Psalm 123

It is not until we read verse 4 that we discover the burden of the writer: the constant persecution of the people of Israel, being treated with scorn and contempt. In Psalm 124, Israel was almost swallowed up, drowned, and imprisoned in a trap. Captivity is the theme of 126, and 129 compares their suffering to a farmer plowing their backs. Has any nation ever suffered the way Israel has suffered? Of course, God’s people today are also suffering because of their commitment to Christ (John 16:30). According to missiologists, more Christians were martyred in the twentieth century than in all the previous centuries combined! Some students assign this psalm to the time of King Hezekiah, when the Assyrians were attacking Jerusalem and making humiliating speeches about the Jews (Isa. 36–37). But during the postexilic years, Israel also suffered the ridicule and scorn of their Gentile neighbors (Neh. 2:19; 4:1-4, 7ff.). This psalm speaks about the God who is enthroned in heaven, whose hand would work for His people, and you find both of these themes in Ezra and Nehemiah. The “hand of God” is found in Ezra 7:6, 9, 28; 8:18, 22, 31, and Nehemiah 2:8, 18. “The God of heaven” is mentioned in Ezra 1:2; 5:11-12; 6:9-10; 7:12, 21, 23 and Nehemiah 1:4; 2:4. The psalm begins in the first person singular (I, my), but then changes to the plural (we, our, us). Perhaps this was a communal prayer, begun by a priest or Levite (v. 1), continued by a choir (v. 2), and closed by the congregation (vv. 3-4).

When we find ourselves among the slandered, ridiculed, and persecuted, where do we turn for help? The psalm gives three answers to that question.