Psalm 123

Introduction.—Ps. 123 is an earnest appeal to God for help in time of distress. The change from the singular to the plural (see vs. 1, 2) places the appeal on a national basis.

On the superscription see Introduction to Ps. 120; also pp. 625, 627.

1. Lift I up. The eye of faith and hope must always be uplifted to God, the Supreme Ruler of the universe.

2. Servants. As the servants in a household look to the master for support, so Christians are dependent upon God for physical help and spiritual sustenance. When the servant receives wrong or injury, he looks to his master for protection. So the believing child should look to the hand of the Lord to deliver him (see 1 Cor. 4:3, 4).

Look unto the hand. Compare Ps. 145:15, where the psalmist pictures all the creatures of God’s hand as looking to Him for their daily needs.

3. Exceedingly filled. There are insufficient data to determine to what crisis in Israel’s national history the psalmist is alluding.

4. At ease. Compare Eze. 16:49; Amos 6:1; Zech. 1:15. Freedom from affliction and a life of comfortable ease are not the soil in which character develops. The Lord permits affliction to come upon His people to wean them away from a life of ease and make them long for their heavenly home. We should thank God for the hand of affliction that lays the pride of man in the dust.