Psalms 123
Big idea: Four verses, and the image at the centre is precise about status. A servant watches the master's hand — not his face, his hand — because that is where the next instruction and the next meal will come from. It is the posture of someone with no other source. And what they are enduring is not violence but contempt: the scoffing of those who are at ease. Being looked down on by comfortable people is treated here as a wound worth praying about.
Psalm 123 endures contempt. Psalm 124 remembers when it was nearly worse than contempt.
123:1–4 — As the eyes of servants
Four verses, and the whole thing rests on one image: a servant watching a master's HAND. Not the face, not the mouth — the hand, because that is where the instruction or the provision comes from, and watching it is what you do when you have no other means. The psalm names the wound too, and it is contempt from people who are comfortable.
1 A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to you, you who sit in the heavens. 2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to Yahweh, our God, until he has mercy on us. 3 Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt. 4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).