Psalm 129 explained: Wounded but Never Beaten

A nation tells its story (vv. 1-2)

Israel speaks as if it were one person looking back over a long life, and "from my youth" most likely points to its earliest days, such as slavery in Egypt. The repeated line stresses how often it was attacked, and the ending stresses the surprise: it is still here.

Furrows on the back (v. 3)

The picture is of enemies treating Israel's back like a field, cutting grooves as a plow does, which most readers take as an image of whipping or brutal, drawn-out cruelty. Saying the furrows were made long suggests the suffering went on and on, though the exact events in mind are not certain.

The ropes are cut (v. 4)

The image may continue the plowing scene, with the LORD cutting the ropes that harnessed the ox to the plow so the work has to stop, or it may mean the cords of captivity. Calling the LORD "righteous" here means he is just and puts wrongs right.

Like grass on a roof (vv. 5-7)

Zion is Jerusalem, standing for God's people, and the psalm asks that those who hate it fail and retreat. Houses then had flat mud roofs where grass sprouted fast in thin soil and quickly dried up, leaving nothing worth cutting, and the psalm wishes the same fate on these enemies.

No harvest greeting (v. 8)

People passing a field at harvest customarily called out a blessing to the workers, as in the book of Ruth. Since this roof grass gives no harvest, no one will bless it, and that is a pointed wish that the enemies' efforts bring them nothing at all.

Key verse: Psalm 129:2

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on how to treat the closing wishes against enemies: some see them as fair prayers for justice to echo today, while others read them as honest cries of the oppressed that should be weighed against Jesus' call to pray for enemies.

Something to think about

When you look back on the hardest stretches of your own life, what do you think actually got you through them?