Psalm 129:1-8 NIV
“They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,”
let Israel say; “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
but they have not gained the victory over me.
Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long.
But the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”
May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame.
May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow;
a reaper cannot fill his hands with it, nor one who gathers fill his arms.
May those who pass by not say to them, “The blessing of the Lord be on you;
we bless you in the name of the Lord.”
Psalm 129 is another psalm of ascent. The Israelites rehearse their national history through lament. They remember how they were oppressed by the Babylonians in exile. They lived as little more than slaves in some cases. They were a defeated people, an object of scorn. The reference to plowmen plowing furrows long into their backs, might be a metaphor for actual lashings, tearing the flesh open. It could be a euphemism for feeling the harshness of oppression from their captors. It might be similar to our phrase, "They stabbed me in the back." It's not literal but figurative.
Whatever the suffering remembered in lament, the psalm announces good news. The Lord is righteous! He did not allow His people to be completely crushed, but rather through exile He refined them. The Babylonians did not crush the Hebrews' spirit. Their hope in God kept their faith vital. They were renewed each day. The Lord delivered them first inwardly. They lived free in their souls. Eventually they became free from Babylon through God's action. They were physically freed by the Persians.
Psalm 129 turns from lament and brief history toward cursing. The oppressor is cursed. The Babylonians are wished harm and not blessing. Justice looks like the oppressor being shamed, lacking vitality, weakness and shortened life. The curse ends by reversing words of blessing for the Jew to be a curse upon the enemy.
Compare Psalm 128 to 129. Psalm 128 speaks of the blessed life of those who fear the Lord and obey Him. They are blessed with prosperity and peace. Happiness fills their homes. The opposite is wished upon the Babylonians. May no one ever bless them in the name of Yahweh, the psalmist says. The Babylonians might know blessing by coming to obedience to the covenant of the Lord. That does not seem possible when Israel rehearses it's thirst for retribution. They will not welcome a Babylonian with the hands of friendship. They will not pray for their enemy. How will Babylon ever know the truth about the Lord?
This kind of liturgy can be helpful and healing for those in pain, reeling from recent suffering, but teaching children and future generations to hate the Babylonian feels wrong to me. To rehearse liturgical curses upon those who have persecuted your forebears seems like a trap, an unhealthy pattern of harboring bitterness.
We do this naturally. We may not write liturgy for the church to join in a dirge, but we do rehearse our sense of indignation in our own minds. We write a narrative of lament upon our hearts. We voice our pain and our desire for justice to any who will listen. But do we trust God to be the One to cut us free from the cords of the wicked? Doesn't unforgiveness keep us bound to our former oppressor?
God is righteous, and in His righteousness justice will come to us all. Lament is good when it leads to healing, but cursing our enemies is not something we are authorized to do. Christians are called to forgive, to pray for their enemies, and to bless those who curse you. If we are to find blessing in our journey with Christ, we must learn to tell a very different story than the one rehearsed in Psalm 129. We would end our tale of oppression with praises to the Lord and a desire for our enemy to know the same love that has set us free.
Blessed are the pacemakers.
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