Psalm 123

Psalm 123 is the fourth of the fifteen Songs of Ascents, which run from Psalm 120 through Psalm 134 in the book of Psalms. It follows Psalm 122, which celebrates the joy and peace of going up to Jerusalem; in Psalm 123 the mood shifts to a lament that waits for God's help amid the contempt of others. The superscription does not name an author.

Structure

• Verse 1: The psalmist lifts his eyes to the Lord who dwells in the heavens. Up to this point the prayer is spoken in the first person singular ("I").
• Verse 2: As servants look to the hand of their masters and a maiden to the hand of her mistress, so "our" eyes look to the LORD our God, waiting for His mercy.
• Verses 3–4: Asking repeatedly for mercy, the psalmist laments that the community is overwhelmed by the scorn of those at ease and the contempt of the proud.

Key Verses

• Psalm 123:2 "As the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters …" The image of servant and master portrays a posture of trusting and waiting upon God.
• Psalm 123:3 "Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us." The repetition of the same petition conveys a sense of urgency.

People and Places

No named people or places appear in this psalm.

• The LORD: The one to whom the psalmist looks, addressed as the One who dwells in the heavens.
• Servants and masters, a maiden and her mistress: Not actual individuals but figures illustrating a posture of dependence on God.
• Those at ease and the proud: People who mock and despise the psalmist's community; they are not identified.

Points for Reflection

• The superscription "Song of Ascents" (KJV: "A Song of degrees") is commonly understood to refer to songs sung by pilgrims going up to Jerusalem for the festivals. Other interpretations include a Jewish tradition associating these psalms with the steps of the temple and a view linking them to the journey home from the Babylonian exile.
• Some commentators connect the contempt described in this psalm with the ridicule the returned exiles faced while rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem (Nehemiah 4), though the text itself does not indicate its historical setting.
• The Hebrew word rendered "have mercy" in verse 3 can also be translated "be gracious," so English versions vary in their wording.
• Because the psalm begins in the first person singular ("I") and moves to the plural ("we"), it is read as a prayer in which one person's petition broadens into the prayer of the community.
• With respect to the New Testament, the address to God who dwells "in the heavens" has been compared with the Lord's Prayer ("Our Father which art in heaven," Matthew 6:9), and the cry for mercy is sometimes read alongside the Gospel account of the blind men who cried out to Jesus, "Have mercy on us" (Matthew 20:30–31).