Eyes turned to the Lord! A study of Psalm 123 and its imagery

Abstract

Psalm 123 is one of the so-called “Songs of Ascents.” With only 35 words written in Hebrew, it describes a collective prayer. Initially, it considers the relationships of the time, describing very strong metaphorical images, such as that of “eyes” (v. 1b), and also considers the “eyes of slaves” (v. 2a), the “hand of their masters” (v. 2b), as well as the “eyes of the slave” (v. 2c) for the “hand of her mistress” (v. 2c). However, the climax comes with the collective affirmation: “our eyes are toward the LORD” (v. 2d). Notably, while on the one hand the reader will notice a brave scarcity of words, on the other, the strength of the gestures will speak for a multitude of them.