This Psalm is joined to the preceding Psalm by the community of the divine name Jahve our God. Alsted (died 1638) gives it the brief, ingenious inscription oculus sperans. It is an upward glance of waiting faith to Jahve under tyrannical oppression. The fact that this Psalm appears in a rhyming form, “as scarcely any other piece in the Old Testament” (Reuss), comes only from those inflexional rhymes which creep in of themselves in the tephilla style.
Verses 1-2
The destinies of all men, and in particular of the church, are in the hand of the King who sits enthroned in the unapproachable glory of the heavens and rules over all things, and of the Judge who decides all things. Up to Him the poet raises his eyes, and to Him the church, together with which he may call Him “Jahve our God,” just as the eyes of servants are directed towards the hand of their lord, the eyes of a maid towards the hand of her mistress; for this hand regulates the whole house, and they wait upon their winks and signs with most eager attention. Those of Israel are Jahve's servants, Israel the church is Jahve's maid. In His hand lies its future. At length He will take compassion on His own. Therefore its longing gaze goes forth towards Him, without being wearied, until He shall graciously turn its distress. With reference to the i of היּשׁבי, vid., on Psa 113:1-9, Psa 114:1-8. אדוניהם is their common lord; for since in the antitype the sovereign Lord is meant, it will be conceived of as plur. excellentiae, just as in general it occurs only rarely (Gen 19:2, Gen 19:18; Jer 27:4) as an actual plural.
Verses 3-4
The second strophe takes up the “be gracious unto us” as it were in echo. It begins with a Kyrie eleison, which is confirmed in a crescendo manner after the form of steps. The church is already abundantly satiated with ignominy. רב is an abstract “much,” and רבּה, Psa 62:3, something great (vid., Böttcher, Lehrbuch, §624). The subjectivizing, intensive להּ accords with Psa 120:6 - probably an indication of
