Psalm 129

Most nations tend to look back on what they have achieved, the ‘ascending’ pilgrims here reflect on what the covenant descendants of Abraham have survived throughout history, and they pray for God’s continued protection.

 ‘From my youth’ (v1&2) is the time when they came out of Egypt (Jer2:2). The poetic phrase is repeated twice for emphasis making a sonnet out of their sorrows and music out of their miseries. Nations, kingdoms, and powers all have done their best to wipe out the Jews. Yet they remain! It would seem that the chief accomplishment of the Jewish people has been survival! The Jews are the longest-enduring distinct ethnic people on the planet. They have been slandered, hated, persecuted, expelled, pursued, and murdered throughout their long existence, but they have survived intact. One of the great miracles of history is that the enemies of the Jewish people have never ultimately succeeded or ‘prevailed against’ them. Like the burning bush they were oppressed or lashed by their adversaries, but they were never consumed. Their back’s being “plowed’ is vivid imagery of suffering and subjugation. The survival of these people, so hated but so resilient, bore silent witness to their Preserver.

In a New Covenant context, Jesus’ promised that the strategies of hades will never prevail against His church (Matt16:18) The Church shall stand firm because it is founded on a rock. Hades is the NT Greek translation of the OT ‘sheol’. The place of the dead. For Christ has established authority over all powers (Eph1:20-23), even the one who “holds the power of death” (Heb2:14).

The imprecatory prayer of vs5-7 may surprise some. However, the psalmist is not asking for their harm, he is only asking that their designs might not prosper. The grass on the rooftops is a graphic image of Israel’s enemies who had their ‘green’ seasons, but always had short-lived success and rapid extinction – they withered and turned yellow.

The psalm ends with the thought that in harvest times men bless each other in the name of the Lord; but there is nothing for the ungodly man to suggest the giving or receiving of a benediction.