1. A Song of the Ascents. Unto thee do I raise iny eyes, the (one) sitting in the heavens. This psalm contains an expression of solicitous desire for divine help, ver. 1, 2, a direct prayer for mercy, ver. 3, and a statement of the circumstances which occasioned it. With the first clause compare Ps. cxxi. 1, with the second, Ps. ii. 4, xi. 4, ciii. 19, cxiii. 3, 5.
2. Behold, as the eyes of sei-wants (are turned) to the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes (are turned) to ‘Jehovah our God, until he have mercy upon us. The behold as, at the beginning, is equivalent to see how in English. Some suppose the act of looking towards the hand of a superior to denote desire of protection; others an appeal to his bounty, as in Ps. civ. 27, 28, cxlv. 15, 16; others an implied prayer that punishment may cease. Compare Gen. xvi. 6, 8, 9. Perhaps all these explanations err in being too specific, and the sense of the comparison is simply that they look with deference and trust to the superior power which controls them.
3. Have mercy upon us, 0 Jehovah, have mercy upon us; for greatly are we sated with contempt. This petition forms the centre of the psalm, to which what goes before is introductory, and what follows supplementary. The contempt is that of heathen neighbours, and especially that of the Samaritans, which is expressly mentioned in the history. See Neh. i. 3, ii. 19.
4. Much sated in itself is our soul with the scorning of the secure, the contempt of the proud. In itself, literally to or for itself, as in Ps. cxxii. 3. Secure (sinners), those at ease, indifferent to the sufferings of others, and without apprehension of their own. Compare Ps. lxxiii. 12.
