PSALTERIVM

PSALMVS CXXII — AD TE LEVAVI

To Thee Have I Lifted Up My Eyes

Ad te levavi oculos meos is a brief Gradual Psalm of servants looking to their master's hand for direction. The simple imagery of waiting upon God models patient prayer. In the 1962 Breviary it appears at Vespers on Tuesdays. The repeated petition 'Have mercy on us' expresses the fundamental posture of the creature before the Creator.

LATINE
Ad te levavi oculos meos, qui habitas in caelis.
Ecce sicut oculi servorum, in manibus dominorum suorum,
Sicut oculi ancillae in manibus dominae suae: ita oculi nostri ad Dominum, Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri.
Miserere nostri, Domine, miserere nostri: quia multum repleti sumus despectione.
Quia multum repleta est anima nostra: opprobrium abundantibus, et despectio superbis.
ENGLISH
To thee have I lifted up my eyes, who dwellest in heaven.
Behold as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters,
As the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.
Have mercy on us, O Lord, have mercy on us: for we are greatly filled with contempt.
For our soul is greatly filled: we are a reproach to the rich, and contempt to the proud.
NOTA
FONS
Douay-Rheims (1609) / Vulgata
USUS
Little Hours, Humility meditation
CONTEXT
Psalm 123 in Hebrew numbering. Fourth Song of Ascents. The servant imagery teaches watchful dependence on God's timing.