Ps 129

Leader’s note: Ps 129 is not the easiest Song of Ascents to interpret. It emphasizes that the church, like its embryonic form in Old Testament Israel, must bear the shame of the gospel and its cross, but that a faithful remnant is preserved by God against all odds to overcome and prevail, v2. Although many commentators ascribe Ps 129 to a post-exilic period, the content does not demand a later origin than the other 14 songs of ascent.

While not counted among the so-called imprecatory Psalms, Ps129:6 is a prayer that God in his time may cut off all enemies of Zion like withered ‘grass on rooftops‘. The rooftop metaphor indicates that these enemies held positions of authority which they used to militate against a heavenly Zion that is spiritual. They remain excluded from God’s blessing, Ps125:5 (also in the New Testament, see Gal 1:9; 5:12; 6:16). This interpretation fits a pre-exilic origin of Ps 129 for pilgrims even at a time when the first temple was still standing.

Read: Psalm 129

1) v1 “Let Israel say…”: Say what?

Afflicted how?
- Read Hos 11:1. How was Israel afflicted ‘from its youth‘?
Does this mean the Psalm is calling for self pity of Israel as a country? Why or why not? v2b
- Why would it be wrong of us (and the psalmist!) to curse anyone (v5) based on whether they hate your nationality?*
Read Mt 2:13-15. How did Matthew recognize Hosea’s oracle about Israel’s youth as a prophecy about Jesus? What rule of Bible interpretation led him to do so? cf Jn 5:39; Lk 24:27

**2) Does Israel here mean those who are circumcised outwardly, or all followers of Christ, including Gentiles? How can we know?**

How was Jesus afflicted from his youth? Isa 53:3; Mt 2:13
How then can Israel mean specifically Jesus himself and His people at the same time? cf Eph 1:22 -23

3) vv2-3 Why can believers say: “…but they have not prevailed against me“?

Why isn’t it plural: “…against us“? cf 2Cor 4:7-10
Should every believer expect to face persecution? Why? cf Jn 12:24-26; 2Tim 3:12; Col 1:24
How does this illustrate what it means to be blessed and to ‘prosper’ (Ps 128)?
What do you associate with the image of plowers who plow Israel’s back and make the furrows long? When and from where do you expect those plowers to arise? =>

4) vv4-5: Who could be ‘the wicked’ (an adverb in Hebr.), and what could be their cords?

Do these cords stand for a means of oppression, or rather for a restraint on the wicked which God cut loose? (e.g. during the exile of Israel, Jer 1:14; Hab 1:5-6)**
- If they are the cords of oppressors who pull a “plow on Israel’s back” (v3), would the cutting of these cords make them fall backward (v5), or forward, rather?
- Or did God already cut down the “cords of the tents of the wicked” (a different cord metaphor from Isa 33:20)? Hint: If so, how come that the godly are still oppressed?
Or if the Psalm predates the exile, could cords be a metaphor for God’s laws which were given to restrain the evil of mankind, including Israel’s own leaders, until they ultimately fell away, Mi 3:9-12?***
- Read Hos 11:1-4 => What did God use as ‘cords’ to draw the Israelites to himself after the Exodus from Egypt? Hint: Why did God need to draw them at all, Hos 11:3?
- Hosea spoke of (lit.) ‘cords of man’ for people: For good people, or for wicked ones? cf 1Tim 1:9
- v4 starts with “The Lord is righteous…”: What kind of ‘cord cutting’ needs this preamble? => Why do Pilgrims wonder how it can be righteous of God to let loose their enemies? cf Rev 5:3-5; 5:9; 6:1-2; 17:16-17

5) vv6-8: What exactly is this prayer asking?

Shaming and humiliation are often connected with the image of ‘falling backwards’ (lit. on the behind) in many instances, e.g. Ps 35:4, 26; 40:14. What would be the opposite experience (e.g. Jos 5:14). Why are the foes of the spiritual Zion denied to share in it? i.e. why does Ps 129 ask the worshipers to pray that God instead may frustrate His enemies?
Is this prayer aligned with the New Testament and/or superseded by a different attitude? cf Mt 5:43-48; Ro 12:9-21
Read Jn 15:2 and Ro 11:22. Why is it good that those who embrace legalism must face God’s severity? Hint: Could anything else teach them the truth and their need of the gospel?

6) Personal & application

This Psalm calls on believers “Let Israel now say…”: Are any elements of this prayer part of yours?
If not, what prevents you from praying likewise?
What may hinder you from praying for your enemies at all?
If you do, how do you pray for your enemies?

* If Israel in Ps 129 were only from one nation, vv5-8 would paint an overly naive picture where the good and the bad are defined by their nationalities. To guard against such systems of Apartheid where we mistake our own tribe for God’s people, the OT instead explains in no uncertain terms that Christ alone is the true servant Israel: Although God concealed Him until the last days as His secret ‘weapon’ against Satan, He will eventually restore to Himself in one body of believers also the biological descendants of Jacob, Isa 49:1-6 (quoted in Acts 13:47 as evidence that Jesus is indeed the Messiah). Since the songs of Ascents speak of Israel in the same way, Ps 129 is in reality a prayer that God may frustrate every opposition to this spiritual Zion, i.e. irrespective of nationality and particularly from within the ‘visible’ church, namely from those who were restrained by God’s laws outwardly for a time, but at heart remain set against the heavenly Zion of the Songs of Ascents.

** Also elsewhere in Psalms, God’s law is compared to a thick cord (hebr. abot, lit. ‘the braided’), Ps 2:3. And according to Hos 11:4, the law of Moses is the rope that God used in Israel’s youth (i.e. after the Exodus) to bind her to Himself when she did not yet know Christ as her Savior (cf Gal 3:21-24; Ro 10:4). By contrast, e.g. Calvin proposed that these cords may refer to the means of oppression by which the foes of the church pull a ‘plow’ on the back of God’s people. Although, one who is cut loose from pulling a plow would probably fall forward, not backward, v5.

*** The book of Revelation similarly predicts a time when Satan himself – after a time of being bound – is let loose again as a tyrant to judge an apostate church, Rev 17:16-17.