John Calvin Commentary Psalms 129:3

"The plowers plowed upon my back; They made long their furrows." — Psalms 129:3 (ASV)

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.