“LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.” (Psalm 131:1)
When we “lift up our eyes” we see something. Now there are times when the seeing of something is not a problem. God Himself can tell us to lift up our eyes. “Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things …” (Isa. 40:26) We can lift up our eyes and see something God wants us to see. “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.” (Genesis 22:13) There are things that we need to investigate and look into. (Deut. 13:14) Curiosity is not, in and of itself, evil. Knowledge per se is not evil. What is evil is our unwillingness to honor God when it comes to what we choose to think upon. Our meditation can be acceptable or unacceptable in His sight. (Ps. 19:14) There is a lifting up of the eyes, independent of Him, which God hates (Prov. 6:17).
Jesus gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. (Titus 2:14) He redeemed our bodies from our own control. (1 Cor. 6:19) He redeemed our eyes from being “lifted up” in an ungodly manner. Now our eyes are not our own to look upon what we choose, to think upon what we please, to measure things according to our own standard of judgment. We are called to let Him be the judge of all things. He must be given the honor due His Name. He is Lawgiver and Judge. He is the Only Wise God. He knows what is right and what is wrong. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. We must not exercise ourselves in things too high for us. (Ps. 131:1) Our minds, (i.e., our capacity to think,) must be yielded to Him (Rom. 6:13).
There are places we should not go with our feet and there are places we should not go in our minds. We honor God when we sit at His feet and refuse to be “careful and troubled about many things.” (Luke 10:41) We honor Him when we refuse to pry into that which is “secret” and not belonging to us (i.e., not ours to know.) (Deut. 29:29) He would sharpen our focus on an acceptable meditation in His sight. He would let us know what is permissible for us to be pre-occupied with. He is not opposed to our interest in a wide variety of things, but He would keep us from ungodly obsessions and wild thoughts. He would give us a single eye and a pure heart that sees Him and abides in His peace.
Do you want the God of peace to be with you? Then “lift up your eyes” to behold only those things He deems right for you to think upon. (Philippians 4:8,9)