer that flows out of your meditation and contemplation of this passage.