Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 129

Many a time - Margin, as in Hebrew, “much.” Probably, however, the idea is, as expressed in our translation, “many a time;” “often.” So it is in the Latin Vulgate and the Septuagint; and this accords better with the connection.

Have they afflicted me from my youth - Have I been afflicted; have others dealt unjustly by me. The youth here is the beginning of the history of that people: since we began to be a people; since the nation was founded.

May Israel now say - May the nation now say. It is clear from this that the psalm was not written at an early period of their history.

Many a time ... - This repetition is designed to fix the thoughts on the fact and to impress it on the mind. The mind dwells on the fact as important in its bearing on the present occasion or emergency. The idea is that it is no new thing to be afflicted in this way. It has often occurred; it is a matter of long and almost constant experience. Our enemies have often attempted to destroy us, but in vain.

What we experience now, we have often experienced before. When tried in this way, we have been delivered just as often, and therefore we now have nothing to fear. We are not to regard it as a strange thing that we are now afflicted; nor are we to be discouraged or disheartened as if our enemies could overcome us, for they have often tried it in vain.

He who has protected us until now can protect us still. He who defended us before can defend us now. The past furnishes an assurance that He will defend us if it is best that we should be protected. It greatly supports us in affliction if we can recall the consolations we had in former trials and can draw upon the result of past experience to support us now.

Yet they have not prevailed against me - They have never been able to overcome us. We were safe then in the divine hands; we will be safe in the same hands now.

The plowers plowed upon my back - The comparison here is undoubtedly taken from the plowing of land. The idea is that the sufferings they had endured would be well represented by a plow passing over a field—tearing up the sod, piercing deep, and producing long rows or furrows. The direct allusion seems to be to stripes inflicted on the back, as if a plow had passed over it.

This means that they had been subjected to sufferings like those of slaves or criminals when the lash cut deep into their flesh. The psalmist likely had in mind the hard bondage of the children of Israel in Egypt, when they were subjected to all the evils of servitude.

They made long their furrows - On my back. The word used here and translated "made long"—ארך 'ârak—means to make long, to prolong, to extend in a straight line. It can be used either in the sense of making long in extent or space, or making long in regard to time, that is, prolonging. The latter seems to be the meaning here, as it is difficult to see how stripes inflicted on the back could be made physically long. They could, however, be continued and repeated; the sufferings might be prolonged as well as deep. It was a work of long-continued oppression and wrong.

The Lord is righteous - Righteous in permitting this; righteous in what he has done, and will do, in the treatment of those who inflict such wrongs. We may now safely commit our cause to him in view of what he has done in the past. He was not indifferent then to our sufferings, or deaf to the cries of his people; he interposed and punished the oppressors of his people, and we may trust him still.

He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked - By which they bound us. He did this in our “youth;” when we were oppressed and beaten in Egypt. Then he interposed, and set us free.

Let them all be confounded and turned back ... - This might be rendered in the indicative, “they are ashamed,” but the connection seems to require the rendering in our version. It is a prayer that God would now interpose as he had done in former times, and that he would cause all the haters of Zion to be put to shame as formerly.