Unto thee lift I up mine eyes
Not only the eyes of his body, this being a prayer gesture; see (
Matthew
14:19 ) ( John 11:41 ) ( 17:1 ) ; but the eyes of
his mind and understanding, opened by the Spirit of God;
particularly the eye of faith, by which he looked for and
expected help and salvation from the Lord. The phrase is
expressive of holy confidence in God, and a comfortable hope of
receiving good things from him; as, on the contrary, when persons
are ashamed and confounded with a sense of their sins, and the
aggravations of them, and of their own unworthiness and vileness;
and, on account of the same, almost out of all hope, cannot lift
up their eyes to heaven, or their face before God, ( Ezra 9:6 ) ( Psalms 40:12
) ( Luke
18:13 ) ;
O thou that dwellest in the heavens;
the heaven of heavens, the third heaven, the seat of angels and
glorified saints; and though the Lord is everywhere, and fills
heaven and earth with his presence, and cannot be contained any
where; yet here is the more visible display of his glory; here he
keeps his court; this is his palace, and here his throne is
prepared, and on it he sits F4; so some render the word
here; as the Judge of the whole earth, and takes a view of all
men and their actions; and, as the God of nature and providence,
governs and orders all things after his own will; and, as the God
of grace, sits on a throne of grace, kindly inviting and
encouraging his people to come unto him: and therefore the
psalmist addresses him as such; see ( Ecclesiastes
5:2 ) ( Matthew 6:9 ) . The
Targum is,
``O thou that sittest on a throne of glory in heaven!''