Psalm 129

These Songs for the Pilgrimage are so good.  What encouragement in the face of life’s afflictions as well as life’s responsibilities.  So what do we have today?

Uh-oh.  Here is a most severe problem, one that most of us know we have, but one that we thought no one else knew about.  There is that issue that has been a struggle in our lives since childhood.  We can often trace the issue back to some incident or relationship during our early years.  Because it is so overwhelming we have, perhaps, concluded that we are just stuck with it.  And likely we have gone to great lengths to keep it a secret from even our closest friends.

The Song (interesting, this is a Song about life-long afflictions) makes it clear that these are real.  It began in his youth and continues apparently to this day.  Hopefully we have come to understand that we were raised by two (and yes, sometimes one) imperfect people.  Add to that some traumatic experience (an abusive parent, a rape, belittling by a teacher or coach, bullying by peers, and so forth).  These things, and their effects, are real.  And they can be quite fearful.  As the Psalmist puts it, the plow has been in the ground for a long time, the oxen pulling hard, opening the deepest of wounds.

But do not stop there as many people do.  They end up with a life of regret or bitterness or lowered expectations because they have decided that is where they must be.  We may fail to see that already, in the midst of this life-long affliction, we have something to be thankful for.  They have not prevailed!  For all the difficulty, we continue to live.  We may have thought at one time that these things would destroy us.  But here we are, on pilgrimage, drawing closer to God.

And that is not all.  The Psalmist is able to speak confidently to this secret and powerful enemy (v5-8).  I love that line: let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up.  In the Middle East the dust and sand gathers on the tops of the houses and sometimes grass will begin to grow; but it’s so shallow that it’s never something that has to be harvested.  The Psalmist speaks to his soul (we must do this from time to time lest our soul lead us in the wrong path), denying this grievous enemy the blessing of the Lord.

But wait, what is the basis of this confidence?  It is the powerful confession of the Pilgrim as he contemplates his affliction: The LORD is righteous (v4).  Remember that the Pilgrim’s help on the journey is the LORD who made heaven and earth.  He is righteous.  He knows about our trial.  He will never allow our lives to become so painful that we have no choice but to turn back (125:3); He will make a way of escape when we need it (124:6-7).

This Song does not tell us our affliction will just vanish if we trust God.  It tells us God is right!  He is treating us perfectly according to His will and our good.  Let us trust Him as we continue along the path to glory.