These two psalms mark the second movement of the pilgrimage, arrival. Psalm 120 lamented from a distance, and Psalm 121 gave assurance along the road. Psalm 122 puts the pilgrim's feet inside Jerusalem's gates, and Psalm 123 supplies the posture that arriving requires. The order matters, because of where the gladness begins. The psalm opens in the past tense. 1"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD!'" The joy came at the invitation, before the pilgrim had gone anywhere. He did not wait to feel like going. Gladness that arrives only after we have arrived is a smaller thing than gladness that shows up at the invitation.
Once he stands in the city, he does not simply enjoy it. He prays. 6"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!" The word for peace, shalom, appears three times in three verses, and each time it is something to be asked for. It answers Psalm 120 directly. The pilgrim who declared that he was peace among neighbors who hated it has now reached the city that shares the word's root, and he turns at once to intercede for it. Peace inside the walls is not a permanent inheritance. Each generation has to ask for it again, and a church can coast for a while on a peace it did not build and is no longer praying for, until the coasting runs out.
Psalm 123 then answers arrival with dependence. Psalm 121 lifted the eyes to the hills. Here the eyes go straight to the one who sits above them, with no mountain standing in for him. Then comes the picture that names the psalm. Our eyes look to the LORD 2"as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master." A servant's eyes stay on the hand, trained to catch the smallest gesture of command or provision. He is not reading the master's face for his mood. He is watching for what the master wants done next.
That is a different kind of attention than most of our prayer defaults to. We spend a great deal of prayer trying to work out how God feels about us today. The servant asks a simpler question, what is the hand doing, and is ready to move the moment it moves.
The psalm asks for mercy twice. 3"Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us." It asks while enduring the 4"scorn of those who are at ease," and the stated reason is plain: 3"we have had more than enough of contempt." It makes no accusation against God, only a doubled, patient plea from people watching his hand until he moves it.
Put the two psalms together. The glad pilgrim and the watching servant are one person learning to hold both. Ask for gladness at the invitation today, before you feel like going. Pray for the peace of whatever household or church is yours. Then keep your eyes on the hand, and wait.
Prayer
Father, we were glad the day someone first said, "let us go to the house of the LORD," and we ask you to keep that gladness alive in us at the invitation itself. Pray with us for the peace of our own Jerusalem, whatever household or church that is right now. Give us eyes that stay on your hand, and have mercy on us, have mercy on us. In the name of Jesus, amen.