Psalm 129

Psalm 129 is the tenth of the Songs of Ascents in the book of Psalms, a series that runs from Psalm 120 through Psalm 134. The preceding Psalm 128 celebrates the blessings enjoyed by those who fear the LORD and closes with "peace upon Israel." Psalm 129 continues by looking back on the suffering that this same Israel has endured.

Structure

• Verses 1–4 Israel confesses that it has been afflicted many times "from my youth," yet its enemies have not prevailed. The image of plowers cutting long furrows across its back conveys deep suffering, and the psalm declares that the righteous LORD has cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
• Verses 5–8 The psalmist prays that those who hate Zion will be put to shame and turned back. They are likened to grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up. Such grass fills neither the mower's hand nor the bosom of the one who binds sheaves, and it never receives the blessing that passersby offer to the harvesters.

Key Verses

• Psalm 129:2 "yet they have not prevailed against me" — the central confession of the psalm: though affliction came again and again, the community did not collapse.
• Psalm 129:4 "The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked" — the ground of deliverance lies not in Israel's strength but in God's righteousness.
• Psalm 129:8 "we bless you in the name of the LORD" — a verse that preserves a greeting exchanged at harvest time in that era.

People and Places

• Israel: The speaker of the psalm, portrayed as a community speaking with one voice.
• The LORD: Confessed as the one who cuts the cords of the wicked and rescues Israel.
• Zion: The mount on which Jerusalem and the temple stood; the name is also used to refer to the people of God as a whole.

Points for Reflection

• The phrase "may Israel now say" in verse 1 echoes the wording of Psalm 124:1. Many interpreters take it as a liturgical form in which a leader addressed the congregation and the congregation responded with its confession.
• The affliction "from my youth" is commonly read as the nation's history, stretching from slavery in Egypt to the Babylonian exile. The text itself, however, names no specific event or enemy.
• Verses 5–8 ask for the downfall of enemies. For this reason the psalm is sometimes discussed alongside the so-called imprecatory psalms, which pray for the destruction of enemies. Some interpreters read this section as a prayer that entrusts vengeance to God's justice rather than taking it into one's own hands; others ask how it is to be read together with the New Testament's teaching to love one's enemies.
• The greeting in verse 8 is often compared with the blessing exchanged between Boaz and his reapers in Ruth 2.
• The confession that the afflicted are not destroyed by persecution is often read together with 2 Corinthians 4:8–9. A Christian interpretation that links the image of furrows plowed on the back to the scourging of Jesus has also been handed down, but this is a later interpretation rather than something the text states directly.