In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

COMMENTARY ON PSALM 123 A Song ofthe Steps. HIS PSALM, TOO, REVEALS the piety of the righteous people of that time.l I lifted up my eyes to you, who dwell in heaven (v. 1): despising all human help, I await your aid, 0 Lord, and depend on your providence, knowing you to be Lord of the heavens. He said he dwells in heaven, not as though confined to a place, but as rejoicing in the unseen powers that inhabit heaven. [1884] Behold, as servants' eyes are on the hands of their masters, as a servant girl's eyes are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on the Lord our God (v. 2). Just as attendants watch their lords' hands, he is saying, for the reason that they receive the basis of life from that source, so too we, 0 Lord, expect to receive from you the enjoyment of good things. It was not an example of tautology, of course, for him to mention the servant girl,2 but to show the intensity of feeling: servant girls are more important than servants in so far as they share the company of their mistresses in their chambers, and usually pay them constant attention and long for a kindly attitude from them. Until he has pity on us: far from placing a time limit on our hope, we wait until we are accorded leniency. (2) Have mercy on us, 0 Lord, have mercy on us (v. 3). The repetition reveals the ardor of the request.3 Because we have had more 1. Again a curt understatement compared with Weiser's discovery in the psalm of "moving tenderness," "a disposition of heartfelt and profound piety," "one of the finest examples of piety, expressed in prayer-simple, truthful, natural and sincere." 2. The pace may be breakneck, but the akribeia of the biblical author-and the commentator-has to be vindicated. 3. If Theodoret earns our commendation for moderation, this paucity of comment, even if respecting a principle enunciated in the preface, is an immoderate example of it. He could well heed the saying, "All things, including moderation, should not be taken to excess." 286 COMMENTARY ON PSALM 123 287 than enough of contempt. Our soul has had more than its fill (vv. 3-4). We beg your mercy, he is saying, not as worthy to attain it, but for having become objects of deep ignominy. The reproach of the affluent and the scorn ofthe arrogant. Symmachus, on the other hand, put it this way, "Our soul is fed up with the mockery of the affluent and the disparagement of the arrogant": we are distressed with the haughty Babylonians mocking and jeering at us. According to the Septuagint, however, it should be understood this way,4 The reproach ofthe affluent and the scorn ofthe arrogant : reverse the situation, Lord, he is saying, and inflict our troubles on those now boasting of the good fortune in which they find themselves. 4. As is his frequent practice, Theodoret entertains the alternative rendering from Symmachus, but returns to the LXX-without a clear distinction emerging between them. Perhaps in an equal contest the "inspired" Seventy have to be awarded a decision on points. ...

Share