mh_parser/vol_split/19 - Psalms/Chapter 129.xml

<div2 id="Ps.cxxx" n="cxxx" next="Ps.cxxxi" prev="Ps.cxxix" progress="67.40%" title="Chapter CXXIX">
<h2 id="Ps.cxxx-p0.1">P S A L M S</h2>
<h3 id="Ps.cxxx-p0.2">PSALM CXXIX.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Ps.cxxx-p1">This psalm relates to the public concerns of God's
Israel. It is not certain when it was penned, probably when they
were in captivity in Babylon, or about the time of their return. I.
They look back with thankfulness for the former deliverances God
had wrought for them and their fathers out of the many distresses
they had been in from time to time, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.1-Ps.129.4" parsed="|Ps|129|1|129|4" passage="Ps 129:1-4">ver. 1-4</scripRef>. II. They look forward with a
believing prayer for and a prospect of the destruction of all the
enemies of Zion, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.5-Ps.129.8" parsed="|Ps|129|5|129|8" passage="Ps 129:5-8">ver.
5-8</scripRef>. In singing this psalm we may apply it both ways to
the Gospel-Israel, which, like the Old-Testament Israel, has
weathered many a storm and is still threatened by many enemies.</p>
<scripCom id="Ps.cxxx-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129" parsed="|Ps|129|0|0|0" passage="Ps 129" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Ps.cxxx-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.1-Ps.129.4" parsed="|Ps|129|1|129|4" passage="Ps 129:1-4" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.129.1-Ps.129.4">
<h4 id="Ps.cxxx-p1.5">Domestic Happiness.</h4>
<div class="Center" id="Ps.cxxx-p1.6">
<p id="Ps.cxxx-p2">A song of degrees.</p>
</div>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxxx-p3">1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my
youth, may Israel now say:   2 Many a time have they afflicted
me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.   3
The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
  4 The <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxx-p3.1">Lord</span> <i>is</i>
righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxx-p4">The church of God, in its several ages, is
here spoken of, or, rather, here speaks, as one single person, now
old and gray-headed, but calling to remembrance the former days,
and reflecting upon the times of old. And, upon the review, it is
found, 1. That the church has been often greatly distressed by its
enemies on earth: <i>Israel may now say,</i> "I am the people that
has been oppressed more than any people, that has been <i>as a
speckled bird,</i> pecked at by <i>all the birds round about,</i>"
<scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.12.9" parsed="|Jer|12|9|0|0" passage="Jer 12:9">Jer. xii. 9</scripRef>. It is true,
they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins; it was
for them 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. "For these <i>many a time
have they afflicted me from my youth.</i>" Note, God's people have
always had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its
infancy, has frequently been an afflicted state. Israel's youth was
in Egypt, or in the times of the Judges; then they were afflicted,
and thenceforward more or less. The gospel-church, ever since it
had a being, has been at times afflicted; and it bore this yoke
most of all in its youth, witness the ten persecutions which the
primitive church groaned under. <i>The ploughers ploughed upon my
back,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.3" parsed="|Ps|129|3|0|0" passage="Ps 129:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. We
read (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.125.3" parsed="|Ps|125|3|0|0" passage="Ps 125:3">Ps. cxxv. 3</scripRef>) of
<i>the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous,</i> where
we rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves; here
we read of the <i>plough</i> of the wicked <i>upon the back of the
righteous,</i> where we rather expected to find the rod. But the
metaphors in these places may be said to be <i>crossed;</i> the
sense however of both is the same, and is too plain, that the
enemies of God's people have all along used them very barbarously.
They tore them, as the husbandman tears the ground with his
plough-share, to pull them to pieces and get all they could out of
them, and so to <i>wear out the saints of the Most High,</i> as the
ground is worn out that has been long tilled, tilled (as we say)
quite out of heart. When God permitted them to plough thus he
intended it for his people's good, that, their fallow ground being
thus broken up, he might sow the seeds of his grace upon them, and
reap a harvest of good fruit from them: howbeit, the enemies meant
not so, neither did their hearts think so (<scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.10.7" parsed="|Isa|10|7|0|0" passage="Isa 10:7">Isa. x. 7</scripRef>); <i>they made long their
furrows,</i> never knew when to have done, aiming at nothing less
than the destruction of the church. Many by the <i>furrows</i> they
made on the backs of God's people understand the stripes they gave
them. <i>The cutters cut upon my back,</i> so they read it. The
saints have often <i>had trials of cruel scourgings</i> (probably
the captives had) <i>and cruel mockings</i> (for we read of the
scourge or lash of the tongue, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Heb.11.36" parsed="|Heb|11|36|0|0" passage="Heb 11:36">Heb.
xi. 36</scripRef>), and so it was fulfilled in Christ, who <i>gave
his back to the smiters,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.6" parsed="|Isa|50|6|0|0" passage="Isa 50:6">Isa. l.
6</scripRef>. Or it may refer to the desolations they made of the
cities of Israel. <i>Zion shall, for your sake, be ploughed as a
field,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.7" osisRef="Bible:Mic.3.12" parsed="|Mic|3|12|0|0" passage="Mic 3:12">Mic. iii. 12</scripRef>. 2.
That the church has been always graciously delivered by her friend
in heaven. (1.) The enemies' projects have been defeated. They have
afflicted the church, in hopes to ruin it, but they have not gained
their point. Many a storm it has weathered; many a shock, and many
a brunt, it has borne; and yet it is in being: <i>They have not
prevailed against me.</i> One would wonder how this ship has lived
at sea, when it has been tossed with tempests, and all the waves
and billows have gone over it. Christ has built his church upon a
rock, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it, nor ever
shall. (2.) The enemies' power has been broken: God <i>has cut
asunder the cords of the wicked,</i> has cut their gears, their
traces, and so spoiled their ploughing, has cut their scourges, and
so spoiled their lashing, has cut the bands of union by which they
were combined together, has cut the bands of captivity in which
they held God's people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men
to do the mischief they design against his church and shaming their
counsels. These words, <i>The Lord is righteous,</i> may refer
either to the distresses or to the deliverances of the church. [1.]
<i>The Lord is righteous</i> in suffering Israel to be afflicted.
This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust
soever their enemies were, God was <i>just in all that was brought
upon them,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.8" osisRef="Bible:Neh.9.33" parsed="|Neh|9|33|0|0" passage="Ne 9:33">Neh. ix. 33</scripRef>.
[2.] <i>The Lord is righteous</i> in not suffering Israel to be
ruined; for he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and
he will be as good as his word. He is righteous in reckoning with
their persecutors, and rendering to them <i>a recompence,</i>
<scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p4.9" osisRef="Bible:2Thess.1.6" parsed="|2Thess|1|6|0|0" passage="2Th 1:6">2 Thess. i. 6</scripRef>.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Ps.cxxx-p4.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.5-Ps.129.8" parsed="|Ps|129|5|129|8" passage="Ps 129:5-8" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Ps.129.5-Ps.129.8">
<h4 id="Ps.cxxx-p4.11">God's Regard to His Church.</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Ps.cxxx-p5">5 Let them all be confounded and turned back
that hate Zion.   6 Let them be as the grass <i>upon</i> the
housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:   7 Wherewith
the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his
bosom.   8 Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of
the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxx-p5.1">Lord</span> <i>be</i> upon you: we
bless you in the name of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Ps.cxxx-p5.2">Lord</span>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxx-p6">The psalmist, having triumphed in the
defeat of the many designs that had been laid as deep as hell to
ruin the church, here concludes his psalm as Deborah did her song,
<i>So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord!</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Judg.5.31" parsed="|Judg|5|31|0|0" passage="Jdg 5:31">Judg. v. 31</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxx-p7">I. There are many that hate Zion, that hate
Zion's God, his worship, and his worshippers, that have an
antipathy to religion and religious people, that seek the ruin of
both, and do what they can that God may not have a church in the
world.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxx-p8">II. We ought to pray that all their
attempts against the church may be frustrated, that in them they
may be <i>confounded</i> and <i>turned back</i> with shame, as
those that have not been able to bring to pass their enterprise and
expectation: <i>Let them all be confounded</i> is as much as,
<i>They shall be</i> all confounded. The confusion imprecated and
predicted is illustrated by a similitude; while God's people shall
flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive,
their enemies shall <i>wither as the grass upon the house-top.</i>
As men they are not to be feared, for they shall be made as grass,
<scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.51.12" parsed="|Isa|51|12|0|0" passage="Isa 51:12">Isa. li. 12</scripRef>. But as they
are enemies to Zion they are so certainly marked for ruin that they
may be looked upon with as much contempt as the grass on the
house-tops, which is little, and short, and sour, and good for
nothing. 1. It perishes quickly: It <i>withers before it grows
up</i> to any maturity, having no root; and the higher its place
is, which perhaps is its pride, the more it is exposed to the
scorching heat of the sun, and consequently the sooner does it
wither. <i>It withers before it is plucked up,</i> so some read it.
The enemies of God's church wither of themselves, and stay not till
they are rooted out by the judgments of God. 2. It is of no use to
any body; nor are <i>they</i> any thing but the unprofitable
burdens of the earth, nor will their attempts against Zion ever
ripen or come to any head, nor, whatever they promise themselves,
will they get any more by them than the husbandman does by the
grass on his house-top. Their <i>harvest will be a heap in the day
of grief,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.17.11" parsed="|Isa|17|11|0|0" passage="Isa 17:11">Isa. xvii.
11</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Ps.cxxx-p9">III. No wise man will pray God to bless the
mowers or reapers, <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.129.8" parsed="|Ps|129|8|0|0" passage="Ps 129:8"><i>v.</i>
8</scripRef>. Observe, 1. It has been an ancient and laudable
custom not only to salute and wish a good day to strangers and
travellers, but particularly to pray for the prosperity of
harvest-labourers. Thus Boas prayed for his reapers. <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Ruth.2.4" parsed="|Ruth|2|4|0|0" passage="Ru 2:4">Ruth ii. 4</scripRef>, <i>The Lord be with
you.</i> We must thus acknowledge God's providence, testify our
good-will to our neighbours, and commend their industry, and it
will be accepted of God as a pious ejaculation if it come from a
devout and upright heart. 2. Religious expressions, being sacred
things, must never be made use of in light and ludicrous actions.
Mowing the grass on the house-top would be a jest, and therefore
those that have a reverence for the name of God will not prostitute
to it the usual forms of salutation, which savoured of devotion;
for holy things must not be jested with. 3. It is a dangerous thing
to let the church's enemies have our good wishes in their designs
against the church. If we <i>wish them God speed, we are partakers
of their evil deeds,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:2John.1.11" parsed="|2John|1|11|0|0" passage="2Jo 1:11">2 John
11</scripRef>. When it is said, None will bless them, and show them
respect, more is implied, namely, that all wise and good people
will cry out shame on them, and beg of God to defeat them; and woe
to those that have the prayers of the saints against them. <i>I
cursed his habitation,</i> <scripRef id="Ps.cxxx-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.5.3" parsed="|Job|5|3|0|0" passage="Job 5:3">Job v.
3</scripRef>.</p>
</div></div2>