John Calvin Commentary Psalms 129

They have often afflicted me from my youth. This Psalm was probably composed when the Church of God, reduced to extreme distress, dismayed by some great danger, or oppressed by tyranny, was on the verge of total destruction. I believe this conjecture is supported by the adverb of time, now, which seems to me to be emphatic.

It is as if the Prophet had said: When God’s faithful ones are drawing their breath with difficulty under the burden of temptations, it is an appropriate time for them to reflect on how He has tested His people from the beginning, and from age to age.

As soon as God allows our enemies free rein to do as they please, we are distressed with sorrow, and our thoughts are entirely consumed by the evils that presently harass us. From this comes despair, for we do not remember that the patience of the fathers was subjected to similar trials, and that nothing happens to us that they did not experience.

It is, then, an exercise especially well-suited to comfort true believers to look back to the conflicts of the Church in past ages, in order to know by this that she has always suffered under the cross and has been severely afflicted by the unrighteous violence of her enemies.

The most probable conjecture that occurs to me at present is that this Psalm was written after the Jews had returned from the Babylonian captivity, and when, after suffering many grievous and cruel injuries from their neighbors, they finally almost fainted under the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes.

In this dark and troubled situation, the Prophet encourages the faithful to fortitude. He does not address only a few of them, but the whole body without exception. So that they might sustain such fierce assaults, he would have them counter these with a hope inspired by the encouraging consideration that the Church, by patient endurance, has consistently proven victorious.

Almost every word is emphatic. Let Israel now say—that is, let Israel consider the trials of the Church in ancient times, from which it can be gathered that the people of God have never been exempt from bearing the cross, and yet that the various afflictions by which they have been tried have always had a positive outcome.

In speaking of Israel’s enemies simply by the pronoun they, without being more specific, the Psalmist emphasizes the greatness of the evil more than if he had expressly named the Assyrians or the Egyptians. By not specifying any particular type of foe, he silently suggests that the world is filled with countless bands of enemies, whom Satan easily equips for the destruction of good people, his aim being for new wars to arise continually on every side.

History certainly provides abundant evidence that the people of God did not have to deal with only a few enemies, but were assaulted by almost the whole world. Furthermore, they were troubled not only by external foes, but also by internal ones—by those who professed to belong to the Church.

The term youth here denotes their earliest beginnings and refers not only to the time when God brought the people out of Egypt, but also to the time when He tested Abraham and the patriarchs during almost their whole lives, by keeping them in a state of painful struggle.

If these patriarchs were unsettled and forced to move about in the land of Canaan, the fate of their descendants was still worse during their time of sojourning in Egypt, when they were not only oppressed as slaves but also burdened with every kind of reproach and shame. When they departed from that land, we know what difficulties they had to encounter.

If, in tracing their history from that period, we find times when they were granted some relief, yet they were not in a state of rest for any significant length of time until the reign of David. And although during his reign they appeared to be in a prosperous condition, troubles and even defeats soon arose that threatened the people of God with total destruction.

In the Babylonian captivity, with all hope almost extinguished, they seemed as if hidden in the grave and undergoing decay. After their return, they obtained, with difficulty, some brief intermission to catch their breath. They were certainly often put to the sword, until their people were almost entirely destroyed.

Therefore, to prevent anyone from supposing they had received only some slight harm, they are rightly said to have been afflicted. It is as if the Prophet placed them before our eyes, so to speak, half-dead from the treatment of their enemies, who, seeing them prostrate at their feet, did not hesitate to tread on them.

If we reflect on our own situation, it will be appropriate to add the horrible persecutions by which the Church would have been consumed a thousand times if God had not, by hidden and mysterious ways, preserved her, raising her, so to speak, from the dead. Unless we have become dull under our calamities, the distressing circumstances of this unhappy age will compel us to meditate on the same doctrine.

When the Prophet says twice, they have afflicted me, they have afflicted me, the repetition is not unnecessary; it is intended to teach us that the people of God did not merely enter the conflict once or twice, but that their patience was tried by continual exercises. He had said that they had begun this conflict from their youth, suggesting that they had been accustomed to it from their very beginning, so that they would become accustomed to bear the cross. He now adds that their being subjected to this rigorous training was not without good reason, since God had continually used these calamities to bring them into submission to Himself.

If the trials of the Church during her childhood were so severe, our weakness will be very shameful indeed if, in the present day, when the Church, by the coming of Christ, has reached maturity, we are found lacking the strength to endure trials. Comfort is provided in the last clause, which informs us that Israel’s enemies, after trying all methods, never succeeded in achieving their desires, as God always frustrated their hopes and thwarted their attempts.

The ploughers have ploughed upon my back. Here the Prophet, by an apparent analogy, embellishes his preceding statement concerning the grievous afflictions of the Church. He compares the people of God to a field through which a plough is drawn. He says that the furrows were made long, so that no corner was exempted from being cut up by the ploughshare. These words vividly express the fact—that the cross has always been planted on the back of the Church, to make long and wide furrows.

In the following verse, a basis for consolation using the same imagery is added: the righteous Lord hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. The allusion is to a plough, which, as we all know, is tied with cords to the necks of the oxen. This language very aptly conveys the idea that the wicked—who would never have tired or grown satiated with exercising their cruelty, and who were also well armed—were prepared to proceed further. However, the Lord, in a completely unexpected way, restrained their fury, just as if a man were to unyoke oxen from the plough by cutting to pieces the cords and thongs that tied them to it.

Thus we see what the true condition of the Church is. As God wants us to take His yoke upon us contentedly, the Holy Spirit fittingly compares us to an arable field, which cannot make any resistance to being cut, split, and turned up by the ploughshare.

If anyone were disposed to indulge in more refined speculation, they might say that the field is ploughed to prepare it for receiving the seed, and that it may eventually bring forth fruit. But in my opinion, the Prophet limits his attention to the afflictions of the Church.

The epithet righteous, with which he honors God, must, in keeping with the scope of the passage, be explained as implying that, although God may seem to conceal His purpose for a time, He never forgets His righteousness, so as to withhold relief from His afflicted people. Paul similarly adduces the same reason why God will not always allow them to be persecuted:

Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
and to you who are troubled rest with us (2 Thessalonians 1:6–7).

It is a point worthy of special notice that the welfare of the Church is inseparably connected with the righteousness of God. The Prophet also wisely teaches us that the reason the enemies of the Church did not prevail was that God brought their enterprises to nothing and did not allow them to go beyond what He had determined.

All who hate Zion shall be confounded, and tutored backward. Whether we take this as a prayer or a promise, the Prophet refers to the time to come. Since all the verbs are in the future tense, it is certainly a very appropriate interpretation to understand him as deriving instruction from past times about what is to be hoped for in the future, even to the end.

In whichever way we understand the passage, he declares that the faithful have no reason to be discouraged when they see their enemies raised on high. The grass that grows upon the housetops is not, because of its higher situation, more valuable than the blade of corn which in the low ground is trampled underfoot; for although it stands elevated above people’s heads, it is, in the first place, unprofitable, and secondly, it quickly withers away.

The verb, ףלש, shalaph, which we translate as comes forth, is by some rendered is plucked up. According to this translation, the sense is that without human hand or labor, the grass on the housetops is dried up. But as the verb properly signifies to be brought forth or to come forth, the meaning, in my opinion, is that the grass on the housetops, far from continuing long in a state of freshness, withers and perishes when it first springs up, because it has no root under it, nor earth to supply it with sap or moisture for its nourishment.

Whenever, then, the splendor or greatness of our enemies strikes us with fear, let us recall this comparison: just as the grass that grows upon the housetops, though high, is still without root and consequently short-lived, so too these enemies, the nearer they approach the sun through the height of their pride, will be all the sooner consumed by the burning heat, since they also have no root. For it is humility alone that draws life and vigor from God.

With which the mower has not filled his hand. We have here an additional confirmation of the truth that although the wicked rise high or elevate themselves, and form an extravagant opinion of their own importance, yet they remain mere grass, not producing any good fruit, nor reaching ripeness, but swelling only with a fresh appearance.

To make this obvious, the Psalmist contrasts them with fruit-bearing plants, which in valleys and low grounds produce fruit for humans. In short, he affirms that they deserve to be hated or despised by all, while, in contrast, everyone who passes by the corn fields usually blesses them and prays for the harvest.

Furthermore, he has borrowed this illustration for his teaching from ordinary life. We are taught that whenever there is a hopeful prospect of a good harvest, we ought to implore God, whose special role it is to give fertility to the earth, that He would bring His blessing to full fruition.

And considering that the fruits of the earth are exposed to so many hazards, it is certainly strange that we are not stirred up to engage in prayer, given their absolute necessity for humans and animals. Nor does the Psalmist, in speaking of passersby blessing the reapers, speak exclusively of the children of God, who are truly taught by His word that the fruitfulness of the earth is due to His goodness; but he also includes worldly people, in whom the same knowledge is naturally implanted.

In conclusion, if we not only dwell in the Church of the Lord but also strive to have a place among her genuine citizens, we will be able to fearlessly despise all the fierce might of our enemies. For although they may flourish and make a great outward show for a time, they are only barren grass, on which heaven’s curse rests.