1291 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young" - this is how Israel tells it - 2 "They've kicked me around ever since I was young, but they never could keep me down. 3 Their plowmen plowed long furrows up and down my back; 4 Then God ripped the harnesses of the evil plowmen to shreds."
5 Oh, let all those who hate Zion grovel in humiliation; 6 Let them be like grass in shallow ground that withers before the harvest, 7 Before the farmhands can gather it in, the harvesters get in the crop, 8 Before the neighbors have a chance to call out, "Congratulations on your wonderful crop! We bless you in God's name!"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Psalm 129:1-16
Commentary on Psalm 129:1-4
(Read Psalm 129:1-4)
The enemies of God's people have very barbarously endeavoured to wear out the saints of the Most High. But the church has been always graciously delivered. Christ has built his church upon a rock. And the Lord has many ways of disabling wicked men from doing the mischief they design against his church. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; he has promised to preserve a people to himself.
Commentary on Psalm 129:5-8
(Read Psalm 129:5-8)
While God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-tops, which in eastern countries are flat, and what grows there never ripens; so it is with the designs of God's enemies. No wise man will pray the Lord to bless these mowers or reapers. And when we remember how Jesus arose and reigns; how his people have been supported, like the burning but unconsumed bush, we shall not fear.