Psalms 129:8

Verse Psalms 129:8. Neither do they which go by say] There is a reference here to the salutations which were given and returned by the reapers in the time of the harvest. We find that it was customary, when the master came to them into the field, to say unto the reapers, The Lord be with you! and for them to answer, The Lord bless thee! Ruth 2:4. Let their land become desolate, so that no harvest shall ever more appear in it. No interchange of benedictions between owners and reapers. This has literally taken place: Babylon is utterly destroyed; no harvests grow near the place where it stood.

ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINTH PSALM

The intent of the prophet in composing this Psalm is to comfort the Church in affliction, and to stir her up to glorify God for his providence over her, always for her good, and bringing her enemies to confusion, and a sudden ruin.

It is divided into three parts: -

I. The indefatigable malice of the enemies of the Church, Psalms 129:1; Psalms 129:3.

II. That their malice is vain. God saves them, Psalms 129:2; Psalms 129:4.

III. God puts into the mouth of his people what they may say to their enemies, even when their malice is at the highest.

I. "Many a time have they afflicted me," c. In which observe, -

1. That afflictions do attend those who will live righteously in Christ Jesus.

2. These afflictions are many: "Many a time," c.

3. That they begin with the Church: "From my youth." Prophets, martyrs, c.

4. This affliction was a heavy affliction: "The plowers plowed upon my back," c. They dealt unmercifully with me, as a husbandman does with his ground.

II. But all their malice is to no purpose.

1. "Yet they have not prevailed against me." To extinguish the Church.

2. The reason is, "The Lord is righteous." And therefore he protects all those who are under his tuition, and punishes their adversaries.

3. "The Lord is righteous," c. Cut asunder the ropes and chains with which they made their furrows: "He hath delivered Israel," c.

III. In the following verses, to the end, the prophet, by way of prediction, declares the vengeance God would bring upon his enemies which has three degrees: -

1. "Let them all be confounded," c. Fail in their hopes against us.

2. "Let them be as the grass," c. That they quickly perish. Grass on the housetops is good for nothing: "Which withereth afore it groweth up," c. Never is mowed, nor raked together.

3. "Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord," c. No man says so much as, God speed him! as is usual to say to workmen in harvest: but even this the enemies of the Church, and of God's work, say not, for they wish it not.