Psalm 123:4
“A Prayer for Mercy Amidst Contempt”Psalm 123:3–4
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible · Public domain
Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain
Bible text: World English Bible, Messianic edition · Public domain
Bible text: Geneva Bible (1599) · Public domain
Bible text: Young's Literal Translation · Public domain
- רַבַּתra·BatmuchH7227Adj-fscAdjective Singular Feminine Construct
- שָׂבְעָהsa·ve·'ahit has been surfeitedH7646V-Qal-Perf-3fsVerb Qal Perfect 3rd Singular Feminine
- לָּהּlah[for] itselfPrep-l ¦ 3fsSuffix Personal 3rd Singular Feminineלָּ[for]הּitself
- נַפְשֵׁנוּnaf·She·nuour selfH5315N-fsc ¦ 1cpNoun Singular Feminine Construct with suffixנַפְשֵׁselfנוּour
- הַלַּעַגha·La·'agthe mockery ofH3933Art ¦ N-mscNoun Singular Masculine Constructהַtheלַּעַגmockery of
- הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּיםha·sha·'a·na·Nim[the] self-confident [people]H7600Art ¦ Adj-mpAdjective Plural Masculine Absoluteהַ[the]שַּׁאֲנַנִּיםself-confident [people]
- הַבּוּזha·Buzthe contemptH937Art ¦ N-msNoun Singular Masculine Absoluteהַtheבּוּזcontempt
- לִגְאֵי יוֹנִיםlig·'E yo·nimof arrogant opressorsH1343Prep-l ¦ Adj-mpc ¦ V-Qal-Prtcpl-mpAdjective Plural Masculine Constructלִofגְאֵיarrogantיוֹנִיםopressors
English is a literal word-by-word gloss of the Hebrew, not the KJV's wording. Why?
This is the original text the KJV's translators worked from — each Hebrew word with its own literal English meaning in this verse, prepared by scholars at Tyndale House, Cambridge. The KJV translates whole sentences, not word by word, so its wording differs: one Hebrew word can become several English words, and the KJV may choose “the LORD” where the gloss reads “Yahweh”. Both are faithful — they answer different questions. For the KJV's own rendering, switch to the KJV text.
Words in [ ] are added by the English.
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Public-domain commentary
Matthew Henry
From his Commentary on the Whole Bible. Henry wrote on whole passages, and this entry covers Psalm 123:1–4. He set out his notes in a four-level outline, kept here as he numbered it.
We have here,
I.The solemn profession which God's people make of faith and hope in God, Psalm 123:1, Psalm 123:2. Observe,
1.The title here given to God: O thou that dwellest in the heavens. Our Lord Jesus has taught us, in prayer, to have an eye to God as our Father in heaven; not that he is confined there, but there especially he manifests his glory, as the King in his court. Heaven is a place of prospect and a place of power; he that dwells there beholds thence all the calamities of his people and thence can send to save them. Sometimes God seems to have forsaken the earth, and the enemies of God's people ask, Where is now your God? But then they can say with comfort, Our God is in the heavens. O thou that sittest in the heavens (so some), sittest as Judge there; for the Lord has prepared his throne in the heavens, and to that throne injured innocency may appeal.
2.The regard here had to God. The psalmist himself lifted up his eyes to him. The eyes of a good man are ever towards the Lord, Psalm 25:15. In every prayer we lift up our soul, the eye of our soul, to God, especially in trouble, which was the case here. The eyes of the people waited on the Lord, Psalm 123:2. We find mercy coming towards a people when the eyes of man, as of all the tribes of Israel, are towards the Lord, Zechariah 9:1. The eyes of the body are heaven-ward. Os homini sublime dedit - To man he gave an erect mien, to teach us which way to direct the eyes of the mind. Our eyes wait on the Lord, the eye of desire and prayer, the begging eye, and the eye of dependence, hope, and expectation, the longing eye. Our eyes must wait upon God as the Lord, and our God, until that he have mercy upon us. We desire mercy from him, we hope he will show us mercy, and we will continue our attendance on him till the mercy come. This is illustrated (Psalm 123:2) by a similitude: Our eyes are to God as the eyes of a servant, and handmaid, to the hand of their master and mistress. The eyes of a servant are,
(1.)To his master's directing hand, expecting that he will appoint him his work, and cut it out for him, and show him how he must do it. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
(2.)To his supplying hand. Servants look to their master, or their mistress, for their portion of meat in due season, Proverbs 31:15. And to God must we look for daily bread, for grace sufficient; from him we must receive it thankfully.
(3.)To his assisting hand. If the servant cannot do his work himself, where must he look for help but to his master? And in the strength of the Lord God we must go forth and go on.
(4.)To his protecting hand. If the servant meet with opposition in his work, if he be questioned for what he does, if he be wronged and injured, who should bear him out and right him, but his master that set him on work? The people of God, when they are persecuted, may appeal to their Master, We are thine; save us.
(5.)To his correcting hand. If the servant has provoked his master to beat him, he does not call for help against his master, but looks at the hand that strikes him, till it shall say, "It is enough; I will not contend for ever." The people of God were now under his rebukes; and whither should they turn but to him that smote them? Isaiah 9:13. To whom should they make supplication but to their Judge? They will not do as Hagar did, who ran away from her mistress when she put some hardships upon her (Genesis 16:6), but they submit themselves to and humble themselves under God's mighty hand.
(6.)To his rewarding hand. The servant expects his wages, his well-done, from his master. Hypocrites have their eye to the world's hand; thence they have their reward (Matthew 6:2); but true Christians have their eye to God as their rewarder.
II.The humble address which God's people present to him in their calamitous condition (Psalm 123:3, Psalm 123:4), wherein,
1.They sue for mercy, not prescribing to God what he shall do for them, nor pleading any merit of their own why he should do it for them, but, Have mercy upon us, O Lord! have mercy upon us. We find little mercy with men; their tender mercies are cruel; there are cruel mockings. But this is our comfort, that with the Lord there is mercy and we need desire no more to relieve us, and make us easy, than the mercy of God. Whatever the troubles of the church are, God's mercy is a sovereign remedy.
2.They set forth their grievances: We are exceedingly filled with contempt. Reproach is the wound, the burden, they complain of. Observe,
(1.)Who were reproached: "We, who have our eyes up to thee." Those who are owned of God are often despised and trampled on by the world. Some translate the words which we render, those that are at ease, and the proud, so as to signify the persons that are scorned and contemned. "Our soul is troubled to see how those that are at peace, and the excellent ones, are scorned and despised." The saints are a peaceable people and yet are abused (Psalm 35:20), the excellent ones of the earth and yet undervalued, Lamentations 4:1, Lamentations 4:2.
(2.)Who did reproach them. Taking the words as we read them, they were the epicures who lived at ease, carnal sensual people, Job 12:5. The scoffers are such as walk after their own lusts and serve their own bellies, and the proud such as set God himself at defiance and had a high opinion of themselves; they trampled on God's people, thinking they magnified themselves by vilifying them.
(3.)To what degree they were reproached: "We are filled, we are surfeited with it. Our soul is exceedingly filled with it." The enemies thought they could never jeer them enough, nor say enough to make them despicable; and they could not but lay it to heart; it was a sword in their bones, Psalm 42:10. Note,
[1.]Scorning and contempt have been, and are, and are likely to be, the lot of God's people in this world. Ishmael mocked Isaac, which is called persecuting him; and so it is now, Galatians 4:29.
[2.]In reference to the scorn and contempt of men it is matter of comfort that there is mercy with God, mercy to our good names when they are barbarously used. Hear, O our God! for we are despised.
Historical interpretation
Historical reception
2 surviving comments on this verse. Each one is dated, so this reads as a timeline rather than a list.
We must find out whence true patience, worthy of the name, is to be had. There are those who attribute it to the powers of human will, not those that people have from divine assistance but from their own free will. But that is an arrogant error. It is the error of the rich about which the psalm speaks, “a reproach to the rich and contempt to the proud.” It is not the patience of the poor, which “shall not perish forever.” For the poor receive it from the wealthy One to whom it is said, “You are my God, for you have no need of my goods,” from whom “is every best gift and every perfect gift,” on whom the poor and needy person calls, who praises his name and by seeking, by asking, by knocking, says, “Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the sinner and out of the hand of the transgressor of the law and of the unjust. For you are my patience, O Lord: my hope, from my youth.” The rich and those who disdain being needy before the Lord should not receive true patience from him. Glorying in their own false patience, they wish “to confound the counsel of the poor person, but the Lord is his hope.” Since they are human and attribute so much to themselves, that is, to their human will, they do not tend to apply to themselves the words of Scripture: “Cursed is everyone that trusts in man.” For, even if sometimes in order not to displease people or to suffer worse ills, they bear up under things that are hard and rugged, or else in pleasing themselves and loving their own presumption they suffer these same evils with an arrogant will, that which the blessed James the apostle said about wisdom must be said to them about their patience: “This is not the wisdom that descends from above. It is earthly, sensual, devilish.” For, why is there not a false patience of the proud just as there is a false wisdom of the proud? He who is the source of true wisdom is also the source of true patience. And to him the one who is poor in spirit sings, “My soul is subject to God, for from him is my patience.”
"Our soul is filled exceedingly; a reproach to the wealthy, and a contempt to the proud" [Psalm 123:4]. We were asking who were "the wealthy:" he has expounded to you, in that he has said, "the proud." "Reproach" and "contempt" are the same: and "wealthy" is the same with "proud." It is a repetition of the sentence, "a reproach to the wealthy, and a contempt to the proud." Why are the proud wealthy? Because they wish to be happy here. Why? Since they themselves too are miserable, are they wealthy? But perhaps when they are miserable, they do not mock us. Listen, my beloved. Then perchance they mock when they are happy, when they boast themselves in the pomp of their riches! When they boast themselves in the inflated state of false honours: then they mock us, and seem to say, Behold, it is well with me: I enjoy the good things before me: let those who promise what they cannot show depart from me: what I see, I hold; what I see, I enjoy; may I fare well in this life. Be thou more secure; for Christ has risen again, and has taught you what He will give in another life: be assured that He gives it. But that man mocks you, because he holds what he has. Bear with his mockeries, and you will laugh at his groans: for afterwards there will come a season when these very persons will say, "This was he whom we had sometimes in derision." [Wisdom 5:3] ...
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This verse
The people tell God that their whole soul is full of the mockery of the comfortable and the contempt of the proud, and they leave their cause with him.
“Our soul is exceedingly filled”
The scorn has reached the whole inner person, the nephesh. The English phrase “exceedingly filled” comes back from verse 3, and the repetition shows how heavy the burden has become.
“with the scorning of those that are at ease,”
The mockery (laʻag) of the comfortable and secure (shaʼănân), who look down on the struggling from their own ease and complacency.
“and with the contempt of the proud.”
The second source, set in parallel with the first. The haughty (gêʼeh) treat God’s people as worthless, and God is the one who resists the proud (James 4:6).
Passage studyPsalm 123:3–4
Mercy for a People Filled with Contempt
Summary
The pilgrims who lifted their eyes to the LORD at the opening of Psalm 123 now tell him why. They ask twice for mercy, because they have had their fill of contempt, and verse 4 names where it comes from: the scorning of those who live at ease and the contempt of the proud. The people bring their humiliation straight to the LORD, the God whose nature is to show mercy, and leave their defence with him. The New Testament shows the same God answering this prayer in Jesus, who was himself despised and mocked, and who carried that contempt to the cross.
Why the people look to the LORD for mercy
Psalm 123 belongs to the Songs of Ascents, the fifteen psalms from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, traditionally sung by pilgrims on the way up to Jerusalem for the yearly feasts. These psalms speak of longing for God, of trusting his protection in trouble, and of hardship shared by his people.
The psalm opens with one worshipper’s lifted eyes: “Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens” (Psalm 123:1). Then the whole people join him and compare themselves to servants watching their master’s hand, “so our eyes wait upon the LORD our God, until that he have mercy upon us” (Psalm 123:2). Verses 3 and 4 give the reason for that steady, expectant gaze. The mercy they were waiting for becomes the prayer itself, and the contempt they have borne is why they need it so badly.
From verse 2 onward the psalm speaks as “us”, “we” and “our soul”. This is the prayer of God’s people together, a burden they carry as one and bring to God with one voice.
“Have mercy upon us, O LORD”
The verb for “have mercy”, chânan, means to be gracious, to show favor, compassion or pity. It asks for that favor to be shown in action, on behalf of people who are weak, vulnerable and suffering. The people call on the LORD by his covenant name, the God of Israel who proclaimed himself to Moses as compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love (Exodus 34:6–7). They appeal to who God has said he is. David makes the same kind of plea for mercy in Psalm 51:1, and God’s people have always come to him this way when they are afflicted and humiliated. God sees what scorn and injustice do to his people, and he answers their cry.
Why is the plea said twice?
The doubled cry, “Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us”, shows how urgent and deep the need is. These are people at the end of their strength who have run out of other places to turn, so they press the one request again. Jesus taught the same persistence in the parable of the widow who kept coming to the judge until he heard her (Luke 18:1–8), told so that his people would keep on praying.
Asking twice is an act of faith. Lament brings our deepest distress straight to God, and Scripture is full of it, from Job’s anguish (Job 19:3) to the disgrace endured in Lamentations (Lamentations 3:30).
What it means to be “exceedingly filled with contempt”
The second half of verse 3 gives the reason for the prayer, introduced by “for” (kî). The people are full of contempt. The word bûwz means disdain, scorn and mockery, being treated as worthless and of no account. “Exceedingly” translates rab, an adjective meaning much or great, and here it marks how great the contempt has become. “Filled” pictures a vessel full to the brim, and the scorn has soaked into every part of their lives until there is room for nothing else.
In a culture where honor and shame weighed heavily, being held in contempt struck at a person’s dignity and standing, and for Israel it struck at their identity as the people God had chosen. That is why vindication from God was such an urgent hope for them.
The psalm leaves the scorners unnamed. They may have been surrounding nations or empires that despised Israel in times of foreign rule, of exile, or of weakness after the return. They may also have been the wicked within Israel itself, who derided the righteous, a common grief in the psalms of lament. Psalm 44:13–16 describes the same shame, with God’s people made a reproach and a scorn to all around them. Either way, the cry goes to the one who can lift it.
Who are “those that are at ease” and “the proud”?
Verse 4 takes up the complaint again and names its source. “Our soul” is nephesh, the whole person, the inner life with all its feelings. “Exceedingly” is rab once more, and the same word for contempt, bûwz, comes back at the end of the verse. The people say a second time that they are full, and the repetition carries the weight of the psalm.
“Those that are at ease”, shaʼănân, are people who are comfortable, prosperous and secure, often to the point of complacency. Their ease makes them feel safe without God and hard toward anyone who struggles. Amos pronounced woe on those at ease in Zion (Amos 6:1), and the prophets often warned that such ease comes before judgment. Their “scorning”, laʻag, is derision and scoffing, the mockery of people who look down on others from a place of comfort. They may well have mocked the faithful for leaning on God at all.
“The proud”, gêʼeh, are the lofty and haughty, people with an inflated view of their own worth who look down on anyone they count beneath them. The two lines run side by side, so complacent comfort and open arrogance stand together as the two sources of this people’s distress. Asaph was troubled by the same prosperity of the wicked in Psalm 73:3–9, and Jesus drew the contrast in the rich man who lived at ease while Lazarus suffered at his gate (Luke 16:19–31).
What God does with the proud
The humble people of this psalm and the self-sufficient people who scorn them stand on opposite sides of a wide gulf. Pride and self-sufficiency set themselves against God’s ways, and those who live by them often become the means by which the humble suffer. By telling God how deep their suffering goes, the people appeal to him as the righteous judge who defends the humble and brings the proud low. Proverbs sets the proud against the humble again and again and warns that “Pride goeth before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18), and James writes, “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6).
Scorn of this kind can weigh as heavily as physical persecution. The cries of Psalm 22 and Psalm 69 show the righteous suffering at the hands of enemies in body and soul alike, and through all of them runs the same trust in God as the defender of the oppressed.
Christ, despised and rejected
The one who knew this contempt most fully is Jesus. Isaiah foretold that he would be “despised and rejected of men” (Isaiah 53:3). In his ministry he was called a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19), and the religious and political authorities treated him with contempt again and again. At the cross he was stripped, mocked and reviled (Matthew 27:27–44), by men at ease in their positions and proud in their own righteousness. His cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), shows him entering fully into the abandonment and scorn that the psalmist felt.
He met that scorn by committing himself to the Father, which is the humble dependence of this psalm lived out perfectly. In his suffering God poured out mercy on a contemptuous world. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and everyone who believes in him has eternal life (John 3:16). Because he suffered, he is a high priest who understands our weakness (Hebrews 4:15). He called those blessed who are reviled for his sake (Matthew 5:11), and he promises a day when God will wipe away every tear and there will be no more pain (Revelation 21:4). The prayer for mercy in this psalm finds its answer in him.
The mercy that answers contempt
This short prayer gives God’s people words for the times when contempt piles up. Scorn still comes in many forms: mockery online, being passed over at work for one’s faith, the scorn of those who think faith foolish, and quieter disrespect within families and communities. The psalm shows that this is an old sorrow, and that its place is before the LORD, with lifted eyes. Our worth rests on how God sees us in Christ, whatever the proud make of us.
The psalm also shows who God is. He is the LORD, merciful and gracious, who sees the humble and resists the proud, and who sent his Son to bear contempt for us. When your soul is exceedingly filled, as theirs was, you can ask twice for mercy and know the one you are asking.
Psalm 123:3
“Have mercy upon us,”
A plea for God’s gracious favor, chânan, shown in action toward people too weak to help themselves. “Us” makes it the prayer of the whole people.
“O LORD,”
The covenant name of Israel’s God, who made himself known to Moses as merciful. The people appeal to his own character.
“have mercy upon us:”
The plea comes again, the mark of an urgent and earnest prayer from people who have nowhere else to turn.
“for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.”
The reason for the prayer, given with “for” (kî). They have received scorn (bûwz) in great measure (rab), until it fills them like a vessel full to the brim.
Psalm 123:4 This verse
“Our soul is exceedingly filled”
The scorn has reached the whole inner person, the nephesh. The English phrase “exceedingly filled” comes back from verse 3, and the repetition shows how heavy the burden has become.
“with the scorning of those that are at ease,”
The mockery (laʻag) of the comfortable and secure (shaʼănân), who look down on the struggling from their own ease and complacency.
“and with the contempt of the proud.”
The second source, set in parallel with the first. The haughty (gêʼeh) treat God’s people as worthless, and God is the one who resists the proud (James 4:6).
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