        
CLARKE'S COMMENTARY - PSALMS 129
- The Jews give an account of the afflictions which they
have passed through, 1-3.
- And thank God for
their deliverance, 4.
- The judgments that shall fall on
the workers of iniquity, 5-8.
This Psalm was written after the captivity; and
contains a reference to the many tribulations which the Jews
passed through from their youth, i.e., the earliest
part of their history, their bondage in Egypt. It has no
title in any of the Versions, nor in the
Hebrew text, except the general one of A Psalm of
Degrees. The author is uncertain.
Verse 1. Many a time have they afflicted
me
The Israelites had been generally in
affliction or captivity from the earliest part of their
history, here called their youth. Hosea
2:15: "She shall sing as in the days of her youth,
when she came up out of the land of Egypt." See
Jeremiah
2:2, and ; Ezekiel
16:4,
Verse 2. Yet they have not prevailed
They endeavoured to annihilate us as a people; but God
still preserves us as his own nation.
Verse 3. The plowers plowed upon my
back
It is possible that this mode of
expression may signify that the people, during their
captivity, were cruelly used by scourging, or it may be
a sort of proverbial mode of expression for the most cruel
usage. There really appears here to be a reference to a
yoke, as if they had actually been yoked to the
plough, or to some kind of carriages, and
been obliged to draw like beasts of burden. In this way
St. Jerome understood the passage; and this has the more
likelihood, as in the next verse God is represented as
cutting them off from these draughts.
Verse 4. The Lord-hath cut asunder the cords of the
wicked.
The words have been applied to the
sufferings of Christ; but I know not on what authority. No
such scourging could take place in his case, as would justify
the expression,-
"The ploughers made long furrows there, Till all his body
was one wound."
It is not likely that he received more than
thirty-nine stripes. The last line is an unwarranted
assertion.
Verse 5. Let them all be confounded
They shall be confounded. They who hate Zion, the
Church of God, hate God himself; and all such must be dealt
with as enemies, and be utterly confounded.
Verse 6. As the grass upon the
housetops
As in the east the roofs of the
houses were flat, seeds of various kinds falling upon
them would naturally vegetate, though in an imperfect way;
and, because of the want of proper nourishment, would
necessarily dry and wither away. If
grass, the mower cannot make hay of it;
if corn, the reaper cannot make a sheaf
of it. Let the Babylonians be like such herbage-good for
nothing, and come to nothing.
Withereth afore it groweth
up
Before shalak, it is
unsheathed; i.e., before it ears, or comes to
seed.
Verse 8. Neither do they which go by
say
There is a reference here to the
salutations which were given and returned
by the reapers in the time of the harvest. We find that
it was customary, when the master came to them into the field,
to say unto the reapers, The Lord be with you! and for
them to answer, The Lord bless thee! Ruth
2:4. Let their land become desolate, that no harvest shall
ever more appear in it. No interchange of benedictions between
owners and reapers. This has literally taken place: Babylon is
utterly destroyed; no harvests grow near the place where it
stood.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH PSALM
The intent of the prophet in composing this Psalm is to
comfort the Church in affliction, and to stir her up to
glorify God for his providence over her, always for her good,
and bringing her enemies to confusion, and a sudden ruin.
It is divided into three parts:-
I. The indefatigable malice of the enemies of the Church,
Psalms
129:1,3.
II. That their malice is vain. God saves them, Psalms
129:2,4.
III. God puts into the mouth of his people what they may
say to their enemies, even when their malice is at the
highest.
I. "Many a time have they afflicted me,"
1. That afflictions do attend those who will live
righteously in Christ Jesus.
2. These afflictions are many: "Many a time,"
3. That they begin with the Church: "From my youth."
Prophets, martyrs,
4. This affliction was a heavy affliction: "The plowers
plowed upon my back," husbandman does with his ground.
II. But all their malice is to no purpose.
1. "Yet they have not prevailed against me." To extinguish
the Church.
2. The reason is, "The Lord is righteous." And therefore he
protects all those who are under his tuition, and punishes
their adversaries.
3. "The Lord is righteous," with which they made their
furrows: "He hath delivered Israel,"
III. In the following verses, to the end, the prophet, by
way of prediction, declares the vengeance God would bring upon
his enemies which has three degrees:-
1. "Let them all be confounded," us.
2. "Let them be as the grass," Grass on the housetops is
good for nothing: "Which withereth afore it groweth up,"
3. "Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the
Lord,"
workmen in harvest: but even this the enemies of the
Church, and of God's work, say not, for they wish it not.
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