Psalm 123 A Song of Ascents.

¹Unto You I lift up my eyes,

O You who dwell in the heavens.

²Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,

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 on us.

³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!

For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled

With the scorn of those who are at ease,

With the contempt of the proud.

Commentary

Vs. 1-2 ¹Unto You I lift up my eyes,

O You who dwell in the heavens.

²Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their masters,

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 on us.

God’s peoples cry for deliverance is strongly heard in this Psalm. Whether this is the nation of Israel, who has known the horrors of Satan, this worlds ruler’s wrath throughout their history, or us who are now being persecuted or mistreated for our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by the same, our eyes look not to the world for our deliverance and help, but we lift our eyes to the Lord our God, looking and longing and watching for Him, until He has mercy upon us.

Vs. 3-4 ³Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us!

For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

⁴Our soul is exceedingly filled

With the scorn of those who are at ease,

With the contempt of the proud.

Contempt, scorn, and ridicule often then is the daily diet of everyone who holds fast to the Lord our God and strives to keep His Word. Whether this is the nation of Israel who has gotten their fill of this throughout their history, and often from the most heinous Gentile peoples and nations, whose gods they went and served in ancient times, right up to modern times with their bearing the wrath and terror of the German Reich, or the same from Russia's Stalin. Even today Israel always finds itself defending themselves from their Arab neighbors who from will not live peaceably with them. Early Christians likewise had the same demonic wrath unleashed on them as the first generations of Christians bore great wrath, contempt, and scorn from the Romans and their Caesar's, right until the Christian faith became inculcated into Rome's beliefs which then brought over a 1000 years of darkness for the Christian faith until the Reformation. Even today, Jews, and now believers everywhere, God’s people who come to Him through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, are treated with the scorn of the those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud. These two verses then are our prayer, our hearts cry, our pleadings to Him until He comes and has mercy upon us.

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.