Psalm 123

PSALM 123[1]

Praying with open eyes

1 To You I lift up my eyes,		O You who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,		As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
So our eyes look to Yahweh our God,		Until He is gracious to us. [2]
3 Be gracious to us, O Yahweh,	be gracious to us,		For we are greatly filled with contempt.
4 Our soul is greatly filled With the scoffing of those who are at ease,		And with the contempt of the proud. [3]

[1] Psalms 120-134 all have the heading “A Song of Ascents (ma`alah).”

Israel’s life was one of pilgrimage/ascent whether it was from Egypt (cf. Deut.26:5-9); going up/ascending to (ma`alah/`alah) Jerusalem to appear before the Most High (’elyown); or return from exile,

Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord Yahweh, the God of Israel. For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up (`alah) three times a year to appear before the Yahweh your God. (Exodus 34:23-24; see also Ezra 7:9)

For on the first of the first month he began to go up from (ma`alah) Babylon; and on the first of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, because the good hand of his God was upon him. (Ezra 7:9)

These Psalms would have also brought to mind the going up of the nations to/against Jerusalem (Psalm 47:2,5,9; 87; 124:2-5; Isaiah 7:1,5-6; 14:11-23; 36:1,10).

This collection of Psalms commemorating Israel’s past journeys serves for current use of pilgrims commencing or concluding their travels.

Other groupings of Psalms include the:

¨ Kingship Psalms: Psalms 93-100

¨ Egyptian Hallel: Psalms 113-118

¨ Hallelujah Psalms: Psalms 146-150

[2] The plea ḥonnēnı̂, “be gracious to me,” appears nineteen times in the Psalms. (TWOT 302). It is probably rooted in God’s statement to Moses, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” (Exodus 33:19) and the Aaronic benediction, “Yahweh make His face shine on you, And be gracious to you” (Numbers 6:25).

[3] One of the chief characteristics of Hebrew poetry is repetition of words/phrases and one of the prominent forms of repetition in the Psalms is parallelism. Psalm 123 is one of several Psalms of ascent that contains staircase parallelism. Below I have tried to represent this ascent which is linked by the words eyes, hand, gracious, greatly filled and contempt:

						Our soul is greatly filled With the scoffing of those who are at ease, And with the contempt of the proud. (v.4)
					be gracious to us, For we are greatly filled with contempt. (v.3bc)
				Be gracious to us, O Yahweh, (v.3a)
			So our eyes look to Yahweh our God, Until He is gracious to us. (v.2cd)
		As the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, (v.2b)
	Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, (v.2a)
To You I lift up my eyes, O You who are enthroned in the heavens! (v.1)

At the bottom of the staircase are God’s humble servants looking and lifting up to God for deliverance from the proud. The proud (ga’ayown) are at the very top of the staircase and the primary meaning for this Hebrew root is “to rise.” It is a dangerous and ultimately damnable thing for the proud to cruelly and contemptuously lord over the servants of the Most High.