St. James Prayer Break Gathering 05 26 2026

May 26, 2026
The focus of St. James Presbyterian Church’s weekly 30-minute Prayer Break Gathering is based on one of the scriptures of our PCUSA Daily Lectionary,          Psalm 123.  Today we will be focusing our thoughts on a point in verses 1a, 3.  Today as you read the scripture, may your discernment in the Spirit bring ease.

Psalm 123
1   To you I lift up my eyes,
          O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2   As the eyes of servants
          look to the hand of their master,
    as the eyes of a maid
          to the hand of her mistress,
    so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
          until he has mercy upon us.
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 its fill
          of the scorn of those who are at ease,
          of the contempt of the proud.
Meditation: The Lifting of the Eyes
“1a To you I lift up my eyes…” 3b “…for we have had more than enough of contempt.”
There are seasons in life when exhaustion does not come from labor alone. It comes from atmosphere. From what surrounds us day after day. From the emotional climate we have been breathing for so long that we no longer notice how heavy the air has become. And I think that is what the psalmist is naming here. “We have had more than enough of contempt.” Not disagreement. Not sorrow. Contempt. The feeling of being diminished. Dismissed. Reduced. The feeling of living among voices that no longer know how to handle one another gently.
Contempt has become one of the defining spiritual languages of our time. We see it in politics. We see it online. We see it in workplaces. We see it in families. We see it in the way people speak to one another when they are tired, frightened, overwhelmed, or disappointed. And eventually the soul begins adapting itself to survive inside that environment. After a while, people stop expecting tenderness. We begin bracing ourselves before conversations even happen. We anticipate misunderstanding before words are spoken. We carry tension in the body without realizing it. Some people have become so accustomed to harshness that gentleness now feels unfamiliar to them.
And the danger is not only what contempt does around us. The deeper danger is what contempt slowly forms within us. Because contempt is contagious. If we live too long surrounded by ridicule, outrage, humiliation, and hardness, eventually those things begin shaping the spirit itself. Compassion becomes thinner. Patience becomes more difficult to access. Cynicism starts disguising itself as wisdom. And slowly, almost without noticing, we begin relating to ourselves and others through disappointment rather than mercy.
That is why I find the movement of this psalm so profound. The psalmist does not answer contempt with greater contempt. The psalmist lifts their eyes. “To you I lift up my eyes…” This is not escapism. This is spiritual survival. Because whatever we continuously behold eventually begins shaping us. If our eyes remain fixed only on anxiety, reaction, competition, and contempt, the interior life eventually mirrors those things. The soul becomes crowded with noise. The heart loses its softness. The spirit forgets how to rest.
And this is why prayer matters so deeply right now. Not because prayer removes us from the world, yet because prayer helps us remain human within it. Prayer interrupts formation. Prayer creates a small interior clearing where the soul can breathe again. A place where we remember we are more than the pressure surrounding us. More than the outrage cycle. More than the need to constantly defend ourselves. More than the exhaustion we carry.
The lifting itself matters. Not because the world has suddenly become easy, yet because the soul cannot survive on contempt alone.
And this is the deeper invitation hidden within the psalm. What happens when we look up long enough to notice the sky again? To notice wind moving through trees? To notice light resting on water? To notice another human being not as interruption or threat, yet as someone equally carrying longing, grief, hope, and weariness? What happens when we remember that creation still knows how to praise God even while humanity forgets?
Contempt narrows vision. Wonder widens it.
Contempt trains the eye toward deficiency, suspicion, and grievance. Yet the lifting of the eyes retrains the spirit toward mercy, beauty, tenderness, and life. And maybe this is holy work in a weary world. To remain soft enough to still notice beauty. Soft enough to still listen carefully. Soft enough to still believe people are worthy of dignity. Soft enough to still experience wonder in a world training us toward numbness.
The psalmist lifts their eyes because they are trying to protect something sacred within themselves. And maybe that is what prayer becomes today. Not escape. Not performance. Not certainty. Simply the quiet practice of keeping the heart alive.
As you lift your eyes from contempt, for what do you pray?

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