Looking Back and Looking Up (Psalm 129)
This sermon was preached on Sunday 24 October, 2010
This psalm is a reflection on the history of Israel by those who gathered in Jerusalem for the annual feasts. As they looked back to the beginning of their history (‘youth,’ v. 20), they saw that even then those who began their nation had been afflicted – in Egypt. Derek Kidner comments, ‘Whereas most nations tend to look back on what they have achieved, Israel reflects here on what she has survived.’ Since her youth in Egypt, there had been many powerful enemies – Philistines, Amalekites, Moabites, Ammonites, Syrians, Assyrians and Babylonians, to name a few. Yet although the enemies were so many, they had not prevailed against Israel. This is a reminder that although the church faces strong enemies (the world and the devil), she cannot be destroyed because she has supernatural help, as described in verse 4: ‘The LORD is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.’ And a third feature to be noted is the similarity of experience that is found among the people of God in all periods, that of opposition. Indeed, as John Trapp wrote, ‘The first that ever died, died for religion; so early came martyrdom into the world.’
As the pilgrims gathered in Jerusalem, they were aware of the weakness of God’s people because the nation of Israel was no longer a world power. She had become under the control of other empires after the Babylonians – such as the Persian and the Roman empires. It is wise when in a situation of difficulty and spiritual weakness to consider how previous generations have coped with a similar state of affairs. ‘When God’s faithful ones are with difficulty drawing their breath under the burden of temptations, it is a seasonable time for them to reflect on the manner in which he has exercised his people from the beginning, and from age to age’ (John Calvin)
In a sermon he preached on this psalm, C. H. Spurgeon commented regarded the church in Scotland and persecution: ‘Yes, the Church of God has often been preserved by persecution; she was never purer, she was never holier, she was never truer, and she never lived nearer to God and more like her Saviour, than when she was persecuted. I venture to say of the Church of Scotland that she was never grander than in the Covenanting times, when they met among the glens, and up in the lone places, and sat on the heather watching lest Claverhouse’s dragoons should be nigh. I think, of late years, she was never nobler than in Disruption times, and I believe she will never again be so good and great unless she is persecuted.’
The outlook of the psalmist does not mean that believers should not take note of victories in the past or in the present. There were many victories in Israel’s history, even over those who persecuted them, such as the occasions when the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea or when the Philistines were defeated by David. Similarly, there have been times of spiritual triumph for the gospel, as at the Reformation or in times of spiritual revival such as the Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.
Plea for realism (vv. 1-4)
What this psalm calls for is a sense of realism among God’s people. This psalm is a reminder that believers living in this world are travelling through enemy country. In verse 3, the psalmist uses the illustration of a ploughman digging a furrow repeatedly on a person’s back to describe the troubles of God’s people. Obviously it is painful, but the illustration also suggests that the troubles are malicious.
A sense of community
It is important to note the communal aspect stressed by the author. When his enemies attacked him, they were adding to a deep wound that he already possessed because of the spiritual link he had to previous generations of God’s people. The psalmist identified with their troubles. It should be the same with us, we should have this sense of identity with those before us who suffered for the faith. When we hear of John Knox being described as a bigot, we should be hurt because he is our brother. Identification does not mean that we approve of all that our spiritual forefathers did, but it does mean that we should cherish their sufferings for the faith. Of course, this sense of community embraces other believers who are alive today and who are suffering for their faith.
This sense of communal identity in time of opposition has many other aspects such as prayer and verbal expressions of concern. Fellow-feeling is a crucial element, even as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:26: ‘If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together.’ The sting that another believer was given by an antagonistic world, whether in a previous generation or by a Christian we had not met before, or by a believer known to us, should be felt by us. When we read of or hear about their pain, it should bring tears to our eyes.
Advantages of trouble
We may wonder if trouble and opposition have any benefits. The answer is that they do. Samuel Rutherford wrote, ‘When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest vines,’ although he also said, To believe Christ’s cross to be a friend, as he himself is a friend, is also a special act of faith.’ When we have troubles, we may find it difficult to exercise faith. Rutherford also writes about this situation: ‘I can let Christ grip me, but I cannot grip him. I cannot set my feet to the ground, for afflictions bring the cramp on my faith. All I can do is to hold out a lame faith to Christ, like a beggar holding out a stump instead of an arm or leg, and cry, “Lord Jesus, work a miracle!”’ There are at least three way in which troubles can help us.
First, the prophet Isaiah mentions that affliction is one of the ways by which God purifies his people: ‘Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction’ (Isa. 48:10). As Spurgeon put it, ‘Place religion out of the reach of sorrow, and soon she would pine and perish. God is said to choose his people in the furnace, because they most often choose him there.’
Another good effect of opposition is that it helps believers to discover themselves. When somebody says or does something to me because of my faith, how do I react? Am I annoyed, resentful, determined to get my own back? If that is my response, then trouble has shown me that I am in need of sanctification, that I have to ask for God’s help in dealing with an unChristlike attitude. On the other hand, if I am grieved because of their sins, if I desire to pray for them and ask God to lead them to repentance, then trouble has revealed to me that the Holy Spirit is changing me.
A third benefit of trouble is that it eventually reveals the abilities of God to deal with the situation. The psalmist likens these deliverances to God cutting the cords that were attached to the plough that the wicked were using to furrow the man’s back. These divine deliverances can occur when all seems lost, as when the Israelites were trapped between the Red Sea and the Egyptian army, with no prospect of escape. Yet God knew how to deliver them when by his power he made a path for them through the sea. These deliverances can come through unexpected sources, as when the teenager David killed the Philistine champion Goliath. Peter says in 2 Peter 2:9 that ‘the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials’. However dark and difficult and dangerous a situation may seem, God knows how to rescue his people from it. Sometimes he sends an angel to open a prison door to let Peter out (Acts 12:6-8), at other times he can move an emperor (Cyrus) to set his people free.
The psalmist’s comfort is that the Lord is righteous, that he will remember his covenant commitments as he did when he came to deliver Israel from Egypt, that eventually he will come to our help in a public way (although we must also remember that he has been helping each of his people to go through his or her particular difficulty).
Prayer for retribution (vv. 5-8)
Many find fault with this kind of prayer, even although they are common in the Psalter (about 36 psalms come into this category, known as the imprecatory psalms because in them the authors call down divine judgement on their enemies). Critics suggest that they lack the spirit of love that was exemplified by Jesus when he instructed his disciples to love their enemies (Matt. 5:44-45).
Of course, such sentiments are not confined to the Old Testament. Note Paul’s words in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-8: ‘This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering – since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.’
In Psalm 129, the writer prays that the influence of evil people would be brief. He likens them to seeds of grass that are blown on to a flat rooftop and somehow take root in the small amount of ground that may also have been blown there. Fortunately for the householder, such grass soon withered away.
The people the psalmist is praying against hate Zion (v. 5) and are determined to destroy her. If God does not stop them, they will destroy Zion. It is preferable that Zion be preserved and her enemies removed. The reason why they are going to be destroyed is not because they are sinners in general but because they sin in a specific way. If they left Zion alone, then this prayer would not have been offered. The psalmist does not want anyone to wish success to such persons (v. 8).
We see similar attempts made today by the enemies of the church (Zion). As we pray about the situation, we only have two choices: one is that God would convert them; the other is that, in one way or another, God would cause their enmity against his kingdom to cease. We should pray that their influence would be as minimal as grass growing on a housetop. When we pray earnestly for this, it is evidence that we love Zion.