3 Favour us, O Jehovah, favour us, For greatly have we been filled with contempt,
the Pharisee having stood by himself, thus prayed: God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax-gatherer; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all things -- as many as I possess. `And the tax-gatherer, having stood afar off, would not even the eyes lift up to the heaven, but was smiting on his breast, saying, God be propitious to me -- the sinner!
and saith before his brethren and the force of Samaria, yea, he saith, `What `are' the weak Jews doing? are they left to themselves? do they sacrifice? do they complete in a day? do they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish? -- and they burnt!' And Tobiah the Ammonite `is' by him and saith, `Also, that which they are building -- if a fox doth go up, then it hath broken down their stone wall.' Hear, O our God, for we have been despised; and turn back their reproach on their own head, and give them for a spoil in a land of captivity;
Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, A scorn and a reproach to our surrounders. Thou makest us a simile among nations, A shaking of the head among peoples. All the day my confusion `is' before me, And the shame of my face hath covered me. Because of the voice of a reproacher and reviler, Because of an enemy and a self-avenger.
To the Overseer. -- `On the Dumb Dove far off.' -- A secret treasure of David, in the Philistines' taking hold of him in Gath. Favour me, O God, for man swallowed me up, All the day fighting he oppresseth me, Mine enemies have swallowed up all the day, For many `are' fighting against me, O most High,
And I -- my prayer `is' to Thee, O Jehovah, A time of good pleasure, O God, In the abundance of Thy kindness, Answer me in the truth of Thy salvation. Deliver me from the mire, and let me not sink, Let me be delivered from those hating me, And from deep places of waters. Let not a flood of waters overflow me, Nor let the deep swallow me up, Nor let the pit shut her mouth upon me. Answer me, O Jehovah, for good `is' Thy kindness, According to the abundance Of Thy mercies turn Thou unto me,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Psalms 123
Commentary on Psalms 123 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
123
Ps 123:1-4. An earnest and expecting prayer for divine aid in distress.
1. (Compare Ps 121:1).
thou that dwellest—literally, "sittest as enthroned" (compare Ps 2:4; 113:4, 5).
2. Deference, submission, and trust, are all expressed by the figure. In the East, servants in attending on their masters are almost wholly directed by signs, which require the closest observance of the hands of the latter. The servants of God should look (1) to His directing hand, to appoint them their work; (2) to His supplying hand (Ps 104:28), to give them their portion in due season; (3) to His protecting hand, to right them when wronged; (4) to His correcting hand (Isa 9:13; 1Pe 5:6; compare Ge 16:6); (5) to His rewarding hand.
3. contempt—was that of the heathen, and, perhaps, Samaritans (Ne 1:3; 2:19).
4. of those that are at ease—self-complacently, disregarding God's law, and despising His people.