Psalm 129

"‘Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth,’ let Israel now say – ‘Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long.’"Psalm 129:1-3 (NKJV)

“Yet they have not prevailed...”  We would prefer a more hopeful message, one that eliminated our enemies altogether.  At least, I would.  All believers must cope with the problem of pain and injustice.  We long for peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), but we define such peace in terms of a total lack of spiritual opposition.  In reality, the peace that passes understanding is not the absence of conflict; it is the presence of peace in the midst of overwhelming conflict.  The apostle Paul tried to convey that exact message to the early church in Rome.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ [Messiah]? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: ‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39 (NKJV)

As the Jewish worshippers were approaching Jerusalem, they sang the words of this psalm, words based in both the reality of their suffering and the reality of their hope. “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4b) (NKJV)

We must remember that both our suffering and our tormentors are only for a season.  Every season comes to pass, which means they do not come to stay.

”The Lord is righteous; He has cut in pieces the cords of the wicked. Let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his arms.” Psalm 129:4-7 (NKJV)

“The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.  The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.”  Isaiah 40:7-8 (NKJV)

Those who curse God’s people will receive no blessing, no comfort.  For them, are reserved the words of Jesus: “Turn away!  I never knew you.”  (Matthew 7:21-23)

“Neither let those who pass by them say, ‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you; we bless you in the name of the Lord!’” Psalm 129:8 (NKJV)

“I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” Genesis 12:3 (NKJV)