Psalm 123

Looking for God’s Favor

A song of ascents.

I lift my eyes to You,
the One enthroned in heaven.(A)
Like a servant’s eyes on his master’s hand,
like a servant girl’s eyes on her mistress’s hand,
so our eyes are on the Lord our God
until He shows us favor.(B)

Show us favor, Lord, show us favor,
for we’ve had more than enough contempt.(C)
We’ve had more than enough
scorn from the arrogant
and contempt from the proud.(D)

Prayer for Yahweh’s Action in the Face of Scorn

A song of ascents.[a]

123 I lift up my eyes to you,
the one enthroned[b] in the heavens.
Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,[c]
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to Yahweh our God,
until he is gracious to us.
Be gracious to us, O Yahweh, be gracious to us,
for long enough we have had our fill of contempt.
For long enough our soul has had its fill of
the derision of the self-confident,
the contempt of the arrogant.

Footnotes

  1. Psalm 123:1 The Hebrew Bible counts the superscription as the first verse of the psalm
  2. Psalm 123:1 Or “the one who dwells”
  3. Psalm 123:2 Hebrew “masters”