Commentary on Psalms Volume 3 John Calvin (continued)
Psalm 129
PSALM 129
This Psalm teaches, in the first place, that God subjects his Church to divers troubles and affections, to the end he may the better prove himself her deliverer and defender. The Psalmist, therefore, recalls to the memory of the faithful how sadly God's people had been persecuted in all ages, and how wonderfully they had been preserved, in order by such examples to fortify their hope in reference to the future. In the second part, under the form of an imprecation, he shows that the divine vengeance is ready to fall upon all the ungodly, who without cause distress the people of God.
A Song of Degrees.
Psalm 129:1-4
1. They have often afflicted me from my youth, let Israel now say: 2. They have often afflicted me from my youth; but they have not prevailed against me. 3. The ploughers have plouched upon my back, and made long their furrows. 549 4. But Jehovah who is righteous, hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
1. They have often afflicted me from my youth. This Psalm was probably composed at a time when the Church of God, reduced to a state of extreme distress, or dismayed by some great danger, or oppressed with tyranny, was on the verge of total destruction. This conjecture, I conceive, is supported
"Targ. lengthened out their ploughing, i.e., gave us no rest from their slavery, for the longer the furrows the more tedious is the labor of the oxen." — Bythner.