Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary

on the Whole Bible

Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

---

P S A L M S

PSALM CXXIX.

---

     

This psalm relates to the public concerns of God’s Israel. It is not

certain when it was penned, probably when they were in captivity in

Babylon, or about the time of their return.

I. They look back with thankfulness for the former deliverances God had

wrought for them and their fathers out of the many distresses they had

been in from time to time,

ver. 1-4.

II. They look forward with a believing prayer for and a prospect of the

destruction of all the enemies of Zion,

ver. 5-8.

In singing this psalm we may apply it both ways to the Gospel-Israel,

which, like the Old-Testament Israel, has weathered many a storm and is

still threatened by many enemies.

Domestic Happiness.

A song of degrees.

     

1 Many a time have they afflicted me

from my youth, may Israel now say:

  2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they

have not prevailed against me.

  3 The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their

furrows.

  4 The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the

wicked.

     

The church of God, in its several ages, is here spoken of, or, rather,

here speaks, as one single person, now old and gray-headed, but calling

to remembrance the former days, and reflecting upon the times of old.

And, upon the review, it is found,

1. That the church has been often greatly distressed by its enemies on

earth: Israel may now say, “I am the people that has been

oppressed more than any people, that has been as a speckled

bird, pecked at by all the birds round about,”

Jer. xii. 9.

It is true, they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins;

it was for them that God punished them; but it was for the peculiarity

of their covenant, and the singularities of their religion, that their

neighbours hated and persecuted them. “For these many a time have

they afflicted me from my youth.” Note, God’s people have always

had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its infancy, has

frequently been an afflicted state. Israel’s youth was in Egypt, or in

the times of the Judges; then they were afflicted, and thenceforward

more or less. The gospel-church, ever since it had a being, has been at

times afflicted; and it bore this yoke most of all in its youth,

witness the ten persecutions which the primitive church groaned under.

The ploughers ploughed upon my back,
v. 3.

We read

(Ps. cxxv. 3)

of the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous, where we

rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves; here we read

of the plough of the wicked upon the back of the

righteous, where we rather expected to find the rod. But the

metaphors in these places may be said to be crossed; the sense

however of both is the same, and is too plain, that the enemies of

God’s people have all along used them very barbarously. They tore them,

as the husbandman tears the ground with his plough-share, to pull them

to pieces and get all they could out of them, and so to wear out the

saints of the Most High, as the ground is worn out that has been

long tilled, tilled (as we say) quite out of heart. When God permitted

them to plough thus he intended it for his people’s good, that, their

fallow ground being thus broken up, he might sow the seeds of his grace

upon them, and reap a harvest of good fruit from them: howbeit, the

enemies meant not so, neither did their hearts think so

(Isa. x. 7);

they made long their furrows, never knew when to have done,

aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the church. Many by the

furrows they made on the backs of God’s people understand the

stripes they gave them. The cutters cut upon my back, so they

read it. The saints have often had trials of cruel scourgings

(probably the captives had) and cruel mockings (for we read of

the scourge or lash of the tongue,

Heb. xi. 36),

and so it was fulfilled in Christ, who gave his back to the

smiters,
Isa. l. 6.

Or it may refer to the desolations they made of the cities of Israel.

Zion shall, for your sake, be ploughed as a field,
Mic. iii. 12.

2. That the church has been always graciously delivered by her friend

in heaven.

(1.) The enemies’ projects have been defeated. They have afflicted the

church, in hopes to ruin it, but they have not gained their point. Many

a storm it has weathered; many a shock, and many a brunt, it has borne;

and yet it is in being: They have not prevailed against me. One

would wonder how this ship has lived at sea, when it has been tossed

with tempests, and all the waves and billows have gone over it. Christ

has built his church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not

prevailed against it, nor ever shall.

(2.) The enemies’ power has been broken: God has cut asunder the

cords of the wicked, has cut their gears, their traces, and so

spoiled their ploughing, has cut their scourges, and so spoiled their

lashing, has cut the bands of union by which they were combined

together, has cut the bands of captivity in which they held God’s

people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men to do the mischief

they design against his church and shaming their counsels. These words,

The Lord is righteous, may refer either to the distresses or to

the deliverances of the church.

[1.] The Lord is righteous in suffering Israel to be afflicted.

This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust

soever their enemies were, God was just in all that was brought upon

them,
Neh. ix. 33.

[2.] The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined;

for he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and he will be

as good as his word. He is righteous in reckoning with their

persecutors, and rendering to them a recompence,
2 Thess. i. 6.

God’s Regard to His Church.

     

5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.

  6 Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which

withereth afore it groweth up:

  7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth

sheaves his bosom.

  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.

     

The psalmist, having triumphed in the defeat of the many designs that

had been laid as deep as hell to ruin the church, here concludes his

psalm as Deborah did her song, So let all thy enemies perish, O

Lord!
Judg. v. 31.

     

I. There are many that hate Zion, that hate Zion’s God, his worship,

and his worshippers, that have an antipathy to religion and religious

people, that seek the ruin of both, and do what they can that God may

not have a church in the world.

     

II. We ought to pray that all their attempts against the church may be

frustrated, that in them they may be confounded and turned

back with shame, as those that have not been able to bring to pass

their enterprise and expectation: Let them all be confounded is

as much as, They shall be all confounded. The confusion

imprecated and predicted is illustrated by a similitude; while God’s

people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and

fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the

house-top. As men they are not to be feared, for they shall be made

as grass,

Isa. li. 12.

But as they are enemies to Zion they are so certainly marked for ruin

that they may be looked upon with as much contempt as the grass on the

house-tops, which is little, and short, and sour, and good for nothing.

1. It perishes quickly: It withers before it grows up to any

maturity, having no root; and the higher its place is, which perhaps is

its pride, the more it is exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, and

consequently the sooner does it wither. It withers before it is

plucked up, so some read it. The enemies of God’s church wither of

themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by the judgments of

God.

2. It is of no use to any body; nor are they any thing but the

unprofitable burdens of the earth, nor will their attempts against Zion

ever ripen or come to any head, nor, whatever they promise themselves,

will they get any more by them than the husbandman does by the grass on

his house-top. Their harvest will be a heap in the day of grief,
Isa. xvii. 11.

     

III. No wise man will pray God to bless the mowers or reapers,

v. 8.

Observe,

1. It has been an ancient and laudable custom not only to salute and

wish a good day to strangers and travellers, but particularly to pray

for the prosperity of harvest-labourers. Thus Boas prayed for his

reapers.

Ruth ii. 4,

The Lord be with you. We must thus acknowledge God’s providence,

testify our good-will to our neighbours, and commend their industry,

and it will be accepted of God as a pious ejaculation if it come from a

devout and upright heart.

2. Religious expressions, being sacred things, must never be made use

of in light and ludicrous actions. Mowing the grass on the house-top

would be a jest, and therefore those that have a reverence for the name

of God will not prostitute to it the usual forms of salutation, which

savoured of devotion; for holy things must not be jested with.

3. It is a dangerous thing to let the church’s enemies have our good

wishes in their designs against the church. If we wish them God

speed, we are partakers of their evil deeds,

2 John 11.

When it is said, None will bless them, and show them respect, more is

implied, namely, that all wise and good people will cry out shame on

them, and beg of God to defeat them; and woe to those that have the

prayers of the saints against them. I cursed his habitation,
Job v. 3.

---

[Table of Contents] [Previous] [Next]

Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

---

Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download Contact Us

---