Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Psalms 129:2

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Psalms 129:2. Yet they have not prevailed — They endeavoured to annihilate us as a people; but God still preserves us as his own nation.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Psalm 129-131 Preparing for worship

Thinking back on the sorrows of Israel’s history, the travellers recall that ever since the days of the nation’s ‘youth’ in Egypt, Israel has had suffering. The backs of the people had been whipped when they were slaves, but God cut the cords that bound them in slavery and set them free (129:1-4). Now again they are troubled by those who hate them. They pray that God will turn back their enemies and make them as useless as stalks of grass that wither and die in the sun (5-7). Left without friends, their enemies will have no one to help them (8).
A sense of their own sinfulness overcomes the travellers as they approach the temple. They know that they need forgiveness, for no person in a sinful condition can stand before the holy God in his temple (130:1-4). They wait for the assurance of God’s forgiveness with the same longing as watch men on night duty wait for the light of dawn (5-6). But all the time they have a quiet confidence that God, in his love, will forgive them (7-8).
Realizing that they are forgiven, the grateful worshippers are now ready to enter God’s temple in holy worship. The importance of the occasion fills them with such a sense of awe that they are genuinely humbled before God. They confess that they cannot understand all about God and his ways, though at the same time they rest in the knowledge of his nearness and comfort (131:1-3).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

THE ENEMY HAS NOT PREVAILED

"Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up, Let Israel now say, Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth up; Yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back; They made long their furrows. Jehovah is righteous: He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked."

"From my youth up" "Israel's youth was theft sojourn in Egypt (Jeremiah 2:2; Hosea 2:15)."Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 386.

"Let Israel now say" "Israel is speaking in this psalm, not the individual."H. C. Leupold, p. 898. It must therefore be considered the cry of the whole nation and not that of a mere individual.

"Many a time have they afflicted me" "Many of the ordeals of Israel, unlike the Egyptian bondage, were punishments; but God's character was righteous; and, therefore, through them all, he shines as The Rescuer of Israel."Derek Kidner, Vol. II, p. 444. As the pilgrim singers dwelt upon this thought, they were encouraged and lifted up in confidence that, after so many deliverances in the past, God will surely not forsake them.

"The plowers plowed upon my back… long their furrows" "The usual interpretation is to be preferred here, that underlying this metaphor is the notion of scourging."Leslie C. Allen, Vol. II, p. 187. The long furrows are to be understood as the lash marks of the whips upon their backs. The Old Israel, in some ways, was the Old Testament Type of the True Israel, who is Christ; and Allen pointed out that these lines suggest the scourging that was laid upon the back of Jesus Our Lord, as prophesied in Isaiah 53:5.

"Jehovah is righteous; he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked" This is a very subtle figure of speech. The "plowing" of that generation was done with oxen drawing the plow. The necessary equipment in such activity included the cords that bound the yoke to the necks of the oxen; and we deeply appreciate the discernment of Allen who observed that, "Jehovah prevented the wicked from continuing their oppression by, as it were, breaking the harness."Ibid.

Spurgeon also understood this passage in the same way.

"If any man would have his harness cut, let him begin to plow one of the Lord's fields with the plow of persecution. The shortest way to ruin is to meddle with a saint. The Divine warning is, `He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.'"Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Vol. II, p. 247.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

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 thus afflicted. 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, and when thus tried we have been as often delivered, and have nothing now therefore to fear. We are not to regard it as a strange thing that we are now afflicted; and we are not 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 heretofore can protect us still. He who defended us before can defend us now, and the past furnishes an assurance that be will defend us if it is best that we should be protected. It does much to support us in affliction if we can recall to mind the consolations which we had in former trials, and can avail ourselves of the result of past experience in supporting 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 shall be safe in the same hands now.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Psalms 129:1-8

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me ( Psalms 129:1-2 ).

So here is Israel, and look how many times they are being afflicted. Even still 2,700-800 years later after this psalm was written, still Israel being afflicted. Yet, hey, they have not prevailed against her. She's still there. She's still a nation. She still stands up to the world.

The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows. But the LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up: Wherewith the mower cannot fill his hand; nor he that bindeth the sheaves of his bosom ( Psalms 129:3-7 ).

Now on the roof, of course, dust will blow up on the roof and sometimes grass seed, and you'll have little sprouts of grass, but never enough to harvest. So let them be like the grass that just grows up on the roof.

Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD ( Psalms 129:8 ).

This is in the negative sense. But putting it in a positive sense, how glorious it would be to go by your neighbor and say, "I bless you in the name of the Lord. Blessings be upon thee. I bless you in the name of the Lord." I think it's another good phrase to pick up on. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

This psalm begins, as Psalms 124 did, by calling on the pilgrim Israelites to speak for the nation. The writer urged the people to acknowledge that God had enabled Israel to survive the many persecutions she had experienced throughout her history.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

1. A tribute to past deliverance 129:1-4

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Psalms 129

God had delivered Israel from her enemies. The psalmist praised Him for doing so, and then asked Him to continue doing so, in this psalm of communal confidence.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,.... This is repeated for the confirmation of it, to excite attention to it, and to express the vehement affection of the speaker;

yet they have not prevailed against me; the Egyptians could not prevail against literal Israel; the more they were afflicted, the more they grew and multiplied; in the times of the Judges, one after another were raised up as deliverers of them; neither the Assyrians, Chaldeans, nor Romans, nor any other, have been able to cut them off from being a nation; they continue to this day: the enemies of the church of Christ, even the gates of hell, have not been able to prevail against it, being built upon a rock, so as to extirpate and destroy it, neither by open and cruel persecutors, nor by secret and fraudulent heretics; nor could the enemies of the Messiah prevail against him, for though they brought him to the dust of death, they could not hold him in it; and they themselves, through his death, were conquered by him, as sin, Satan, the world, and death itself; nor can the enemies of the saints prevail against them, God being on their side, Christ making them more than conquerors, the Spirit in them being greater than he that is in the world.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

A song of degrees.

      1 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:   2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.   3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.   4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.

      The church of God, in its several ages, is here spoken of, or, rather, here speaks, as one single person, now old and gray-headed, but calling to remembrance the former days, and reflecting upon the times of old. And, upon the review, it is found, 1. That the church has been often greatly distressed by its enemies on earth: Israel may now say, "I am the people that has been oppressed more than any people, that has been as a speckled bird, pecked at by all the birds round about," Jeremiah 12:9. It is true, they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins; it was for them that God punished them; but it was for the peculiarity of their covenant, and the singularities of their religion, that their neighbours hated and persecuted them. "For these many a time have they afflicted me from my youth." Note, God's people have always had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its infancy, has frequently been an afflicted state. Israel's youth was in Egypt, or in the times of the Judges; then they were afflicted, and thenceforward more or less. The gospel-church, ever since it had a being, has been at times afflicted; and it bore this yoke most of all in its youth, witness the ten persecutions which the primitive church groaned under. The ploughers ploughed upon my back,Psalms 129:3; Psalms 129:3. We read (Psalms 125:3) of the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous, where we rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves; here we read of the plough of the wicked upon the back of the righteous, where we rather expected to find the rod. But the metaphors in these places may be said to be crossed; the sense however of both is the same, and is too plain, that the enemies of God's people have all along used them very barbarously. They tore them, as the husbandman tears the ground with his plough-share, to pull them to pieces and get all they could out of them, and so to wear out the saints of the Most High, as the ground is worn out that has been long tilled, tilled (as we say) quite out of heart. When God permitted them to plough thus he intended it for his people's good, that, their fallow ground being thus broken up, he might sow the seeds of his grace upon them, and reap a harvest of good fruit from them: howbeit, the enemies meant not so, neither did their hearts think so (Isaiah 10:7); they made long their furrows, never knew when to have done, aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the church. Many by the furrows they made on the backs of God's people understand the stripes they gave them. The cutters cut upon my back, so they read it. The saints have often had trials of cruel scourgings (probably the captives had) and cruel mockings (for we read of the scourge or lash of the tongue, Hebrews 11:36), and so it was fulfilled in Christ, who gave his back to the smiters,Isaiah 50:6. Or it may refer to the desolations they made of the cities of Israel. Zion shall, for your sake, be ploughed as a field,Micah 3:12. 2. That the church has been always graciously delivered by her friend in heaven. (1.) The enemies' projects have been defeated. They have afflicted the church, in hopes to ruin it, but they have not gained their point. Many a storm it has weathered; many a shock, and many a brunt, it has borne; and yet it is in being: They have not prevailed against me. One would wonder how this ship has lived at sea, when it has been tossed with tempests, and all the waves and billows have gone over it. Christ has built his church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it, nor ever shall. (2.) The enemies' power has been broken: God has cut asunder the cords of the wicked, has cut their gears, their traces, and so spoiled their ploughing, has cut their scourges, and so spoiled their lashing, has cut the bands of union by which they were combined together, has cut the bands of captivity in which they held God's people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men to do the mischief they design against his church and shaming their counsels. These words, The Lord is righteous, may refer either to the distresses or to the deliverances of the church. [1.] The Lord is righteous in suffering Israel to be afflicted. This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust soever their enemies were, God was just in all that was brought upon them,Nehemiah 9:33. [2.] The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; for he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and he will be as good as his word. He is righteous in reckoning with their persecutors, and rendering to them a recompence,2 Thessalonians 1:6.