One of the fifteen Songs of Ascents, which St Athanasius said to pray when you can feel yourself climbing higher.
St Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus
In the 300s, St Athanasius of Alexandria wrote a letter to his friend Marcellinus about praying the Psalms. In it he matched psalms to what people go through. This is what he gave this one for.
You can feel yourself climbing: forgetting what's behind you and straining toward what's ahead.
When you sense yourself climbing higher in how you live, so that you can say with Paul, "forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead", you have the fifteen Songs of Ascents to say at every step forward.
Letter to Marcellinus
He gave all fifteen Songs of Ascents for this, Psalms 120 to 134.
4 verses, Berean Standard Bible
Its own heading A song of ascents.
Psalm 123 is 122 in the Greek numbering Athanasius used, which Orthodox Bibles and some older Catholic ones still follow.
When life is good, and you want to thank Him and grow
All 53 situations, in one guide.
Suggest a correction. Corrections that are applied are recorded in the public changelog.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Athanasius’s advice is paraphrased from his Greek.
