Psalm 129, Life-Long Oppressions

In the Pilgrim Songs (Songs of Ascents, Ps. 120-134) we see various ways that the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth (121:1-2; 124:8) helps us along on the journey of drawing nearer to Him.  One issue we have is what we call life-long oppressions.  They are those issues in our lives that may go back to or childhood.  As the Psalmist says twice, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth.  We want to show from the Scriptures that these kinds of things are not unique but are, like all temptations, common to man (1 Cor. 10:13).  We also want to show that, as with all temptations, God is faithful to make a way of escape.  The first thing we need to do is to “review” the facts from Psalm 129, which we will do now.

·        Fact #1: Lifelong oppressions are a reality, v1-2a.  This is what we will show in days to come Lord willing.  The point is: we should not deny that things in our youth happened that were formative, things of a negative nature as well as positive.

·        Fact #2: Lifelong oppressions can be of fearful proportions, v3.  We should also not deny that these events can have a powerful effect on us for a long time.  Just meditate on the picture of plowers pulling their discs across your back.

·        Fact #3: Lifelong oppressions need not oppress me, v2b.  The usual approach in our world to dealing with these things is to have a strong “backward” focus, trying to heal our memories or some such thing.  But as one commentator said: “the right use of retrospect is to make it the ground of hope.”  When we look back the observation we must have is this: yet they have not prevailed against me.  As an illustration, in Joshua 24, in Joshua’s final words to Israel, he looked back at the various enemies Israel had faced from her beginnings.  He reminded them that God had delivered them from them all, even though Israel’s existence had been one full of affliction.  THEN Joshua said: Choose you this day whom you will serve! When we look back at these oppressive situations we need to see them correctly: God has delivered; they have not prevailed so as to destroy us.

·        Fact #4: God is righteous! (v4)  This is the apex of the Psalm.  We must put God in His proper place in terms of the things that happened to us, often events over which we had no control.  God has been and will be righteous in His sovereignty (He has not allowed or done these things by mistake).  God has been and will be righteous in His love (He has disciplined us as a loving Father).  God has been and will be righteous in His faithfulness (He never fails to keep His word or accomplish His will).

·        Facts #5: Lifelong oppressions are beneficial to me.  As David Dickson, one of Spurgeon’s preachers in The Treasury of David, said, what God allows in our lives is for the “manuring of the church.”  He allows our enemy to break up the fallow ground of our proud and stiff hearts.  It hurts but we must have this.  Our primary goal must not be to bring the oppression to an end (that is the prerogative of our faithful God) but to persevere in our own faithfulness to Him.

·        Fact #6: Lifelong oppressions are the stuff of prayer, v5-8.  We need to pray that these oppressions will lose their integrity (v5), their effectiveness (v6-7) and their supporters (v8).  As always this will be a prayer of waiting upon the Lord.

We hope this is an encouragement to you today and in days to come.  Our next encouragement will come from observing the saints who were afflicted with lifelong oppressions and who lived out their trust in the God who is righteous.