Devotional Short Note to Psalm 129: The
psalmist wants the people to say that they have been afflicted much from their
youth, thus from the inception of the people of Israel. It can be taken in a
maximalist view to include all faithful from the beginning of sin when the
struggle started against the faithful. Spiritual Israel did not start in 1450 BCE
at the Exodus but at the creation of Adam and Eve. The struggle did not start
in the time of Sennacherib (so Scott and Oesterley) or after the Captivity (so
Rabbi Ibn Ezra of the Middle Ages) nor the time of Nehemiah (some other
commentaries). It started at the Fall of Adam and Eve. Even though God called the Hebrews
Israel, it was not their genetic make-up or ethnicity that was attractive, it
was their spiritual hearts, therefore God used the word “Israel” already in ca.
2030 BCE when He called Jacob “Israel”. Every individual “wrestling with
his/her salvation with God” in faith is spiritual Israel. “Much have they afflicted me from my
youth” (129:2) means Israel must repeat this sentence so that it is not the
time of man but of a historical group of faithful people going back millennia
to the beginning of the faith-struggle. “Also they could not against me”
(129:2b). The powers of affliction could not
prevail against spiritual Israel with their long history from “youth” until “adulthood”.
In human terms 40 years or longer but this seems millennia as we have pointed
out above. Spiritual Israel personified as a man
says that the “plowers” plowed upon spiritual Israel’s back and they made long
furrows (129:3). [Christ] “He has cut the cords of the wicked”
(129:4b). “The Lord is righteous” (129:4a). It is the Lord that cuts. All those wicked ones that hate heavenly
Zion, the dwelling place of God, will be ashamed [future verb] and will turn
backward [future verb] (129:5). The haters “will be” [future verb] like
grass that tries to grow on a rooftop (129:6). It withers before it springs up.
It is seen as prophetic by Simon 1872 in his commentary. A Phoenician relative pronoun is
attached to the word “withers”, translate: “that withers…” Also a Phoenician relative pronoun is
attached to the negative particle in 129:7a. “That [Phoenician pronoun] not
fill his hand, the reaper”. “And his bosom, he that binds”.
“And not do they say that pass by ‘the
blessing of the Lord is to you. We bless you in the name of the Lord” (129:8). Anyone
passing by will not stop to bless these evil ones. It was a custom in the
Levant that when travelers pass by reapers that they stop and pronounce a
blessing on them (Ruth 2:4). “And behold Boaz came from Bethlehem and said unto
the reapers: ‘The Lord be with you’ and they answered him: ‘The Lord bless you’”.