Psalm 123
“Unto thee lift I up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the heavens…”
Psalm 123, recorded by the David/Asaph Project. Released in 2001 on the Psalmody album. Duration 3:16.
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Details
Musical composition by David Albracht
Recorded at 2nd Floor Studios, Dallas, Texas.
Engineered by John Piper
Mixed at Piper Projects by John Piper
Mastered by Ed Johnson
Recorded and Mixed on the Paris 24 bit DAW
Musicians:
Bass – Lou Harlas
Drums – Harrell Bosarge
Guitar – John Piper
Harmony Vocals – Jeanie Perkins
Keyboards, Synthesizer – Ken Boome
Percussion – John Bryant
Vocals – David Albracht
Psalm 123, the second track of the Psalmody album, was recorded by the David/Asaph Project at 2nd Floor Studios in Dallas, Texas, in the year 2000. This song features the text of the KJV translation set to new music. Song duration is 3:16.
The reviews for this song have been mixed. Tony Cummings of Cross Rhythms Magazine considered the “fluid Texas blues” of Psalm 123 to be in step with the rest of the album… “always with a deftness of touch and sensitivity of arrangement”. However, Paul Buckley of the Dallas Morning News wrote that this song was not as equally convincing as the others on the album. He said: “A bluesy Psalm 123 moves along with a sassy, insouciant swing that seems at odds with a plea such as ‘Have mercy upon us, for we are exceedingly contempt’. But that criticism should not detract from the disc’s merits. Listeners are likely to find, as Luther did, that a good dose of the psalms make other songs seem tepid. The psalms are the original praise and worship music, after all.”
C.H. Spurgeon's Comments on the text of Psalm 123
A Song of degrees. We are climbing. The first step (Ps. 120) saw us lamenting our troublesome surroundings, and the next saw us lifting or eyes to the hills and resting in assured security; from this we rose to delight in the house of the Lord; but here we look to the Lord himself, and this is the highest ascent of all by many degrees. The eyes are now looking above the hills, and above Jehovah’s footstool on earth, to his throne in the heavens. Let us know it as “the Psalm of the eyes”. Old authors call it Oculus “Sperans”, or the eye of hope. It is a short Psalm, written with singular art, containing one thought, and expressing if in a most engaging manner. Doubtless it would be a favourite song among the people of God. It has been conjectured that this brief song, or rather sigh, may have first been heard in the days of Nehemiah, or under the persecutions of Antiochus. It may be so, but there is no evidence of it; it seems to us quite as probable that afflicted ones in all periods after David’s time found this psalm ready to their hand If it appears to describe days remote from David, it is all the more evident that the Psalmist was also a prophet, and sang what he saw in vision.