Psalm CXXIII

A Song of degrees.

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

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hand of their masters, And as the ej’es 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.

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

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

If we have found hope, faith, joy, and love in these ‘’ Songs of The Degrees’” hitherto, we now find long-suffering patience. David is said to have been the writer. The worshipper, whether David, or David’s greater Son, or any member of his body, “lifts his eyes” upward to the Lord in the heavens. The same Lord who, in Psa. cxxi. 1, is seen on Zion-hills, is here seen, “in the heavens,” because the contrast is intended to be made between the Earth that persecutes, and the Majesty, overcanopying earth, which protects.

Scorn is felt, such as Nehemiah’s case illustrates (Neh. ii. 1 9), or Hezekiah’s case, in 2 Chron. xxx. 10, when that godly king incited the tribes of Israel to join him in the passover feast. It is the scorn of those ‘’at ease,” U^^yWT^, persons on

Patient
dependence.

whom the world smiles, and who say in their hearts, “Where is the promise of his Coming?” like the nations of earth, in Zech. i. 1 5, D^3:^^^*^T Din. it is the contempt of “the proud “U^’i’”i^, that class of scorners who shall be found abounding on earth when “the day of the Lord” comes on “every one that is (HNI^) proud,” — the “boasters, lovers of pleasure,” of 2 Tim. iii. 2. The prayer for help has reference to the high priest’s blessing. Num. vi. 24. In Psa. cxxi. 3, 4, he lifted up his eyes to the Lord, and sought that part of the blessing which consists in safe keeping; here, he asks, Iyn, Be gracious! Be gracious! (Num. vi. 24.) The Lord makes his face shine upon the pilgrim; and the grace that beams thence is the antidote to the contempt of men. Yes, even now it is so; but if even now, what then when the lifted-up countenance shall be “the grace that shall be brought us at the appearing of Jesus Christ?” Such is the reward of

The upward look of the Lord’s servant amid contempt.