How does Psalm 123:3 connect with God's mercy in Lamentations 3:22-23?

Setting the texts side by side

• Psalm 123:3: “Have mercy on us, O LORD, have mercy, for we have endured much contempt.”

• Lamentations 3:22-23: “Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!”

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The shared heart cry: Mercy needed

• Both passages spring from places of hardship—Psalm 123 from scorn, Lamentations from national devastation.

• Each writer turns instinctively to the same solution: the LORD’s covenant mercy (Hebrew ḥesed).

• Mercy is not an abstract concept but the living character of God revealed from Exodus 34:6 onward: “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious…”

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God’s mercies: personal and national

• Psalm 123:3 is an individual and communal plea (“on us”)—a direct appeal for rescue in the face of contempt.

• Lamentations 3:22-23 steps back to a wider lens, recognizing that Israel’s continued existence proves God’s mercy already at work.

• Connection: the Psalm voices the request; Lamentations supplies the assurance that mercy will, in fact, arrive—and does so daily.

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New every morning—how the connection deepens our hope

• Psalm 123 reminds us we can ask repeatedly; Lamentations answers that God never runs out of supply.

• Contempt and sorrow feel relentless, but His mercies are more relentless still—“never fail… new every morning.”

• Psalm 123 focuses on present need; Lamentations adds the time-tested record of God’s faithfulness, turning plea into confidence (cf. Hebrews 4:16).

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Living response today

• Approach God boldly with specific needs, just as the Psalmist did—He welcomes the cry.

• Anchor requests in the certainty voiced by Jeremiah: no circumstance exhausts God’s mercy.

• Start each day by recalling Lamentations 3:22-23; carry Psalm 123:3 as a ready prayer whenever contempt or pressure rises.

• Rejoice that in Christ, mercy is magnified (Ephesians 2:4-5); the same faithful LORD has acted decisively at the cross and still meets us “new every morning.”