For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage:  Psa 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 Ploughmen have ploughed 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 a reaper cannot fill his hands with it,
    nor one who gathers fill his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say to them,
    ‘The blessing of the Lord be on you;
    we bless you in the name of the Lord.’

A. Find Out

1. What had always happened to Israel but with what end? v.1,2
2. What had been done to them? v.3
3. Yet how had they survived? v.4
4. Who does he want shamed? v.5
5. May they be like what? v.6,7
6. What should not be invoked over them? v.8

B. Think:

1. How do the pilgrims view their past?
2. Yet how had they survived?
3. What do they feel about those who oppose Jerusalem?

C. Comment:

                In this tenth ‘song of ascents’ the pilgrims coming to Jerusalem reflect back on their history and think of how, right from the outset they have been oppressed (v.1) As they formed as a people in Egypt they had been made slaves and their backs had felt the whips of the task-masters (v.3). Yes despite this they remained victorious (v.2b) for the Lord had stepped in on their behalf and set them free (v.4). They were what they were because of the Lord who had redeemed them.

                But they are also aware that opposition had come numerous times throughout their history and so they turn their focus on their enemies, those who hate Zion (v.5) the city of God and they call for them to be turned away in shame from their attacks on the city.

                They reflect on such peoples and they wish that they will be like grass that settles and grows but shrivels in the heat on the rooftop (v.6). Elsewhere grass would grow and be harvested but grass that tries to grow where it should not be, will never be harvested (v.8). Zion is not the place for alien people to come and settle and so, whereas the Lord’s blessing may be invoked for a legitimate farmer, it should not be invoked over those or that which should not be there (v.8). These latter verses (v.5-8) are about the inappropriateness of other peoples coming to try to take and settle in Zion. It is God’s place for God’s people only!

D. Application:

1. The Lord may have disciplines His people but he did save them.
2. His dwelling place belongs to His people and He will defend it.