Psalms
Chapter 123
1
I Lift My Eyes To You
To you, I lift up my eyes; to you, whose throne is in heaven.
2
As the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of maids look to the hand of their mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.
3
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us; for we have our fill of contempt.
4
Too long have our souls been filled with the scorn of the arrogant, with the ridicule of the insolent.
Commentaries
123
The exiles returned from Babylon to a ruined city and a neglected land. This short hymn expresses the trust that upheld this ‘remnant of Israel’. The silent plea of the ‘eyes’ highlights the simplicity of the psalm. It is so straightforward that it would hardly need to be adapted to a true Christian heart. The eyes we turn to God with are the eyes of a child who is confident that he is loved; they are not the eyes of an anxious servant. Encouraging us to say: ‘Father!’ our Lord wants us to see ourselves as children. Let us sing this psalm like a child.