Psalms 129
A psalm of survival against long affliction and hatred.
Psalm 129 opens with Israel recalling a history of suffering, "many a time have they afflicted me from my youth," yet insisting the enemy "have not prevailed." It offers a harder-edged companion to the blessing pronounced in Psalms 128, this time framed as survival rather than prosperity.
<A Song of the going up.> Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young (let Israel now say);
Great have been my troubles from the time when I was young, but my troubles have not overcome me.
The ploughmen were ploughing on my back; long were the wounds they made.
The Lord is true: the cords of the evil-doers are broken in two.
Let all the haters of Zion be shamed and turned back.
Let them be like the grass on the house-tops, which is dry before it comes to full growth.
He who gets in the grain has no use for it; and they do not make bands of it for the grain-stems.
And those who go by do not say, The blessing of the Lord be on you; we give you blessing in the name of the Lord.