Prepositionally Speaking....

This past week in school, I assigned Psalm 105:4 for memory work. As we were writing out the verse, the little preposition “to” caught my eye and made me think. The verse tells believers to “ Look to the Lord…”. See that little word “to”? We hardly ever use that preposition when we speak about looking. We use the preposition “at” as “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

It led me to spin a question around in my thoughts this week. What difference does it make if I "look at" God or if I "look to" God? My thoughts are in the infant stage, but I do think there is a world of difference between those two little words.

"Looking at" seems rather distant, almost cold. "Looking to", however, seems to denote a trust. I can "look at" a myriad of things and people, but I am much more selective when it comes to those whom I "look to". Those whom I "look to" are people that I have an established relationship with, people that I can count on, people that I know love me and would not do me harm.

Read these verses:

· 1 Chronicles 16:11
Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.

· Psalm 34:5
Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.

· Psalm 123:2
As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the LORD our God, till he shows us his mercy.

Now, go back and substitute to with at. Does the meaning of the verse change?

What are your thoughts on this?

For me, I know there are times when I look at God. I know He doesn’t like that very much. In fact, it must grieve His heart. It signals that I’m off doing my own thing. But when I look to God, I’m in a special place. A place where all my focus is on Him. A place where He is my only hope. And that’s the place, I believe, where He wants me to be always be….looking to Him for all that I need.