A song of ascents
129:Title See Ps 120.⚜
129
📚“From my youth many times they have afflicted me”,
may Israel now say,
129:1 From Ps 128 some people might get the false impression that the fear of the Lord always produces a prosperous and trouble free life. This psalm should correct such an idea. The history of Israel reveals that afflictions often follow God’s people. “From my youth” is a reference to the afflictions experienced in Egypt when they began to be a numerous people and nation (Exodus chapter 1), and to the troubles with surrounding nations all through their history.⚜
2 📚“From my youth many times
they have afflicted me;
yet they have not prevailed
against me.
3 📚The plowmen plowed
on my back;
they made their furrows long”.
129:3 Satan would like to pierce us, slice us, and break us up with his plow. But if God permits us to be plowed up it is because He means to have a harvest from us. He will sow His Word in the furrows, lay His healing hand on the pain, and bring fruitfulness out of our affliction.⚜
4 📚The LORD is righteous.
He has cut in two the cords of
the wicked.
129:2-4 A great many enemies tried to destroy Israel completely, but none succeeded. The New Testament church has the same promise (Matt 16:18). Israel was not preserved because of their own righteousness but because of God’s. Their deliverance was not their work but the Lord’s.⚜
129:4 The Lord was righteous in permitting all the affliction Israel experienced, and righteous when He came to their deliverance.⚜
5 📚Let all those who hate Zion
be put to shame and
turned back.
129:5 To hate Zion was to hate the people of God, and to hate God Who then dwelled in His temple there. Such haters of Zion deserved nothing but shame, dishonor, and destruction. For such prayers see note at Ps 35:8.⚜
6 📚Let them be like the grass
on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
7 📚With which the reaper
does not fill his hand,
or he who binds sheaves,
his arms.
129:6-7 In other words, let such people be soon destroyed and little remain of them.⚜
8 📚And may those who go
by not say,
“The blessing of the LORD
be on you.
We bless you in the name
of the LORD”.
129:8 Compare Ruth 2:4. How can people who hate Zion expect to have the blessing of God who loved Zion and chose it for His dwelling place? They may imagine they have God’s blessing, but in the end it will prove a delusion.⚜