Psalm 123:1 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) I raise my eyes to you,
whose throne is in heaven.
2 As a servant looks to the hand of his master,
or a slave-girl to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes turn to Adonai our God,
until he has mercy on us.
3 Have mercy on us, Adonai, have mercy;
for we have had our fill of contempt,
4 more than our fill of scorn from the complacent
and contempt from the arrogant. (Complete Jewish Bible).
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Woo-ee!, This is a dangerous little psalm to be included in the Bible! "We have had more than enough of contempt...our soul has had more than its fill." It sounds like such a simple, profound, true statement to embrace--and yet. In my life, when I am praying words with a similar thought, it typically turns out that I am truly the one who is contempt-filled, scornful, at ease. That's the danger of this psalm: the immediate finger-pointing it seems to encourage.
On the other hand, there are certainly those who are truly oppressed, suffering, beaten down. I would invite all of us to take a good, hard look at ourselves, perhaps, as the psalm invites, through the eyes of our mistress and master the LORD our God: where in our lives are we truly those who cry out for mercy? And where are we the ones who scorn as we take our ease?
Oy! God. I hate seeing myself as the one who is scornful, contemptible, proud. Deal me lovingly a truthful hand in this matter, and give me the heart to fix my ways. But give me clear eyes also to see the injustices that I experience, and give me mercy in those as well. Amen.
Rachel Wrenn, '11
PhD student in Hebrew Bible at Emory University, Marietta, GA
Psalm 123: Supplication for Mercy
A Song of Ascents.
1 To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2 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 the Lord our God,
until he has mercy upon us.
3 Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
4 Our soul has had more than its fill
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud. (New Revised Standard Version).
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The Luther Seminary
2481 Como Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota, 55108, United State
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