1291 "Often have they attacked me from my youth" -let Israel now say- 2 "often have they attacked me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. 3 The plowers plowed on my back; they made their furrows long." 4 The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward. 6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops that withers before it grows up, 7 with which reapers do not fill their hands or binders of sheaves their arms, 8 while those who pass by do not say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord!"
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.