Psalm 129
1 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—
let Israel now say—
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows.”
4 The LORD is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
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
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say,
“The blessing of the LORD be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the LORD!”
This is a psalm calling for judgement on all who hate Zion. To hate Zion is to hate the people of Zion; it is to hate what God loves. The first half describes Israel’s troubles and subsequent delivery. The second half is a call for retribution.
This is a psalm where Israel , or the godly remnant in Israel, is given voice. Her story has not been an easy one. Her history from her days in Egypt has been opposition from other nations (Hos 11:1; Jer 2:2). Twice we are told ‘Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth’ giving more weight to the punchline ‘yet they have not prevailed against me’ (Cf. 124:1,2). God’s people are knocked down but not knocked out (2 Cor 4:9). Perhaps the first ‘Greatly…’ is the voice of the cantor calling for a congregational response.
Israel’s suffering is compared to a ‘plowed back’ (Cf. Mic 3:12) She (he) has been brutally treated – they have made long their furrows (v3). The metaphor is of a back plowed by scourging and whipping. Israel is corporate yet the individual ‘me’ and the ‘my’ is also individual.
It’s impossible to read the words of v3 without thinking about Jesus. Jesus is the true Israel who experiences in life the history of his people. And so he was flogged and scourged – like the nation (Isa 50:6, 53:5; Mk 15:15; Jn 19:1). Like Israel he was hated – but, paradoxically, the hate came principally from Israel. Israel, the nation, was also ‘wicked’ Israel that hated Zion for she hated Zion’s King and Zion’s God and Zion’s true people (vv4,5). Earthly Jerusalem was temporarily abandoned. Her future would lie in a heavenly Jerusalem – that is, one built by God not man, built by grace not works. (Hebs 11).
The Lord is Israel’s defender. He sets things right. Righteousness is not confining but liberating. He has cut the cords of the wicked. Perhaps the cord of the scourge – continuing the metaphor, or perhaps the cords of the yoke that the enemy used to bind; the cord of captivity. At any rate, Israel believes the Lord acted righteously in freeing her from her enemies, the wicked who oppose the people of God. God’s salvation and righteousness often put together both in the OT and NT (Roms 1:16,17). Pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem would be reminded that life may be hard but for the godly God is on their side. We can’t help but wonder how over the last 2000 years Israel has suffered yet survived. It seems even unregenerate Israel is preserved by the Lord.
Israel’s enemies are called ‘the wicked’. They are those who hate Zion and all she represents. They hate not only God’s people, Israel’, but they hate Zion’s God and her anointed King; God, his King and his people are all rejected and opposed in hating Zion. Israel’s enemies belong to her own family. The godly are jealous for Zion’s glory. After all Zion is the city ‘of our God’ (Ps 48:1).
Curses are called down by the godly remnant. Imprecations. Of course, as Christians we kind of step back from imprecations and the imprecations in this psalm are some of the milder. And it is true that the NT urges ‘if your enemy hungers, feed him’ and enjoins that we forgive our enemies. Yet imprecations, though not to the fore, are not absent. Paul says, ‘Alexander the Coppersmith did me much evil the Lord will repay him according to his deeds’ (2 Tim 4:14). paul pronounces an curse of the judaistic teachers in Galatia (Gals 1). Imprecations are really a call for the Lord to act in justice.
In the psalm the call is for the wicked to be put to shame and turned backwards. It is the picture of an army in retreat. This is accompanied by a call for their life to be short and vanishing; as Broyles says, a ‘withering existence’ (v6) without value or significance (v7). These should have no blessing from the Lord. Of course, from the eternal perspective this is the destiny of the lost – a brief life without eternal blessing or significance.
There are many who hate Zion, the heavenly Zion, today. A whole emerging woke generation reveal their animosity. So too do false destructive teachers within the church. Persecution of Zion’s children is found in many countries. In Israel the church is increasingly unwelcome, just as it was in C1.. Passion for Zion calls for praying against such people even as we may pray for their salvation. As God’s people, let us.
Cave Adullam 