Psalm 129

As the grass

Read/pray the psalm. (Full text at bottom.)

Like dead grass

• In this next traveling song of the Songs of Ascents, the psalmist recalls abuse from those who hate Zion:

  • Their whips and other brutalities were like a plow driven over the backs of the exiles. [2-3]

  • But as these enemies had sown, so also would they reap.

• Grass sprouts and grows in the unlikeliest of locations, as you have probably noticed, including on housetops.

  • But it will not survive there long—this anticipates the seed sown on rocky ground of Jesus’ parable—but instead dries up and dies, for lack of roots and moisture.

  • Dried grass—like withered sprouts and chaff and dust and ash and sand and dry bones—is another instance of the symbolic pattern of lifelessness.

• It stands in contrast to the blessedness of the fruitful harvest in the last verses, harvesters saying to one another: “The Lord prosper you. We bless you in the Name of the Lord.”

  • This was a common greeting/blessing for everyday labor in ancient Israel.

  • It comes from the book of Ruth, dominated, as we have seen, by the symbol of seed:

  And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem. And he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you!” And they answered, “The LORD bless you.” [Ruth 2:4]

• Building directly on this greeting, some Christian traditions call ourselves to prayer, saying,

  • “The LORD be with you!”

  • Response: “And with your spirit!”

    • The original greeting was edited, drawing on 2 Timothy 4:22: “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with all of you.”

    • In contrast to lifeless godlessness, we invoke the inner spiritual life of the Lord’s presence.

So…

• What everyday work do you have today? Will you ask for the Lord’s blessing on it?

• Pray:

Let your work be shown to your servants,
and your glorious power to their children. 
Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
and establish the work of our hands upon us;
yes, establish the work of our hands! [Psalm 90:16-17]

Psalm 129
Sæpe expugnaverunt

1	“Many a time have they fought against me from my youth on,”  * 
		may Israel now say;
2	“Indeed, many a time have they afflicted me from my youth on,  * 
		but they have not prevailed against me.
3	The plowers plowed upon my back, *
		and made long furrows.
4	But the righteous Lord *
		has hewn the snares of the ungodly in pieces.” 
5	Let them be ashamed and turned backward, *
		as many as hate Zion.
6	Let them be as the grass growing upon the housetops, * 
		which withers before it grows up,
7	Which does not fill the hand of the reaper, *
		neither the bosom of him who binds up the sheaves,
8	So that those who go by say not so much as, “The Lord prosper you. *
		We bless you in the Name of the Lord.”



New Coverdale Psalter