Psalms 129+130

Psalm 129

Once again we’re going to take two short psalms together. The first one — Psalm 129 — can be divided into two parts. In the first part, the psalmist calls on God’s people to praise him for delivering them from their oppressors. And in the second part, he prays to the Lord to defeat all those who hate Zion. By mentioning Zion, we’re reminded once again that this is a song of ascents, written for God’s people as they made their way to up Mount Zion to visit Jerusalem. God’s people loved Zion, because that’s where the temple was; and the temple was God’s dwelling place among his people in those days. But God’s people were well aware that there were many others who hated Zion. That is, they hated God’s people who gathered on Mount Zion to worship the Lord. And so, the psalmist prayed to the Lord to defeat those who hate Zion and who wanted to destroy God’s people. And since Zion represents God’s people, then this is a psalm about those who hate God’s people in every generation. And it’s about how they will not gain the victory over us.

In verses 1 and 2 the psalmist calls on the people of Israel to say with him that, though he has been greatly oppressed since his youth, his enemies have not been victorious over him. By saying he has been greatly oppressed, he means he has been oppressed many times. And since he calls on the people of Israel to join him, then that suggests that he’s not speaking of his own personal suffering, but the suffering of all of God’s people. God’s people in every generation face oppression and persecution from those who do not believe. That was true of God’s people in Old Testament times, beginning with Abel who was murdered by his brother. And it continued in the days of Moses, when the Egyptians persecuted God’s people when they were slaves in Egypt. Then we could jump forward to the days of the judges, when the Philistines and other nations attacked God’s people. And the Philistines continued to attack God’s people during the reign of David. Later on, God’s people suffered at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. And when they were in exile, Haman tried to annihilate God’s people throughout the Persian Empire.

And the persecution of God’s people is also seen in the book of Acts, when the religious authorities banned the apostles from preaching about Christ. And Stephen was stoned to death. And a great persecution broke out against the church in those days. And it has continued ever since.

And, of course, in the gospels we see the opposition to the Lord Jesus, which began when he was only a baby and Mary and Joseph had to take him and flee to Egypt for safety. And it continued throughout his earthly life until he was crucified.

God’s people throughout the world have always faced innumerable enemies. But the church continues to exist in the world, because the Lord has not let his enemies gain the victory over his people. This doesn’t mean that God’s people do not suffer. After all, in verse 4, the psalmist compares the church’s enemies to ploughmen who plough over the backs of God’s people, making long furrows. He’s using this agricultural image to describe the suffering of God’s people. It’s as if the church is lying flat on her face and an unbelieving world is walking all over us and pressing down hard on us. In other words, the church does suffer in this world.

But the Lord is righteous. And since he has bound himself with a promise to be our God and to take care of us, then it’s right for him to rescue his people. He therefore cuts his people free from the cords of the wicked. And we see this in the way he rescued his people from the Egyptians in the days of Moses. And he rescued his people from the Philistines by the hand of the judges and David. He then rescued them from Haman by the hand of Esther and Mordecai, who were in the right place at the right time to save their people. And even when the Lord allows his people to perish — think of Stephen in the book of Acts — he brings them into the joy of his presence in heaven to wait for the resurrection of the dead and everlasting life in the new and better world to come where no-one will oppress them.

By calling on the people of Israel to say these things with him, the psalmist is calling on God’s people to acknowledge God’s faithfulness and to praise him for it.

In the second part of the psalm, the psalmist prays to the Lord to defeat all those who hate Zion. He wants the Lord to turn them back in shame. When he refers to shame, he means the shame of defeat. So, let them be turned back in defeat.

And let them be like grass on the roof. In those days, the roof of a building was made with mud and branches. That then meant that weeds would grow on it. But when the summer came, the weeds dried up and died. So: May those who hate God’s people be like weeds on the roof which soon dry up and wither and die.

He then uses the image of a harvest, when the reaper would go through the field and cut the corn and gather it in his hands. But the psalmist wants his enemies to be like a field where nothing grows so that there’s nothing for the reaper to harvest. In other words, let them be cut down sooner rather than later.

And in the final verse, he alludes to how people, passing by a field at harvest time, would shout a greeting to the workers. But if there’s nothing growing in the field, then there’s no one to greet. And so, he wants his enemies to be like an empty field with nothing growing in it. He’s asking the Lord to defeat their enemies. Destroy them. Do not let them live.

Throughout his life on earth, the Lord Jesus was greatly oppressed by those who hated him. But because of his sufferings on our behalf, when he paid for our sins with his life, we now have peace with God and we can look to him to deliver us from all his and our enemies. Though satan will do his best to stir up opposition to the church, God’s people in every generation and in every place can count on the Lord to deliver us. He may deliver his people in this life by saving us from the hand of the wicked and by giving us peace. But if not in this life, then he will deliver his people in the life to come when he brings us into the joy of his presence. And even when he allows his enemies to oppress the church in this life, he’s able to turn what they do to the church to our advantage, because he’s able to work all things together for our good and for his own glory.

And the Lord Jesus reassures us that he will build his church on the earth and the gates of hell will not prevail. So, we have the word of the Lord to reassure us that satan and all who side with him will not prevail. They will be destroyed. But all who trust in Christ the Saviour will live for ever, because of his victory on our behalf over sin and satan and death.

Psalm 130

Let’s turn now to Psalm 130, which is a penitential psalm. So, it’s a psalm about our need of forgiveness.

In verses 1 and 2, the psalmist cries out to the Lord. Hear my voice, he asks. Be attentive to my cry. So, listen closely to me. It’s as if he wants the Lord to lean over so that the Lord can hear the psalmist better.

And he wants the Lord to hear his cry for mercy. In other words, he’s looking to the Lord for help. And he needs help because he’s in the depths. Think of the depths of the sea or think of the bottom of a deep valley or the bottom of a pit. He’s using the image of the depths to convey to us the trouble he’s in. And just as we’re unable by ourselves to climb out of a deep pit, so the psalmist can’t get himself out of this trouble he’s in. And so, he needs the Lord’s help.

And since he goes on to mention sins in verse 3, then that tells us that the reason for his trouble has something to do with his sinfulness. When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he fell from a state of innocence into a state of sin and misery. And we fell with him. And since sin causes misery, then we continually find ourselves in the depths of misery. Think of Jonah, who disobeyed the Lord’s command to go to Nineveh and fled by ship to Tarshish. And as a result, he was thrown overboard and sank deep down to the depths of the sea so that he almost died. The path of disobedience leads only to trouble. And in the end, it leads to death.

But the good news is that, when we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us. And so, instead of keeping a record of our sins, and instead of holding them against us for ever, the Lord washes our sins away. And so, the psalmist says in verse 3 that if the Lord kept a record of our sins, then no-one could stand. But thankfully, he’s willing to forgive us our sins. And when he forgives us our sins, he promises to remember them no more and never to bring them up again or to hold them against us.

And since this is the case — since God is willing to forgive us — then we should fear him. That is to say, we should worship him. We should worship him and not any other god, because he’s the only God who can forgive. And he’s able to forgive us because of Christ our Saviour, who gave up his life on the cross as the ransom to pay for our sins. He shed his blood to cleanse us from our guilt. And through faith in him, we are forgiven and not condemned.

Since God is willing to forgive his people, then the psalmist says in verse 5 that he will wait for the Lord and he will put his hope in God’s word. So, we can imagine the psalmist sitting in the depths because of some sin he has committed. But now he’s confessed his sin before the Lord. And so, he’s waiting in hope for the Lord to rescue him. And just as a watchman waits eagerly for the morning to come, so the psalmist is waiting eagerly for the Lord to come to rescue him. In fact, he’s waiting even more eagerly than the watchman.

And in the final two verses, the psalmist calls on all of God’s people to put their hope in the Lord. So, not only the psalmist, but the whole nation is in need of God’s mercy. The whole nation has sunk down into the depths. Think of the time of the exile, when God sent his people far from the Promised Land because of their persistent unbelief and rebellion. The Lord, in a sense, cast them into the depths. But as we’ve been learning from Ezekiel, when they were in exile, they acknowledged their detestable practices. They confessed their sin before the Lord. And they asked for forgiveness and mercy. And having prayed for forgiveness, they waited eagerly for the day when God would raise them from the depths and allow them to go home.

And so, they hoped in the Lord, because with the Lord is unfailing love. The psalmist is referring in verse 7 to God’s covenant love for his people. This is his never-ending love for them. Just as a husband and wife promise to love one another always, so God has promised to love his people always, despite our sins and shortcomings.

And with the Lord is full redemption. He’s the one who fully delivers his people out of the depths and out of our sin and misery. And so, God himself will redeem his people from all their sins. That’s in verse 8. And the psalmist means that the Lord will redeem or deliver his people from the penalty of our sins.

The penalty for their sins in Old Testament times included the exile to Babylon. But God was willing to forgive them and to rescue them from Babylon and to bring them back to the Promised Land.

Ultimately the penalty we all deserve for our sins is death and it’s to be sent out of God’s presence to suffer everlasting punishment for what we have done wrong. But God himself redeems us. He redeemed us himself by coming to earth in the person of his Son to suffer in our place the punishment we deserve so that all who believe receive forgiveness and peace with God. And though we will still die, death is no longer the punishment for our sins, but it’s the doorway into God’s presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore for all of God’s people. Though we die and our bodies are buried in the depths of the earth, God will deliver us from the grave and bring us into his presence just as he did for Christ our Saviour who died and who was raised for us and our salvation.