Psalm 123

New Living Translation

Psalm 123

A song for pilgrims ascending to Jerusalem.

¹I lift my eyes to you,
    O God, enthroned in heaven.
²We keep looking to the Lord our God for his mercy,
    just as servants keep their eyes on their master,
    as a slave girl watches her mistress for the slightest signal.
³Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy,
    for we have had our fill of contempt.
⁴We have had more than our fill of the scoffing of the proud
    and the contempt of the arrogant.

Psalm 123

New English Translation

Psalm 123^[a]

A song of ascents.^[b]

123 I look up^[c] toward you,
the one enthroned^[d] in heaven.
²Look, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a female servant look to the hand of her mistress,^[e]
so our eyes will look to the Lord, our God, until he shows us favor.
³Show us favor, O Lord, show us favor!
For we have had our fill of humiliation, and then some.^[f]
⁴We have had our fill^[g]
of the taunts of the self-assured,
of the contempt of the proud.

Footnotes

Psalm 123:1 sn Psalm 123. The psalmist, speaking for God’s people, acknowledges his dependence on God in the midst of a crisis.
Psalm 123:1 sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.
Psalm 123:1 tn Heb “I lift my eyes.”
Psalm 123:1 tn Heb “sitting.” The Hebrew verb יָשַׁב (yashav) is here used metonymically of “sitting enthroned” (see Pss 9:7; 29:10; 55:19; 102:12).
Psalm 123:2 sn Servants look to their master for food, shelter, and other basic needs.
Psalm 123:3 tn Heb “for greatly we are filled [with] humiliation.”
Psalm 123:4 tn Heb “greatly our soul is full to it.”

New Living Translation (NLT)

New English Translation (NET)

Psalm 123 New Living Translation