Psalms 123:3

My Notes

What Does Psalms 123:3 Mean?

Psalm 123:3 is the cry of a people who have been mocked beyond endurance — and the prayer is as simple as the pain is deep: "Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt."

The Hebrew chonnēnu YHWH chonnēnu — "have mercy, LORD, have mercy" — the repetition is desperation, not emphasis. Chanan — to be gracious, to show favor, to bend down toward the lowly. The double plea: mercy, mercy. As if once wasn't enough. As if the first asking needed reinforcement because the need is so extreme that a single request feels insufficient.

Ki-rab sabe'anu-buz — "for we are exceedingly filled with contempt." Sabe'a means satiated, filled to capacity, stuffed. The same word used for being full of food. They're not just experiencing contempt. They're full of it — the way you're full after a feast, except the feast is scorn. They've consumed so much contempt that there's no room for anything else. The mockery has become their daily bread.

The contempt comes from the ease-full and the proud (123:4) — the sha'anannim (those at ease, the complacent rich) and the gē'im (the arrogant). The people mocking Israel have never suffered. They look down from their comfort at the afflicted and laugh. The contempt of the comfortable toward the suffering is the specific cruelty this psalm addresses.

Reflection Questions

• 1.Have you been 'filled with contempt' — saturated with mockery from people who've never suffered what you're enduring?
• 2.The prayer is doubled: mercy, mercy. When was the last time your need was too desperate for a single asking?
• 3.The contempt comes from the comfortable and the proud. Have you experienced the specific cruelty of being mocked by someone who has never suffered?
• 4.When you're too full of scorn to construct an elaborate prayer, is 'have mercy' enough? Do you believe God receives it?

Devotional

Have mercy. Have mercy. The double plea of someone who has been filled to the brim with contempt and has room for nothing else.

The word sabe'a — filled, satiated — is the same word used for being full of food. These people have been force-fed contempt until they can't hold any more. The mockery isn't occasional. It's a diet. The scorn is the main course of every day. And the psalmist stands before God, stuffed with the world's contempt, and says: mercy. Please. Mercy. Twice, because once doesn't feel like enough when the cup is that full.

The source of the contempt is identified: the comfortable and the proud (123:4). The people who have never suffered. The ones who look at the afflicted from their position of ease and find the suffering amusing. There's a particular cruelty when mockery comes from comfort — when the person laughing has never experienced what you're enduring and can't imagine that it's real. Their contempt is cheap because they've never paid the price that would produce empathy.

If you've been filled with contempt — mocked for your faith, your suffering, your position, your weakness — by people whose comfort insulates them from understanding, this psalm gives you two words: have mercy. Not a theological argument. Not a defense of your dignity. Just the raw, repeated plea of someone who is too full of scorn to construct anything more elaborate.

Sometimes the most sophisticated prayer available is the simplest one. Have mercy. When you're too broken for eloquence, when the contempt has consumed every ounce of energy you might have used for a proper prayer, the double plea is enough. God doesn't require articulate prayers from people drowning in mockery. He requires honesty. And chonnēnu YHWH chonnēnu is as honest as it gets.

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture