PSALM 123 - A SONG OF ASCENTS

To you I lift up my eyes,

O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
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.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more than
enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the
contempt of the proud.
This psalm is one of the loveliest prayers in all of Scripture, simple and direct,
trusting and confident, spoken out of need and in much hope. It begins abruptly,
"To you," but the name of YHWH is not uttered until the end of the long second
verse. In this piety, however, there is little need to name the God addressed, so
direct and obvious is the connection between the one who prays and the one
who is addressed. Before God is named, God is characterized as the one
enthroned in the heavens, the creator who presides over the assembly of gods
in heaven (see Psalm 82). Thus, in a simple utterance, the prayer appeals to
the entire liturgical drama of divine enthronement so central to the Jerusalem
temple (see the psalms of enthronement, Psalms 93 and 96-99).
Having alluded to kingship, verse 2 utters the counterterm, "servant." The rela-
tionship of the two characters in this prayer is servant to king. The verse
ponders that relationship according to human analogies: servant to master,
maid to mistress. The verse is organized around "as . . . as . . . so" The two
uses of "as" offer analogues.294 How is it that a servant looks at a master?
How does a maid look in the face of a mistress? Here there is no suspicion, no
fear, no dread, no resentment; otherwise the analogue would not work in the
prayer. Rather, the look is one of gladness, awe, dependence, and glad
submissiveness that is rooted in trust. The servant knows that his life is safe in
the governance of the master. (Such an image, of course, is not politically
correct and, taken at face value, would encourage questions concerning the
enslaved. Taken in context, however, the imagery bespeaks glad reliance on
the master.)
The "so" at the end of verse 2 now names "YHWH our God"; the look is one of
hope that awaits mercy. The master may be busy, elsewhere preoccupied and
dis- tracted, but the petitioner is patient and knows that in due course the
master will exhibit mercy. It is this mercy that is the grounds of the prayer and
the basis for the relationship. YHWH is indeed a God of mercy:
The Lord passed before him, and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord,
a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger,
and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." (Exod 34:6)
The term "mercy" signifies unconditional regard for, love that is completely
gratu- itous. The master gives himself over to the well-being of the servant.
It is on the basis of verses 1-2 and this relationship of awaited mercy that the
petition of verses 3-4 can now be uttered. The petition in verse 3a utters the
word "mercy" two more times in the name of YHWH yet again, so that the
petition of verse 3a nears the praise of verse 2a. The reason for the petition in
verse 3a is given in verses 3b-4, introduced, characteristically, by "for." The
reason mercy is now required is that the speaker - and his ilk, for the prayer is
for "us" - have had more than their fill of contempt and scorn. The rhetoric of
verses 3b-4 matches the substance twice. It is "filled to abundance" or
"satiated," and three times uses the two terms for derogation. The speaker
voices an urgent petition out of unbearable humiliation.
We may learn more about that contempt and scorn by noting the descriptive
phrase "those who are at ease." Reference to the same term in the more
familiar passage of Amos 6:1 suggests that the reference is to the economically
affluent who are arrogant, self-indulgent, and indifferent to those who have less.
Calvin com- ments on those who treat the speaker with contempt: "The epithet
proud is justly applied to the same persons who are described as rich; for
wealth engenders pride of heart."1
The usage thus suggests an exploited "servant class" by those
who lie on beds of ivory,
and lounge on their couches, and eat lambs from the flock,
and calves from the stall; who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp,
and like David improvise on instruments of music; who drink wine from bowls,
and anoint themselves with the finest oils,
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph! (Amos 6:4-6)
The actions are of those
who oppress the poor,
who crush the needy. (Amos 4:1)
The prayer is the voice of a servant class that looks to an alternative "master."
What a way to think of prayer, as a recharacterization of social relationships
with the new character YHWH, God of mercy, as the defining reference. Thus
the prayer presents the humiliated turning from the ones who are at ease to the
one "enthroned in heaven," a turn that means a departure from contempt and
embrace of mercy. The God of mercy thus is presented as the alternative and
antidote to unbearable rela- tionships and social inequity. Although the psalm
does not say so, we imagine that "mercy" here is not only a divine attribute and
intention but also a matter of practice by adherents of YHWH, who will not
engage in scorn and contempt toward the needy. The prayer is an immense act
of hope, a conviction that demeaning social relationships are not the norm and
need not endure. The voice of such hope grows out of urgent need, but the
grounds of such hope is in the one addressed, the God of all hope, who will,
sooner or later, turn the world to well-being, even for those whom the world
holds in contempt.
Bridging the Horizons: The God of All Mercy

1 J. Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms, vol. 5 (1979), 82.

The tax collector in Luke 18:13 in utter humiliation "would not even look up to
heaven." Our psalmist, unlike the man in the parable of Jesus, dares to look to
heaven, not because he is worthy but because he knows that the master to
whom he looks is merciful. Thus the breaking of humiliation is the capacity to
look in expectation, a capacity that is grounded in the God of all mercy.
Bridging the Horizons: Generative Grace
Concerning "our eyes" that look to God in expectation of mercy, attention may
be given to a narrative by Isak Dinesen. During her time in Africa, she employed
and worked with a number of locals who lived in an oral culture. Dinesen
recounts that one of her workers, Jogona Kanyagga, told her a long tale of his
life that Dinesen wrote down and then read back to him. She reports that when
she read the story back to him and read out his name,
he swiftly turned his face to me, and gave me a great fierce flaming glance, so
exuberant with laughter that it changed the old man into a boy, into the very
symbol of youth. Again as I had finished the document and was reading out his
name, where it figured as a verification below his thumbmark, the vital direct
glance was repeated, this time deepened and calmed, with a new dignity.
Such a glance did Adam give the Lord when He formed him out of the dust, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. I had
created him and shown him himself: Jogona Kanyagga of life everlasting.
Jogona Kanyagga had the look of gratitude like the look of Adam, a look of new
life when one reflects one's existence back to the source of powerful genera-
tivity. Such is the look of the psalmist turned toward the God of mercy.