Psalms 129 Commentary

tion, that to which there is none like, the Fountain of redemption, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. The article ה, both in הרבה harabbah and החסד hachesed, is very emphatic. Verse 8 He shall redeem Israel - Και αυτος υτρωσει, "He will make a ransom for Israel," He will provide a great price for Israel, and by it will take away all his iniquities. I would not restrict this to Israel in Babylon. Every believer may take it to himself. God perfectly justifies and perfectly sanctifies all that come unto him through the Son of his love. Introduction The psalmist professes his humility, and the peaceableness of his disposition and conduct, Psa 131:1 , Psa 131:2 . Exhorts Israel to hope in God, Psa 131:3 . Some think that David composed this Psalm as a vindication of himself, when accused by Saul's courtiers that he affected the crown, and was laying schemes and plots to possess himself of it. Others think the Psalm was made during the captivity, and that it contains a fair account of the manner in which the captives behaved themselves, under the domination of their oppressors. Verse 1 Lord, my heart is not haughty - The principle of pride has no place in my heart; and consequently the high, lofty, and supercilious look does not appear in my eyes. I neither look up, with desire to obtain, to the state of others, nor look down with contempt to the meanness or poverty of those below me. And the whole of my conduct proves this; for I have not exercised myself - walked, in high matters, nor associated myself with the higher ranks of the community, nor in great matters, נפלאות niphlaoth, wonderful or sublime things; too high for me, ממני mimmeni, alien from me, and that do not belong to a person in my sphere and situation in life. Verse 2 I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child - On the contrary, I have been under the rod of others, and when chastised have not complained; and my silence under my affliction was the fullest proof that I neither murmured nor repined, but received all as coming from the hands of a just God. My soul is even as a weaned child - I felt I must forego many conveniences and comforts which I once enjoyed; and these I gave up without repining or demurring. Verse 3 Let Israel hope in the Lord - Act all as I have done; trust in him who is the God of justice and compassion; and, after you have suffered awhile, he will make bare his arm and deliver you. Short as it is, this is a most instructive Psalm. He who acts as the psalmist did, is never likely to come to mischief, or do any to others. Introduction The psalmist prays that God would remember his promises to David, Psa 132:1 . His purpose to bring the ark of the Lord into a place of rest, Psa 132:2-5 . Where it was found, and the prayer in removing it, Psa 132:6-9 . The promises made to David and his posterity, Psa 132:10-12 . God's choice of Zion for a habitation, and his promises to the people, Psa 132:13-17 . All their enemies shall be confounded, Psa 132:18 . Some attribute this Psalm to David, but without sufficient ground; others, to Solomon, with more likelihood

From my youth - From the time that I was a people.

Jer. xii. 9 . It is true, they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins; it was for them that God punished them; but it was for the peculiarity of their covenant, and the singularities of their religion, that their neighbours hated and persecuted them. "For these many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. " Note, God's people have always had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its infancy, has frequently been an afflicted state. Israel's youth was in Egypt, or in the times of the Judges; then they were afflicted, and thenceforward more or less. The gospel-church, ever since it had a being, has been at times afflicted; and it bore this yoke most of all in its youth, witness the ten persecutions which the primitive church groaned under. The ploughers ploughed upon my back, v. 3 . We read ( Ps. cxxv. 3 ) of the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous, where we rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves; here we read of the plough of the wicked upon the back of the righteous, where we rather expected to find the rod. But the metaphors in these places may be said to be crossed; the sense however of both is the same, and is too plain, that the enemies of God's people have all along used them very barbarously. They tore them, as the husbandman tears the ground with his plough-share, to pull them to pieces and get all they could out of them, and so to wear out the saints of the Most High, as the ground is worn out that has been long tilled, tilled (as we say) quite out of heart. When God permitted them to plough thus he intended it for his people's good, that, their fallow ground being thus broken up, he might sow the seeds of his grace upon them, and reap a harvest of good fruit from them: howbeit, the enemies meant not so, neither did their hearts think so ( Isa. x. 7 ); they made long their furrows, never knew when to have done, aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the church. Many by the furrows they made on the backs of God's people understand the stripes they gave them. The cutters cut upon my back, so they read it. The saints have often had trials of cruel scourgings (probably the captives had) and cruel mockings (for we read of the scourge or lash of the tongue, Heb. xi. 36 ), and so it was fulfilled in Christ, who gave his back to the smiters, Isa. l. 6 . Or it may refer to the desolations they made of the cities of Israel. Zion shall, for your sake, be ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12 . 2. That the church has been always graciously delivered by her friend in heaven. (1.) The enemies' projects have been defeated. They have afflicted the church, in hopes to ruin it, but they have not gained their point. Many a storm it has weathered; many a shock, and many a brunt, it has borne; and yet it is in being: They have not prevailed against me. One would wonder how this ship has lived at sea, when it has been tossed with tempests, and all the waves and billows have gone over it. Christ has built his church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it, nor ever shall. (2.) The enemies' power has been broken: God has cut asunder the cords of the wicked, has cut their gears, their traces, and so spoiled their ploughing, has cut their scourges, and so spoiled their lashing, has cut the bands of union by which they were combined together, has cut the bands of captivity in which they held God's people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men to do the mischief they design against his church and shaming their counsels. These words, The Lord is righteous, may refer either to the distresses or to the deliverances of the church. [1.] The Lord is righteous in suffering Israel to be afflicted. This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust soever their enemies were, God was just in all that was brought upon them, Neh. ix. 33 . [2.] The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; for he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and he will be as good as his word. He is righteous in reckoning with their persecutors, and rendering to them a recompence, 2 Thess. i. 6 . God's Regard to His Church. 5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. 6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up: 7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. 8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord . The psalmist, having triumphed in the defeat of the many designs that had been laid as deep as hell to ruin the church, here concludes his psalm as Deborah did her song, So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord! Judg. v. 31 . I. There are many that hate Zion, that hate Zion's God, his worship, and his worshippers, that have an antipathy to religion and rel

Righteous - Faithful or merciful. The cords - Wherewith the plow was drawn. By these cords he understands all their plots and endeavours.

igious people, that seek the ruin of both, and do what they can that God may not have a church in the world. II. We ought to pray that all their attempts against the church may be frustrated, that in them they may be confounded and turned back with shame, as those that have not been able to bring to pass their enterprise and expectation: Let them all be confounded is as much as, They shall be all confounded. The confusion imprecated and predicted is illustrated by a similitude; while God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-top. As men they are not to be feared, for they shall be made as grass, Isa. li. 12 . But as they are enemies to Zion they are so certainly marked for ruin that they may be looked upon with as much contempt as the grass on the house-tops, which is little, and short, and sour, and good for nothing. 1. It perishes quickly: It withers before it grows up to any maturity, having no root; and the higher its place is, which perhaps is its pride, the more it is exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, and consequently the sooner does it wither. It withers before it is plucked up, so some read it. The enemies of God's church wither of themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by the judgments of God. 2. It is of no use to any body; nor are they any thing but the unprofitable burdens of the earth, nor will their attempts against Zion ever ripen or come to any head, nor, whatever they promise themselves, will they get any more by them than the husbandman does by the grass on his house-top. Their harvest will be a heap in the day of grief, Isa. xvii. 11 . III. No wise man will pray God to bless the mowers or reapers, v. 8 . Observe, 1. It has been an ancient and laudable custom not only to salute and wish a good day to strangers and travellers, but particularly to pray for the prosperity of harvest-labourers. Thus Boas prayed for his reapers. Ruth ii. 4 , The Lord be with you. We must thus acknowledge God's providence, testify our good-will to our neighbours, and commend their industry, and it will be accepted of God as a pious ejaculation if it come from a devout and upright heart. 2. Religious expressions, being sacred things, must never be made use of in light and ludicrous actions. Mowing the grass on the house-top would be a jest, and therefore those that have a reverence for the name of God will not prostitute to it the usual forms of salutation, which savoured of devotion; for holy things must not be jested with. 3. It is a dangerous thing to let the church's enemies have our good wishes in their designs against the church. If we wish them God speed, we are partakers of their evil deeds, 2 John 11 . When it is said, None will bless them, and show them respect, more is implied, namely, that all wise and good people will cry out shame on them, and beg of God to defeat them; and woe to those that have the prayers of the saints against them. I cursed his habitation, Job v. 3 . This psalm relates not to any temporal concern, either personal or public, but it is wholly taken up with the affairs of the soul. It is reckoned one of the seven penitential psalms, which have sometimes been made use of by penitents, upon their admission into the church; and, in singing it, we are all concerned to apply it to ourselves. The psalmist here expresses, I. His desire towards God, ver. 1, 2 . II. His repentance before God, ver. 3, 4 . III. His attendance upon God, ver. 5, 6 . IV. His expectations from God, ver. 7, 8 . And, as in water face answers to face, so does the heart of one humble penitent to another. God's Regard to His Church. 1

House - tops - Which there were flat. Which - Having no deep root, never comes to maturity. And so all their designs shall be abortive.

The blessing - Which was an usual salutation given by passengers to reapers: so the meaning is, it never continues 'till the harvest comes.