Psa 129:5-8 | TDavid | STEP | EXPOSITION Verse 5 . Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. And so say we right heartily: and in this case vox populi is vex Dei, for so it shall be. If this be an imprecation, let it stand; for our heart says "Amen" to it. It is but justice that those who hate, harass, and hurt the good should be brought to naught. Those who confound right and wrong ought to be confounded, and those who turn back from God ought to be turned back. Loyal subjects wish ill to those who plot against their king. "Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks", is but a proper wish, and contains within it no trace of personal ill will. We desire their welfare as men, their downfall as traitors. Let their conspiracies be confounded, their policies be turned back. How can we wish prosperity to those who would destroy that which is dearest to our hearts? This present age is so flippant that if a man loves the Saviour he is styled a fanatic, and if he hates the powers of evil he is named a bigot. As for ourselves, despite all objectors, we join heartily in this commination; and would revive in our heart the old practice of Ebal and Gerizim, where those were blessed who bless God, and those were cursed who make themselves a curse to the righteous. We have heard men desire a thousand times that the gallows might be the reward of the assassins who murdered two inoffensive men in Dublin, and we could never censure the wish; for justice ought to he rendered to the evil as well as to the good. Besides, the church of God is so useful, so beautiful, so innocent of harm, so fraught with good, that those who do her wrong are wronging all mankind and deserve to be treated as the enemies of the human race. Study a chapter from the "Book of Martyrs", and see if you do not feel inclined to read an imprecatory Psalm over Bishop Bonner and Bloody Mary. It may be that some wretched nineteenth century sentimentalist will blame you: if so, read another over him. EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS Verse 5 . If any one be desirous to accept these words , Let them be confounded and turned backward, as they sound, he will devoutly explain the imprecation: that is to say, it may be an imprecation of good confusion, which leads to repentance, and of turning to God from sin: thus Bellarmine. There is a confounding by bringing grace, glory, and turning from the evil way. Thus some enemies and persecutors of the Christians have been holily confounded and turned to the faith of Christ; as St. Paul, who full of wrath and slaughter was going to Damascus that he might afflict the believers, but was graciously confounded on the road. --Thomas Le Blanc. Verse 5 . Let them all be confounded . Mr. Emerson told a convention of rationalists once, in this city, that the morality of the New Testament is scientific and perfect. But the morality of the New Testament is that of the Old. "Yes", you say; "but what of the imprecatory Psalms", A renowned professor, who, as Germany thinks, has done more for New England theology than any man since Jonathan Edwards, was once walking in this city with a clergyman of a radical faith, who objected to the doctrine that the Bible is inspired, and did so on the ground of the imprecatory Psalms. The replies of the usual kind were made; and it was presumed that David expressed the Divine purpose in praying that his enemies might be destroyed, and that he gave utterance only to the natural righteous indignation of conscience against unspeakable iniquity. But the doubter would not be satisfied. The two came at last to a newspaper bulletin, on which the words were written, -- "Baltimore to be shelled at twelve o'clock." "I am glad of it", said the radical preacher; "I am glad of it." "And so am I", said his companion, "but I hardly dare say so, for fear you should say that I am uttering an imprecatory Psalm." --Joseph Cook, in Boston Monday Lectures. "Transcendentalism." Verse 5 . And turned back; from pursuing their designs and accomplishing them; as the Assyrian monarch was , who had a hook put into his nose, and a bridle in his lips, and was turned back by the way he came: . --John Gill. Verse 5 . All those who hate Zion . Note that he does not say, All who hate me; but "all who hate Zion." Thus the saints are not led to this from the desire of revenge, but from zeal for the people of God, so that they pray for the confusion and repression of the ungodly. --Wolfgang Musculus. HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS Verse 5 . An inexcusable hatred described: "hate Zion", God's church and cause. For, Her people are righteous. Her faith is a gospel. Her mission is peace. Her very existence is the world's preservation. An inveterate sinfulness indicated: "Them that hate Zion." For, whatever moral virtues they may boast of, they must be, Enemies to the human race. In defiant opposition to God. Perversely blind, as Saul, or radically vile. Devil like. An instinctive feeling of a good man expressed: "Let them all be", etc. Prompted by, His love to God. Love to man. Love to righteousness. Hence, its existence is in itself a pledge that the righteous God will respect and comply with it. --J. F. Verse 5-8 . The characters described. They do not love Zion. They say not, "Lord, I have loved the habitation of thine house", etc. They hate Zion -- both its King and its subjects. Their prosperity: "As the grass", etc. Their end. Shame: "Let them be confounded." Loss: "Turned back." Disappointment. No mowing; no reaping. Dishonour. Unblessed by others as well as in themselves. --G. R.

Psalms 129:5-8

EXPOSITION

Verse 5. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion. And so say we right heartily: and in this case vox populi is vex Dei, for so it shall be. If this be an imprecation, let it stand; for our heart says "Amen" to it. It is but justice that those who hate, harass, and hurt the good should be brought to naught. Those who confound right and wrong ought to be confounded, and those who turn back from God ought to be turned back. Loyal subjects wish ill to those who plot against their king. "Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks", is but a proper wish, and contains within it no trace of personal ill will. We desire their welfare as men, their downfall as traitors. Let their conspiracies be confounded, their policies be turned back. How can we wish prosperity to those who would destroy that which is dearest to our hearts? This present age is so flippant that if a man loves the Saviour he is styled a fanatic, and if he hates the powers of evil he is named a bigot. As for ourselves, despite all objectors, we join heartily in this commination; and would revive in our heart the old practice of Ebal and Gerizim, where those were blessed who bless God, and those were cursed who make themselves a curse to the righteous. We have heard men desire a thousand times that the gallows might be the reward of the assassins who murdered two inoffensive men in Dublin, and we could never censure the wish; for justice ought to he rendered to the evil as well as to the good. Besides, the church of God is so useful, so beautiful, so innocent of harm, so fraught with good, that those who do her wrong are wronging all mankind and deserve to be treated as the enemies of the human race. Study a chapter from the "Book of Martyrs", and see if you do not feel inclined to read an imprecatory Psalm over Bishop Bonner and Bloody Mary. It may be that some wretched nineteenth century sentimentalist will blame you: if so, read another over him.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 5. If any one be desirous to accept these words, Let them be confounded and turned backward, as they sound, he will devoutly explain the imprecation: that is to say, it may be an imprecation of good confusion, which leads to repentance, and of turning to God from sin: thus Bellarmine. There is a confounding by bringing grace, glory, and turning from the evil way. Thus some enemies and persecutors of the Christians have been holily confounded and turned to the faith of Christ; as St. Paul, who full of wrath and slaughter was going to Damascus that he might afflict the believers, but was graciously confounded on the road. --Thomas Le Blanc.

Verse 5. Let them all be confounded. Mr. Emerson told a convention of rationalists once, in this city, that the morality of the New Testament is scientific and perfect. But the morality of the New Testament is that of the Old. "Yes", you say; "but what of the imprecatory Psalms", A renowned professor, who, as Germany thinks, has done more for New England theology than any man since Jonathan Edwards, was once walking in this city with a clergyman of a radical faith, who objected to the doctrine that the Bible is inspired, and did so on the ground of the imprecatory Psalms. The replies of the usual kind were made; and it was presumed that David expressed the Divine purpose in praying that his enemies might be destroyed, and that he gave utterance only to the natural righteous indignation of conscience against unspeakable iniquity. But the doubter would not be satisfied. The two came at last to a newspaper bulletin, on which the words were written, -- "Baltimore to be shelled at twelve o'clock." "I am glad of it", said the radical preacher; "I am glad of it." "And so am I", said his companion, "but I hardly dare say so, for fear you should say that I am uttering an imprecatory Psalm." --Joseph Cook, in Boston Monday Lectures. "Transcendentalism."

Verse 5. And turned back; from pursuing their designs and accomplishing them; as the Assyrian monarch was, who had a hook put into his nose, and a bridle in his lips, and was turned back by the way he came: Isaiah 37:29. --John Gill.

Verse 5. All those who hate Zion. Note that he does not say, All who hate me; but "all who hate Zion." Thus the saints are not led to this from the desire of revenge, but from zeal for the people of God, so that they pray for the confusion and repression of the ungodly. --Wolfgang Musculus.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 5.

Verse 5-8.

EXPOSITION

Verse 6. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up. Grass on the housetop is soon up and soon down. It sprouts in the heat, finds enough nutriment to send up a green blade, and then it dies away before it reaches maturity, because it has neither earth nor moisture sufficient for its proper development. Before it grows up it dies; it needs not to be plucked up, for it hastens to decay of itself. Such is and such ought to be the lot of the enemies of God's people. Transient is their prosperity; speedy is their destruction. The height of their position, as it hastens their progress, so it hurries their doom. Had they been lower in station they had perhaps been longer in being. "Soon ripe, soon rotten", is an old proverb. Soon plotting and soon rotting, is a version of the old adage which will suit in this place. We have seen grass on the rustic thatch of our own country cottages which will serve for an illustration almost as well as that which comes up so readily on the flat roofs and domes of eastern habitations. The idea is -- they make speed to success, and equal speed to failure. Persecutors are all sound and fury, flash and flame; but they speedily vanish -- more speedily than is common to men. Grass in the field withers, but not so speedily as grass on the housetops. Without a mower the tufts of verdure perish from the roofs, and so do opposers pass away by other deaths than fall to tile common lot of men; they are gone, and none is the worse. If they are missed at all, their absence is never regretted. Grass on the housetop is a nonentity in the world: the house is not impoverished when the last blade is dried up: and, even so, the opposers of Christ pass away, and none lament them. One of the fathers said of the apostate emperor Julian, "That little cloud will soon be gone"; and so it was. Every sceptical system of philosophy has much the same history; and the like may be said of each heresy. Poor, rootless things, they are and are not: they come and go, even though no one rises against them. Evil carries the seeds of dissolution within itself. So let it be.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 6. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops. They are rightly compared to grass on the housetops; for more contemptuously the Holy Ghost could not speak of them. For this grass is such, that it soon withereth away before the sickle be put into it. Yea, no man thinketh it worthy to be cut down, no man regardeth it, every man suffereth it to brag for a while, and to show itself unto men from the housetops as though it were something when it is nothing. So the wicked persecutors in the world, which are taken to be mighty and terrible according to the outward show, are of all men most contemptible. For Christians do not once think of plucking them up or cutting them down; they persecute them not, they revenge not their own injuries, but suffer them to increase, to brag and glory as much as they list. For they know that they cannot abide the violence of a vehement wind. Yea, though all things be in quietness, yet as grass upon the housetops, by little and little, withereth away through the heat of the sun, so tyrannies upon small occasions do perish and soon vanish away. The faithful, therefore, in suffering do prevail, and overcome; but the wicked in doing are overthrown, and miserably perish, as all the histories of all times and ages do plainly witness. --Martin Luther.

Verse 6. Like grass upon the housetops. The flat roofs of the Eastern houses "are plastered with a composition of mortar, tar, ashes, and sand", in the crevices of which grass often springs. The houses of the poor in the country were formed of a plaster of mud and straw, where the grass would grow still more freely: as all the images are taken from country life, it is doubtless to country dwellings that the poet refers. --J. J. Stewart Perowne.

Verse 6. Like grass upon the housetops. The enemies of Zion may have an elevated position in the nation, they may seem to promise growth, but having no root in themselves, like the hearers on the stony ground, give no promise of fruit. Their profession dies away and leaves no benefit to the church, as it claims no blessing from others. --William Wilson (1783-1873), in "The Book of Psalms, with an Exposition."

Verse 6. Grass upon the housetops. In the morning the master of the house laid in a stock of earth, which was carried up, and spread evenly on the top of the house, which is flat. The whole roof is thus formed of mere earth, laid on and rolled hard and flat. On the top of every house is a large stone roller, for the purpose of hardening and flattening this layer of rude soil, so that the rain may not penetrate; but upon this surface, as may be supposed, grass and weeds grow freely, but never come to maturity. It is to such grass the Psalmist alludes as useless and bad. --William Jowett, in "Christian Researches in Syria and the Holy Land", 1825.

HINTS FOR PASTORS AND LAYPERSONS

Verse 6-9. The wicked flourishing and perishing.

EXPOSITION

Verse 7. Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. When with his sickle the husbandman would cut down the tufts, he found nothing to lay hold upon: the grass promised fairly enough, but there was no fulfilment, there was nothing to cut or to carry, nothing for the hand to grasp, nothing for the lap to gather. Easterners carry their corn in their bosoms, but in this case there was nothing to bear home. Thus do the wicked come to nothing. By God's just appointment they prove a disappointment. Their fire ends in smoke; their verdure turns to vanity; their flourishing is but a form of withering. No one profits by them, least of all are they profitable to themselves. Their aim is bad, their work is worse, their end is worst of all.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 7. The mower filleth not his hand, etc. The grain was rather pulled than cut, and as each handful was taken the reaper gave it a flourishing swing up into his bosom. -- Mrs. Finn, in "Home in the Holy Land", 1866.

Verse 7. He that bindeth sheaves his bosom. A practice prevails in hot climates of sending out persons into the woods and other wild places to collect the grass, which would otherwise be wasted; and it is no uncommon tiling in the evening to see groups of grass cutters in the market, waiting to dispose of their bundles or sheaves, which are often so large that one is disposed to wonder how they could have been conveyed from the woods upon one man's shoulders. --Maria Calcott, in "A Scripture Herbal", 1842.

EXPOSITION

Verse 8. Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD. In harvest times men bless each other in the name of the Lord; but there is nothing in the course and conduct of the ungodly man to suggest the giving or receiving of a benediction. Upon a survey of the sinner's life from beginning to end, we feel more inclined to weep than to rejoice, and we feel bound rather to wish him failure than success. We dare not use pious expressions as mere compliments, and hence we dare not wish God speed to evil men lest we be partakers of their evil deeds. When persecutors are worrying the saints, we cannot say, "The blessing of the Lord be upon you." When they slander the godly and oppose the doctrine of the cross, we dare not bless them in the name of the Lord. It would be infamous to compromise the name of the righteous Jehovah by pronouncing his blessing upon unrighteous deeds.

See how godly men are roughly ploughed by their adversaries, and yet a harvest comes of it which endures and produces blessing; while the ungodly, though they flourish for a while and enjoy a complete immunity, dwelling, as they think, quite above the reach of harm, are found in a short time to have gone their way and to have left no trace behind. Lord, number me with thy saints. Let me share their grief if I may also partake of their glory. Thus would I make this Psalm my own, and magnify thy name, because thine afflicted ones are not destroyed, and thy persecuted ones are not forsaken.

EXPLANATORY NOTES AND QUAINT SAYINGS

Verse 8. -- The latter expressions are most refreshingly Arabic. Nothing is more natural than for them, when passing by a fruit tree or corn field loaded with a rich crop to exclaim, "Barak Allah!" God bless you! We bless you in the name of the Lord! --W. M. Thomson.