Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us: for we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
Parallel translations
- WEB Have mercy on us, Yahweh, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.
- BSB Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.
- NKJV Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us! For we are exceedingly filled with contempt.
- NASB ¶Be gracious to us, Lord, be gracious to us, For we have had much more than enough of contempt.
- NLT Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy, for we have had our fill of contempt.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
He pleads urgently for God's mercy because they have suffered much contempt. In scorn and disdain, the people cry for God's compassion.
Overview
The doubled cry 'Have mercy on us' conveys urgency as the people groan under 'much contempt.' Their only recourse against scorn is God's mercy. This appeal anticipates the gospel, where God answers the humble cry for mercy with the grace lavished in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Luke 18:11–13The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.
- Ps 57:1Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.
- Ps 89:50–51Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people;
- Neh 4:2–4And he spake before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? will they fortify themselves? will they sacrifice? will they make an end in a day? will they revive the stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned?
- Ps 56:1–2Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.
- Luke 23:35And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.
- Isa 53:3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
- Ps 4:1Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
- Luke 16:14And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
- Ps 69:13–16But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
- Ps 44:13–16Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us.
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 123:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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