A song of ascents
123:Title See Ps 120.⚜
123
📚To you I lift up my eyes, O you who dwell in the heavens.
123:1 There are ascending steps of thought in these first four songs of ascent. In 120 he saw the sad conditions around him. In 121 he lifted his eyes to the hills around Jerusalem. In 122 he stood in the city looking about, admiring and praising. Now he lifts his eyes higher still. God was with His people in Jerusalem, but His throne is in heaven where He rules over the earth and the whole universe. Let us keep our eyes there and we will ascend in our spiritual life (Ps 25:15; Col 3:1-2; Heb 12:2).⚜
2 📚See, as the eyes of servants
look to the
hand of their masters,
and as the eyes of a maid
look to the hand
of her mistress,
so our eyes look
to the LORD our God,
until he has mercy on us.
123:2 He is a willing slave of the God of heaven, as we too should be. He leaves the rule of the world and his own circumstances to God. In beautiful and meaningful language he expresses the utter dependence of God’s people on God alone for mercy and a change in conditions. We are to look to God humbly, obediently, continually, attentively, believingly.⚜
3 📚Have mercy on us, O LORD,
have mercy on us,
for we have faced very great
contempt.
4 📚Our soul endures the very great
scorn of those who are at ease,
and the contempt
of the proud.
123:3-4 It seems that proud and arrogant men were as numerous as the lying and deceitful of whom he spoke in 120 (Ps 10:2-5; 12:3-4; 86:14; 140:5). Both sorts of people are an abomination to God (Prov 6:16-19).âšœ