Chapter 123 is one of the "Songs of Ascents," and it is a brief, poignant prayer of exile. In just four verses, the Psalmist moves from a gaze of absolute trust in the Holy One, blessed be He, through the parable of the menservants and the maidservant, to an outcry over the contempt and ridicule we have endured to the full from the nations. We will study the chapter verse by verse, with the commentaries of the Ibn Ezra, Radak, Rashi, and primarily the Malbim.
שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת אֵלֶיךָ נָשָׂאתִי אֶת־עֵינַי הַיֹּשְׁבִי בַּשָּׁמָיִם׃ - A song of ascents. Unto You I lift up my eyes, O You Who dwell in the heavens.
The Ibn Ezra explains that the Psalmist speaks here as the leader of the generation, who is in exile or under siege. "Unto You I lift up my eyes" - I raise my eyes toward heaven, because all decrees originate from there. And this is the meaning of "O You Who dwell in the heavens": all decrees come from Heaven.
The Radak explains that this is the voice of the people of the exile. Although it is phrased in the singular - "Unto You I lift up my eyes," rather than "we lift up our eyes" - it is, as it were, all the people in exile speaking here to Hashem, blessed be He, and the singular form is used because the words apply to each and every one of them. Such is the way of Scripture when it speaks on behalf of the community: sometimes in the singular and sometimes in the plural. Regarding the word "ha-yoshvi" (הַיֹּשְׁבִי) - Radak explains here and elsewhere that ha-yoshvi is equivalent to ha-yoshev ("He Who dwells"), with an extra yud. We find this in many places as an added letter, such as tachalu’aiki, chayaiki, and the like, serving as poetic ornamentation.
The Malbim explains that King David is seeking salvation here from Hashem, declaring: Master of the Universe, I trust exclusively in You. For a person who relies on natural means may indeed direct his heart toward Hashem, but his eyes are fixed upon natural avenues. He thinks: I will call so-and-so, I will ask him, I will speak with him, and the Master of the Universe will help me. His eyes are on man, while his heart is toward Hashem. It turns out that his faith is not complete. King David says: I am wholehearted in my turning to You - "Unto You I lift up my eyes." Not only do I lift my heart to You while casting my eyes toward flesh and blood; rather, I lift my eyes to You as well.
And this reflects what Chazal taught: One who prays must direct his eyes downward and his heart upward. The standard requirement of a person is that he must also make practical effort (hishtadlut). A person should not say, "I rely solely on Hashem" - who says you are on that level? Who says you are worthy of receiving salvation on such a level? To reach that, one must be a true master of trust (ba'al bitachon). Therefore, the ordinary person keeps his eyes downward, meaning he engages in practical effort, yet his heart is directed upward, to Hashem. But King David, whose trust in Hashem was immense, says: In my case, even my eyes are directed upward. Not my eyes downward and my heart upward, but both heart and eyes as one - everything comes solely from You, Master of the Universe.
"Unto You I lift up my eyes" - I place my hope in You to choose the proper means for salvation. Sometimes a person asks Hashem for salvation, but also "helps" Him: Master of the Universe, there is this possibility over here, and there is also an option over there. Why are you worrying for the Holy One, blessed be He? Leave it to Him; He knows which path to choose. Do not offer Him ideas and do not give Him advice. Furthermore, David asks that these not even be physical means - that so-and-so give to me or that I receive from someone else - but spiritual means. This is the meaning of "O You Who dwell in the heavens": let the matter come from Heaven, without my having to receive it through flesh and blood or through a physical course of action.
As discussed previously in the study of Michtav Me-Eliyahu, the matter of effort is highly individual and depends entirely on the person himself. The greater a person's trust, the more he can reduce his practical efforts; and the lesser his trust, the more effort he is required to exert. Therefore, a person must strengthen his heart in Hashem, and then, step by step, he will be able to reduce his practical efforts as well. For if one errs in these definitions, he might even lose his faith in Hashem, saying, "I trusted in Hashem and was not answered" - when in truth, he was not at that spiritual level at all, but merely imagined that he held such lofty heights.
It has been noted before: nowadays, when a person succeeds, he says, "We did it with Hashem's help," or "We had siyata diShemaya" - meaning, we acted, and Hashem helped and gave us a push. But if there was a downfall, he immediately says, "Believe me, it is all from Heaven" - I had no part in it at all, it was entirely the Holy One, blessed be He. "A man's foolishness perverts his way, and his heart rages against Hashem": a person acts out of foolishness, and then claims it was all from Hashem. Do not act foolishly, and do not blame it on the Master of the World. A person rushes, makes a dangerous pass on the road, causes an accident, and then says, "It is all from Heaven." What do you mean, from Heaven? Do not make reckless moves and there will not be accidents! A person offends his friend, causing damages and disputes, and says, "It is all from Heaven." Do not act foolishly and damage will not happen. The Rambam writes that the overwhelming majority of troubles that befall a person during his lifetime stem from the foolish things he does; most of the suffering that comes upon a person is manufactured by the person himself. Yet we pin it all on Hashem, blessed be He.
הִנֵּה כְעֵינֵי עֲבָדִים אֶל־יַד אֲדוֹנֵיהֶם כְּעֵינֵי שִׁפְחָה אֶל־יַד גְּבִרְתָּהּ כֵּן עֵינֵינוּ אֶל־יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ עַד שֶׁיְּחׇנֵּנוּ׃ - Behold, as the eyes of servants are toward the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maidservant toward the hand of her mistress, so our eyes are toward Hashem our God, until He favors us.
Ibn Ezra describes a servant who lacks the power to escape from those coming to kill him - what choice does he have? To turn to his master to save him. Just as the maidservant lifts her eyes to her mistress, so do we: we have no one to save us other than the Holy One, blessed be He. And just as servants have no sustenance and livelihood except from their master, and their eyes look dependently upon him, so too with us.
Radak quotes an explanation in the name of his father - and as has often been pointed out, whenever Radak brings a commentary in the name of his father, one must listen with rapt attention. He asks: Why does the verse say "toward the hand of their masters" and "toward the hand of her mistress"? After all, a servant looks to his master, not to his master's hand; and a maidservant looks to her mistress, not to her mistress's hand. Rather, this speaks of a case where the master is striking the servant; his master's hand is upon him - yet despite this, the servant's eyes are still directed toward the master, for there is no one to rescue him from the master's hand other than the master himself. Even as he receives a blow, he pleads with the master to withdraw his hand, and the maidservant pleads with the mistress to withdraw her hand from her.
And so it is with us: Who struck us? This slap that is our exile - from whom does it come? From Him, blessed be He. He is our Master and we are His servants, and we have no one to whom to lift our eyes except to Him Who placed us in exile, that He may have mercy on us and take us out of it. Even though it is His hand that struck us, we have no choice but to plead with our Master to withdraw His hand from us.
The Malbim explains that here Scripture provides two parables to describe the reality of our relationship with the Master of the World. Servants direct their eyes toward the hand of their masters, and this hand operates on two planes: on the one hand, the hand provides food - the master gives the servant his sustenance with his hand; on the other hand, the hand also strikes. Indeed, the Torah warns the master that if he strikes his servant and injures one of the twenty-four primary limbs, the servant goes free; it was common for servants to rebel and require discipline. Thus, the master's hand functions in two ways: giving - providing food to his servant; and striking - disciplining him when necessary to set him on the right path.
So it is with "our eyes are toward Hashem our God": both when the Holy One, blessed be He, shows mercy and His hand is open to bestow goodness upon us, and when He chastises, judges, and rebukes, and we feel the weight of His hand and His arm - our eyes are toward Him.
Furthermore, not only are we like the eyes of servants to the hand of their masters - where the master is the primary source of bounty and the origin of everything - but also "as the eyes of a maidservant toward the hand of her mistress." Notice that the mistress is not the primary source: the mistress receives from the master, and she in turn provides for the maidservant. The maidservant's eyes are turned to the mistress, whose own eyes are turned to the master. This is what Scripture comes to tell us: even when we receive sustenance and it appears to have come through an intermediary rather than directly from Him, blessed be He, we still know that the primary cause Who gives everything is the Master, and everything comes from Him.
Even though the mistress outwardly appears to be the one bestowing bounty, or even striking - we are told: No. It is neither the mistress who bestows nor the mistress who strikes; rather, everything is the Primal Will, everything comes from the Master, blessed be He, Who influences all things. Whatever you receive from the hand of the mistress does not originate with her, whether for good or for bad. If it seems that we have suddenly received an abundance of good from the nations - it is not from the nations, but from the Holy One, blessed be He; and if we received a blow from the nations - it is not from them, but from the Holy One, blessed be He: "Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger" (Yeshayahu 10:5). The nations are merely in the role of the mistress, who channels bounty or punishment down here, but the source is from Him, may He be blessed. And since You, Master of the Universe, are the source of everything - You provide us both the good and the judgments when it is necessary to straighten us out when we stray from the path - therefore we look "until He favors us" (ad sheyechaneinu), until You grant us proper favor and have mercy upon us, that Hashem may spare and pity us, for we have no one to turn to but Him.
חׇנֵּנוּ יְהֹוָה חׇנֵּנוּ כִּי־רַב שָׂבַעְנוּ בוּז׃ - Favor us, Hashem, favor us, for we are fully sated with contempt.
"Favor us, Hashem, favor us" - the Radak explains that the repetition comes to reinforce the plea, and this is the Radak's consistent approach: every repetition serves to strengthen the matter. "For we are fully sated with contempt" - for a long, extended time we have been filled with contempt in exile, subjected to continuous degradation.
The Malbim adds: Even though we lack merits, we ask that You grant us favor. Earlier we said, "until He favors us," and such favor generally requires merits; therefore we add and say: Master of the Universe, favor us because "we are fully sated with contempt." Since we are sated with scorn, it is fitting that You grant us favor, even if on our own merits we are not worthy; but in light of the fact that they have degraded us - this itself now makes us worthy. Here we are suffering, here we are being despised.
רַבַּת שָׂבְעָה־לָּהּ נַפְשֵׁנוּ הַלַּעַג הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים הַבּוּז לִגְאֵי יוֹנִים׃ - Our soul is fully sated with the scorn of the complacent, the contempt of the arrogant oppressors.
Rashi explains: "The scorn of the complacent" - we are sated with the mockery of the tranquil nations. The nations are seemingly tranquil and living in ease, and they mock us. "The contempt" - the contempt with which they despised "ge'ei yonim." Rashi explains that this refers to gei hayonim, the "valley of doves," which is Jerusalem. It is quite possible that "the valley of doves" is in the sense of "Even the bird has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself" (Tehillim 84:4), where the Beit HaMikdash is considered like a nest, and the Jewish people are likened to a dove. Indeed, we frequently find the metaphor of doves - "like doves to their cotes" (Yeshayahu 60:8) - in that Am Yisrael is in the aspect of a dove returning to Jerusalem.
The Radak explains: "Our soul is fully sated" - our soul is sated with the scorn of the complacent. The Radak notes: the construct word is missing (chaser hanismach). For in Lashon HaKodesh, two definite articles (hei hayediah) do not follow one right after the other; when this does appear, it is always exceptional. If one wishes to say "the scorn of the complacent," one says "la'ag hasha'ananim," not "hala'ag hasha'ananim." Another example brought by the Radak is "ha'aron habrit" - this too appears in Scripture, but it is a rare occurrence; normally one says "aron habrit." In every such case, the Radak notes that the construct is missing, meaning that the construct noun needs to be repeated: "ha'aron, aron habrit" ("the Ark, the Ark of the Covenant"). So too here: "hala'ag hasha'ananim" - our soul is sated with the scorn, the scorn of the complacent; as if the word "la'ag" were missing a second time. This is how the verse is to be read.
The Radak offers another explanation: the letter hei in "hasha'ananim" replaces a lamed, and the meaning is: we are sated with the mockery that we are to the complacent (lashaananim); that is, we have become an object of ridicule to them, to these complacent people who mock us. And likewise, "the contempt of ge'ei yonim" - we are sated with the contempt that we represent to the arrogant oppressors, who despise us. The complacent ones are the nations, who are peaceful and tranquil while we are exiled, battered, and suffering in our dispersion, as it says: "Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his dregs" (Yirmeyahu 48:11).
And what is "ge'ei yonim"? "Ge'ei" is like ge'im (arrogant ones), and the nun is an addition, like elyonim. In the written text (ketiv) it appears as one word, while in the reading tradition (keri) it is two words - "lige'ei yonim." And "yonim" is related to "the oppressing city" (ha'ir hayonah) and "the oppressing sword" (cherev hayonah) - for what does a sword have to do with a dove (yonah)? Rather, yonah here is an expression of oppression and wronging (hona'ah), the sword of the gentile who oppresses us, from the root of "You shall not wrong (lo tonu) one another" (Vayikra 25:14), meaning they mistreat and torment us. Similarly, "and My princes shall no longer wrong (velo yonu) My people" (Yechezkel 45:8). If so, "ge'ei yonim" means the arrogant ones who oppress and torment us.
The Malbim explains: "רַבַּת שָׂבְעָה־לָּהּ נַפְשֵׁנוּ" - this is something that pierces and cuts to the very depths of the soul. And there is something here even worse and greater: "הַלַּעַג הַשַּׁאֲנַנִּים" (the mockery of the complacent) which is "הַבּוּז לִגְאֵי יוֹנִים" (the contempt for the haughty oppressors). The excessively proud among them mock the complacent, saying to them: Why are you even dealing with them at all? One gentile mocks another: Why do you bother writing about him, talking about him, or mocking him? He is so low that you should not occupy yourself with him whatsoever. Thus, the mockery of the complacent becomes an object of contempt to the proud: the haughty look down upon the complacent who mock us, saying, why are you mocking the Jewish people at all? They do not deserve any attention, nor are they worthy of notice.
This is comparable to people disdaining a dignified man who mocks someone of the lowest station. If an honorable person comes along, mocks someone, and mimics him, who is disgraced here? Not the lowly person, but the dignified one: you should be ashamed of yourself, how could you sink to such a level? And if he argues, "He yelled at me, he said this and that to me" - since when does a prime minister pay attention to background noise? Who gets worked up over that? A prime minister who snaps back at everyone who shouts at him, "You fool, what do you know?" - every such comment diminishes his own stature. He ought to act as if he did not hear, as if they are not speaking to him at all; whoever responds is the one who is disgraced. This is what the haughty say to the complacent: Shame on you for even bothering to mock the people of Israel.
In his linguistic analysis (Biur Hamilot), the Malbim explains the distinction between la'ag (mockery) and buz (contempt): mockery is overt and greater than contempt, whereas contempt can also exist in the heart alone. Therefore, Scripture states that the mockery of the complacent is itself the contempt for the haughty - for that very mockery, the haughty despise them.