Psalms 123 - Introduction

This psalm is entitled simply “Song of Degrees.” See the notes at the title of Psalms 120:1. Nothing is intimated in regard to the authorship of the psalm, or to the occasion on which it was composed. The only circumstance which throws any light on its origin is the statement in Psalms 123:4, that the author and his friends - the people of God referred to in the psalm - were exposed to derision and contempt for their attachment to religion, especially the contempt and reproach of those who were in circumstances of ease and affluence, or who were in the more elevated ranks of life. This might accord well with the condition of the exiles returning from Babylon, or with the condition of the returned captives when rebuilding the walls of the city, and when they met with scorn and contempt from the Samaritans and the Ammonites; from Sanballat and Tobiah; from the Arabians and the Ashdodites Nehemiah 4:1; but there is no certain evidence that the psalm was composed on that occasion. The pious Hebrews of antiquity - David and others - and the people of God at all times have been too much exposed to this kind of treatment to make the mere applicability of the psalm to that particular time a reason for concluding that it must have been composed then; and it is now impossible to determine by whom, or on what occasion it was composed. It refers to what may occur in any age of the world; and it expresses the proper feelings of piety at all times when we are, on account of our religion, exposed to “the scorning of those that are at ease, and to the contempt of the proud.”