Psalms 129:1

Many a time have they Namely, my enemies or oppressors; afflicted me from my youth From the time that I was a people; when I was in Egypt, and after I came out of it, which is called the time of Israel's youth, Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 23:3. I am the people that has been oppressed more than any people, that has been as a speckled bird, pecked at by all the birds round about; attacked by all the beasts of the field assembled to devour, Jeremiah 12:9. It is true they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins, for which it was 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. God's real people have always had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its infancy, has frequently been an afflicted state.