Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 5 · Psalm 123
The Hundred Twenty Third Psalm.
A Song of ‖ascentsDegrees. The hundred twenty third is a prayer for deliverance from proud insulting enemies, and an act of full affiance and dependance on God for it.
1. UNto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.
Paraphrase. O thou supreme God of heaven, to thee I addresse my prayers, on thee I wholly depend for a gracious answer to them in this time of distresse and calamity.
2. Behold, as the eyes of servantsa. look unto the hand of their Masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto the hand of her Mistress, so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God, untill that he have mercy upon us.
Whatsoever misery is now upon us, comes certainly from thy just chastening hand; to that we look, and waite, and begge, and beseech. As servants or handmaids, when they are chastened by their Lords or Mistresses, bear it with all meekness, without murmuring or repining, only look to the hand that smiteth them, and beseech and importune for release, and patiently expect that good time, when the offended Lord shall say, that it is enough, and so withdraw his scourge, and returne to mercy: so have we under all the inflictions that our sins have justly brought upon us from thee, behaved our selves under the discipline of thy rod, acknowledging the most just original, and author of all our miseries, our selves the original, and thy justice, provoked by our sins, the author of them; not looking so much to the instruments or executioners of thy wrath, as to that supreme divine hand that smiteth, and accordingly applying our selves only to thee in our prayers and petitions for release, when thou shalt see it most expedient for us.
3. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us; for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
4. Our soule is exceedingly filled with the scorning of†the insolent, those that areb. at ease, and with the contempt of thec. *proud oppressors.proud.
Be thou therefore now pleased, if it may be thy will, at length to withdraw thy chastening hand from us, to consider the weight of the calamity and tyranny that lies upon us from contumelious and insolent oppressors, and now seasonably to send us relief, and deliver us out of their hands.
Annotations on Psalm CXXIII.
V. 2. Look unto the hand] What sort of looking it is which is here meant, must be judged by the foreign foreignto the hand. For indeed the original style is elliptical, and the word look is not there to be found, but is supplied by the sense, the eyes of servants to the hand of their lords, or Masters. Now of such lords it is certain, as also of the mistress of a family over the foreign inferior maid-servant, that they had power not only of commanding, but of chastising; and the latter of these is more frequently expressed by the hand, the former more significantly by the eye, or tongue; the one directing, the other commanding. And so the eyes of the servant or handmaid to the hand of the lord or mistress may very fitly note the servant under chastisement turning the eyes and looking to the hand that striketh, and beseeching, importuning mercy. And this as an argument of a meek, patient, and reforming disposition. So Isa. ix. 13. it is objected unto the people, that they turned not to him that smiteth them, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts. And to this sense the context doth wholly incline it, for in the application so it lies, even so our eyes foreign to the Lord our God, i. e. look, or wait, or are turned to the Lord our God, untill he have mercy upon us: and then follows the importunate prayer, Have mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us; where the mercy that is waited for, and the mone and importunity for mercy, is just the description of one that is under chastisement, and so determines the sense to that.
V. 4. Those that are at ease] From foreign and foreign to be quiet, at ease, foreignis the noune foreign used not only for quiet, secure, in the original notion, but, by metonymie of the Cause for the Effect, for insolent, scornfull, because ease and security makes men such: foreign, saith Aristotle in his Rhetoricks, riches and worldly felicity makes men insolent and contumelious despisers of others. The Syriack renders it foreign contemners, scorners, deriders, from foreign to scorne, to mock.
Ibid. Proud] The Hebrew foreign foreignhere, seems to be no simple, but compound word, made up of foreign or foreign proud, and foreign from foreign to afflict, and so to signify proud oppressors. The Chaldee seem to take notice of this, rendring it by two words, foreign scorners, from foreign to contemne, foreign and proud. The Jewish Arab reads, of mocking with, or from the armies, and contempt from the stout, or from the armies. Besides this active notion of the scorning and contempt, the passive may also be considered, for the word foreign is the Epithete of excellent persons. So R. Shererah Gaon, R. Saadias Gaon &c. and the Talmudists that lived streight after the close of the Gemara, were called foreign as a mark of honour; and if that were the word here, the despight of them must be despight which they suffered, and the reproach of the quiet so also, taking foreign, as frequently 'tis, in a good sense; but taking foreign as a compound, the high or great oppressors, it must be active despight, that which they do to others.