Psalms 123

I look up to you, the one who lives in heaven.

1Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.

Note"Lift up my eyes" is the gesture of someone appealing to a superior, eyes raised toward the person who can help. The Hebrew phrase behind "the one who lives in heaven" means, more exactly, "you who sit enthroned in the heavens": God is pictured seated as a king, not simply residing there.

2Look: servants keep their eyes on their master's hand, and a servant girl keeps her eyes on her mistress's hand. In the same way, we keep our eyes on the LORD our God, until he shows us mercy.

2Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us.

NoteA household servant watched the master's hand rather than his face: orders were given by gesture, and wages, food and permission also came from that hand. So the image is of someone waiting, alert and dependent, for a signal that may or may not come yet. LORD in small capitals marks the personal name of Israel's God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which Jewish tradition avoided pronouncing; "God" in the same verse translates a different, ordinary word.

3Show us mercy, LORD, show us mercy. We have had far more than enough contempt.

3Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "we are full of" or "we have had our fill of" contempt, an eating image, as of someone force-fed until sick of it. "Contempt" here means being looked down on and treated as worthless, not merely being disliked.

4We have taken far more than enough mocking from people who are comfortable, and far more than enough contempt from proud people.

4Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorning of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud.

Note"Those that are at ease" in the King James does not mean relaxed or easy-going. The Hebrew word describes people who are secure and untroubled, and so complacent and smug about others' suffering. The last few words of this verse are uncertain in Hebrew: depending on how the letters are divided, the phrase reads either "the contempt of the proud" or something like "the contempt of proud oppressors." Translations differ, and the older Hebrew manuscripts preserve both readings side by side.