Psalm 129 PLOUGHING UP

psalm 129




ON THE WAY UP (10)
Psalm 129    PLOUGHING UP

NOT every one loves Zion. There are those who hate her, and this song focuses its attention on them.

IT is expressed in terms of prayer that these enemies of God's people may be frustrated in every way. True, they will never suffer from a plough because they will be like rootless grass on the housetops, and as such will never come to any sort of harvest joys.

THIS is not the kind of prayer that we would care to pray, but it clearly depicts the inevitable destiny of those who oppose God's will. They are described as ploughers, but they will never be mowers or reapers, in spite of their persistent activities. Twice over the psalmist uses the phrase "Many a time" and he indicates that they begin in our time of youth and then go right on in unrelenting persecution.

POOR things! Can there be anything more futile than to go on ploughing and never reap any sort of harvest except shame and contempt? Yet that is what will happen in their case if the psalmist's prayer is answered. His prayer is a kind of prophecy -- they will finish unpraised and unblest. How pitiful are their efforts!

BUT there is another side to this picture, implied if not actually stated. The ploughmen who are making such deep furrows on the backs of God's pilgrims are the instruments in His hands to prepare for a rich harvest of blessing in the lives of their afflicted victims.

ALL through the year Israel can say that in spite of the long and bitter furrows of affliction, they have never been overcome. Indeed it is because of the painful ploughing that they have the happy prospect of an abundant harvest of righteousness.

THEY will be given the pleasure which comes to the mower who fills his hands with the gathered blessings and the reaper who joyfully binds the sheaves of fulfilment to his bosom. Those who pass by will bless them, and will give God blessing for them. In His sovereignty, the full harvest will have been made possible by the frequent and prolonged enmity of the ploughers.

SO this psalm, which began by promising to be a complaining dirge of descents and depression, turns out to have a worthy place among the Songs of Ascent. It reminds us that the more Satan afflicts God's people, the more fruitful they become. This was the case in Egypt under Pharaoh (Exodus 1:12); it is sung about in the days of the kingdom in our psalm; it is recorded in the experience of the early church (Acts 12:24); and it is as true as ever today.

Patience, my suffering brothers and sisters! We are on our way up! Let us join in the song of victory. The ploughing may be painful now, but however long and deep the furrows on our backs, we can lift our heads in praising triumph. They will not prevail against us. The ploughmen may be operating "many a time", but God's grace is such that this will only increase the joys and fruitfulness of the harvest that is to be. In that day all who pass by will observe the manifest blessing of God. They will bless us in the name of the Lord.

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