Psalm 129
In our series on the Psalms of Ascent, we come this morning to an unpleasant psalm. It is particularly jarring for me because of the preceding psalm, a psalm of blessing. “May you have a beautiful and faithful wife who bears many children for you and may you live in peace and see your children’s children.” That is a nice psalm to read. We like to hear about blessings.
But then we come to Psalm 129.
1 They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—
let Israel say—
2 they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long.
4 But the LORD is righteous;
he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
be turned back in shame.
6 May they be like grass on the roof,
which withers before it can grow;
7 with it the reaper cannot fill his hands,
nor the one who gathers fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say,
“The blessing of the LORD be upon you;
we bless you in the name of the LORD.”
The Hebrew pilgrims are making their way up to Jerusalem for one of the three annual worship festivals, singing and chanting these fifteen psalms, 120 – 134. They have just finished singing Psalm 128, a psalm of blessing so filled with hope and promise that it was used for weddings to bless the couple being married.
And now this… I have to think they were disturbed, as we are, by the quick move from blessing in Psalm 128 to complaining and cursing in Psalm 129.
They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—
let Israel say—
2 they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
Although Israel, as a nation, began with God’s covenant with Abraham, the event that defined them as a nation and the event to which they repeatedly returned in remembering their history was the Exodus from Egypt. This is where they, in an emotional sense, began as Israel. In Hosea 11 we read:
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
This was the starting point for reflection on their suffering, as is the cross for we who are Christians.
they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
This psalm takes the Hebrew pilgrims back to the suffering Israel experienced in Egypt when they were slaves of Pharaoh and pulls them along to the present, remembering the defeats they experienced as a nation and their exile in Babylon when they were forcibly removed from their homeland.
they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.
They have been oppressed and harassed, but they have not been broken. They have been overcome by Babylon but they have not been defeated.
The picture of suffering they experienced is intense.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long.
The picture is of Israel as a field where the plows violently rip up the soil, back and forth. It is a picture of a person being beaten with a whip. Long, deep lashes, cutting into the skin, ripping the flesh, up and down the back.
I’ve seen pictures of some of the African slaves in the United States who had endured lashings. The scars on their backs stand out as furrows that have been plowed in a field. The scars are terrible testimony to the violence that was endured.
Psalm 129 speaks of this violent punishment. Israel had been whipped, beaten with a lash that has cut deep into the flesh and created long scars across the back.
1 They have greatly oppressed me from my youth—
let Israel say—
2 they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.
3 Plowmen have plowed my back
and made their furrows long.
4 But the LORD is righteous;
he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.
This is the good news of the psalm. He has cut me free from the cords of the wicked. It is as if the cord connecting the ox to the plow has been cut. The ox keeps on going back and forth across the field but the plow does not follow. It is as if the wicked who are lashing the back of Israel keep on whipping, but the cord has been cut. There is no lash to snake across the back and rip up bits of flesh. The oxen still move back and forth across the field, the whip keeps going up and down but there is no plow. There is no leather strip. There is no pain.
During the seventy years in exile, there were probably those who had given up hope. There were probably those who said Israel would never again be a nation. But then as Psalm 126 celebrated, Israel returned from exile and the temple was rebuilt. The walls of Jerusalem were restored.
When all seemed lost, Israel returned from the ashes of defeat and once again had a temple in Jerusalem where the Hebrews could come to celebrate their annual worship festivals.
The enemies of Israel attempted to destroy Israel. Over and over again they beat and lashed, plowing up furrows on their backs, but this psalm celebrates the fact that Israel cannot be destroyed.
Perhaps another picture of this would be one of the Rocky movies starring Sylvester Stallone. In picture after picture of the Rocky movies, Stallone would be boxing and bloodied by a seemingly superior opponent. But at the end, it is always Rocky who still stands.
That is fiction, but this is fact: the enemies of God can attempt to destroy God’s people, but it will never happen.
And the rest of the psalm is a curse against those who fight against God’s chosen people, Israel.
5 May all who hate Zion
be turned back in shame.
6 May they be like grass on the roof,
which withers before it can grow;
7 with it the reaper cannot fill his hands,
nor the one who gathers fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say,
“The blessing of the LORD be upon you;
we bless you in the name of the LORD.”
This is not the best moment in the psalmist’s career. Love of enemies is not just a Christian Testament concept. The psalmist had access to Leviticus 19
17 ”‘Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.
18 ”‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
And to Exodus 23
4 “If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. 5 If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.
And to Proverbs 24
17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice,
This is not the best moment in the psalmist’s career. He is bitter and angry, defiantly angry, raining down curses on his enemies. But this is the way of the psalms. The psalms do not pretend to be objective truth, laying out all the facts fairly and judiciously. The psalms expose the highs and lows of the psalmist’s heart. The psalms teach us to be honest in our expression of our faith, our doubts, our moments of exultation and our moments of fear and anger and bitterness.
I’ve been working on this psalm for the past couple of weeks, but a week ago Thursday I received news that helped me see this psalm in a new light. Our sea crate that was shipped from NYC on May 15 and due to arrive in Casablanca on June 16 has been lost. No one was able to track it down. Then on Thursday afternoon we received word that it had been found in Genoa, Italy. But it was found as an empty container. All our possessions in the crate appear to have been stolen. All our books, CDs, furniture, appliances, framed pictures, family keepsakes. Everything.
Now fortunately, we had stored some of our family mementoes in Massachusetts and we brought over our pictures and slides by plane. But I have been very angry, saying things I will not say from the front of the church today.
I have rained down curses on those who took our things. My version of Psalm 129:4-8 goes like this: “May those who stole our things rot in hell. May the ears of those listening to our CDs go deaf. May the eyes of those who read our books go blind. May those who relax on our furniture contract a terrible disease.”
This has not been my finest moment, but like the psalmist, I have been expressing what I am feeling and this is the first lesson from Psalm 129. When we talk with God, God is not concerned that we be theologically correct. God is not concerned that we praise him and then make requests. God is not concerned that we be praying as good, spiritual, moral believers. God wants us to express what is on our heart, no matter how vile or diseased it is.
Only when we express what is on our heart can we move to a point of healing and proper worship of God.
So this morning, whatever you are feeling, don’t try to pretend with God. Don’t try to hide. Explore whatever you are feeling, express it to God in its bluntest terms, write it out and burn it later if that helps you. But be honest with God. Hiding and pretending will inhibit your spiritual life. Be honest with God and you will be able to move from the hurt and pain and anger you feel to genuine worship and praise that God wants from you.
From the curses in Psalm 129 we learn to be honest with God. In the first four verses of Psalm 129, we learn to persevere, to endure, to patiently move forward. Psalm 129 teaches us not to give up just because we experience hardships.
We have in our heritage the examples of Jesus and Paul.
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not…
7 He was oppressed and afflicted…
This does not sound very promising does it? Despised, rejected, oppressed and afflicted. And yet what was the result of this unpromising beginning?
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous
servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Jesus began his life running from Herod who sought to kill him. He began his ministry with a forty day fast in the desert where he was tempted in ways we can only begin to imagine. He was set on by the religious and political establishment who sought to trap him at every opportunity. He was surrounded by disciples who never seemed to quite get it, failing time after time to show they would be able to take over the work of Christ in the world when the Church began at Pentecost. His own family tried to reason with him to give up this madness he was pursuing, including his mother Mary who because of the events surrounding his birth should have had a clue of what her son was about.
And then at the end, Jesus was brutalized, mentally and physically, enduring taunts and blows and the lash that made his back look like the field that has been plowed with long and deep furrows.
How did Jesus respond to this adversity? As Eugene Peterson describes it, Jesus responded with incomprehensible kindness (“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”), with unprecedented serenity (Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”) and resurrection.
And Paul? At one point in his second letter to the Corinthians he defends himself against their attacks on him.
I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
Paul moved from adversity to persecution and back to adversity. Nothing would deter him from following the one he had once persecuted. And at the end of his life in his letter to the Philippians, he revealed his drive that allowed him to persevere through adversity and persecution.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
This is what this psalm is all about. Perseverence, against all odds, pressing on toward the goal promised to us by Jesus.
We persevere because we have assurance that the church of which we are members – not RPF International, but the worldwide Body of Christ, will endure to the end when it will be brought to the new Jerusalem.
Matthew 16
17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
In the last few weeks a Somalian named Mohammed Omar Hajji has been on trial in Yemen for proclaiming his Christian faith. He was to have been executed three weeks ago but because of international pressure and, we believe, the prayers of the church, the death sentence has been delayed. Mohammed could be freed if he would only say three times “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet.”
But he does not. He has a wife and child and he has refused to recant his beliefs.
I came to Rabat in September and Hurricane Floyd deposited ½ a meter of water in our basement, destroying much of what was stored there. Now our sea crate has been stolen. So what do I do? Give up and go back to the United States before I lose anything else?
How ridiculous would that be? Is my calling to Morocco so weak that it can be negated by losing a few possessions? Is our Christian faith so weak that we can be pulled aside from following Jesus because we experience some mental, emotional or physical discomfort or deprivation? If you pray that God will help you get to Spain and you fail to do so and are arrested and sent back to Algeria, is that cause to give up on your faith? If you pray for a promotion or good health or anything that you want and you don’t get it, is that any reason to give up on your faith?
The letter to the Hebrews is written to some Christians who were struggling with their faith. They appear to be weakening in their commitment to God. So the writer of Hebrews writes about the faith of person after person who remained faithful despite the lack of evidence for their faith and then he says:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Notice the bit of sarcasm at the end, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”
If Mohammed, our Somalian brother under a death sentence in Yemen, gives up and says three times, “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet,” if Mohammed says that and is released from his death sentence, I am not entirely unsympathetic. I pray that he will be able to resist and make his life a testimony to Jesus the Messiah. But if he fails, he stands in good company with the apostle Peter who denied knowing Christ three times.
But in our struggle against sin, we have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. Let us persevere in our faith, pressing on toward the goal.
It will not always be easy. It will not always be pretty. But it will have been worth it.
