John Calvin Commentary Psalms 129:1

"Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up, Let Israel now say," — Psalms 129:1 (ASV)

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.