Word of Salvation – June 2026
A PRAYER OF THE PERSECUTED PEOPLE OF GOD
A Sermon by Rev John Haverland
Text: Psalm 129
Reading: 2 Corinthians 4
Theme: Israel looked back over their history of affliction and prayed to the righteous Lord for justice against their persecutors.
Purpose: To prepare you for affliction in the future by looking back over the affliction of God’s people.
Winston Churchill once said, “The further backwards you can look, the further forwards you can see.”
This is a wise and true statement.
This psalm gives us the opportunity to reflect back over the past and to look ahead to the future.
It is inspired by the Holy Spirit and gives us a perspective on the history of the church of God, and anticipates what is going to happen.
It gives us a big picture of what God is doing in the world. It allows us to stand back and take in the broad panorama of his plan for his people.
It was probably written in the period after the people of Israel had returned from the Babylonian exile, so about 500 years before Christ.
The preceding eight Psalms of Ascent have mostly celebrated God’s blessings on the nation of Israel and on the families in that nation.
Psalm 129 changes this tone.
It asks that God’s blessing not be given to enemies of Israel. It laments the persecution that Israel has endured from her enemies and it calls for God’s judgment on those nations. It is an imprecatory psalm.
We don’t know who wrote it, but he wrote it for the people of Israel, for the covenant community of God. This means it also describes us, and is addressed to us as the New Testament people of God, as members of the new covenant.
The theme is the persecution and affliction that God’s people have faced in the past, and their prayer for God’s justice on their enemies.
It is included with the Psalms of Ascent because the regular journeys of the Jews to and from Jerusalem gave them time to think about this.
This is very relevant for us because our world is changing. The western world used to be known as Christendom in which Christian values and a Christian worldview prevailed. But all that has changed.
The Western world is no longer Christian. As Christians we are now a small minority. The church in the western world is likely to face persecution in the future. Forewarned is forearmed.
This psalm helps us prepare for this.
We’ll consider the Lord’s help in persecution,
and the Lord’s judgment of persecutors.
- THE LORD’S HELP IN PERSECUTION, v 1-4
a) v 1, “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.”
i) The ESV follows the word order in the Hebrew text which has the word ‘greatly’ at the beginning of the sentence to emphasise it.
They had been greatly afflicted!
This emphasises the severity of the affliction.
The word could also be translated as ‘many times’ or ‘often’, which describes the frequency of affliction.
Both were true for Israel. She had been severely afflicted, many times over.
This looks back over all the times Israel had been attacked and persecuted by the other nations – by the Egyptians, the Canaanite tribes, the Edomites, the Philistines, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.
The writer repeats this for emphasis in v 2–
“let Israel now say – Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.”
The reference to “my youth” looks back to the beginning of Israel as a nation when Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt. The people of Israel lived in Egypt for 430 years, to the day (Ex 12:40).
During that time they grew to be a nation.
Their time in Egypt had begun very well while Joseph was alive, but later on they became slaves of the Egyptians and were severely oppressed.
Israel had been greatly afflicted from her youth in Egypt, and this had continued for a 1000 years.
ii) “…yet they have not prevailed against me.” (v 2b)
Her enemies had never gained complete victory over her (NIV); they had never been able to destroy her entirely; they could never keep her down.
God had always come to the aid of his people,
he had rescued them, he had defeated their enemies.
This psalm recalls the grief and trouble of their past – their trials, torture, defeats and exiles; but it also recalls God’s help and his salvation and how he had rescued them!
The people of Israel were like the eucalyptus trees in Australia which can keep growing in times of drought, and they can regrow after massive fires. These trees hold their seeds inside small, hard capsules; a fire triggers a massive drop of seeds to the newly fertilised ground and so produces more trees!
The early church theologian Tertullian said that “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Persecution and affliction causes the church to grow!
This psalm looks back over Israel’s history.
One commentator observed that most nations look back on what they have achieved, but Israel looked back on what she had survived.
She took courage from the past, and this gave her hope for the future.
This is true for us as the church of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant.
K. Chesterton reflected; “On five occasions in history the Church has gone to the dogs, but on each occasion, it was the dogs that died!”
The church has been through many trials and has often been persecuted by her enemies, yet they have not prevailed against us! They cannot keep us down!
Eventually God has come to our aid, he has rescued us.
Jesus experienced opposition from the Jewish religious leaders, was harassed and persecuted, and was eventually executed on a Roman cross. But on the third day he rose from the dead, and 40 days later he ascended to heaven!
While he was still on earth Jesus assured his disciples that he would build his church “and the gates of hell shall not overcome it” (Matt 16:18).
The apostle Paul wrote that the Christians were “persecuted but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed” (2 Cor 4:9)
And in the time of the Reformation, with the persecution going on then, Calvin wrote that “the church, by patient endurance, has uniformly proved victorious”.
We don’t know what this year will bring, or the next decade, but we know the promise of Jesus, and we believe that, in the long term, the enemies of the church will not prevail against us (Psalm 129:2).
b) v 3-4 confirm this main point of the Lord’s help in persecution.
i) Again the psalmist puts it negatively first of all by giving us a graphic picture of the suffering of Israel.
“The ploughers ploughed upon my back; they made their furrows long.”
Ploughing was a familiar sight in ancient Israel with oxen pulling a wooden plough across a field, guided by the farmer, going back and forth.
This is a familiar sight for some of us who live in the countryside with farms around us. The ploughs have changed but the principle is the same.
But this psalm describes long furrows on the backs of the people of Israel. This probably looks back to the lashes they received during their years of slavery in Egypt, and was a picture of the ongoing violence against them through their history as a nation.
The English Reformer Hugh Latimer said that there is no busier ploughman in the world than the devil. He works night and day and never stops. He and his evil spirits run deep furrows in the backs of God’s people.
The prophet Isaiah predicted how Jesus would suffer;
“I offered my back to those who strike” (50:6).
“He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, And by his stripes we are healed.” (53:5)
The Roman soldiers flogged Jesus – sometimes prisoners died from such severe floggings.
ii) But the psalmist counters the graphic realism of v 3 with the positive reassurance of v 4; “The Lord is righteous; he has cut the cords of the wicked.”
The Lord is indeed righteous. This is his character.
He is faithful to his people and will keep the promises he has made to us; he will be true to his word and to his character.
He is a just and holy God and will certainly punish those who persecute his people.
He did this in the past to the Egyptians, Assyrians and Babylonians, and he will do this in the future.
The picture of cutting the cords of the wicked could mean that he severs the ropes connecting the animals to the plough, or that the ropes that tied up God’s people are cut so setting them free.
The point is that the Lord delivers his people.
He often rescued the people of Israel, and has looked after Christians for 2000 years, and he will continue to deliver us in the future.
Our righteous God will help us in times of trouble and trial, and of persecution and pressure.
Many Christians are experiencing this now in various countries of the world, and we need to be ready for this in our own country.
We have considered the Lord’s help in persecution.
- THE LORD’S JUDGMENT OF PERSECUTORS
Verses 5-8 are a prayer for God’s judgment on all who hate Zion. Zion was another name for the city of Jerusalem, the city of our God that described in Psalm 48. It represented the people of God, Israel; and it describes us as the New Testament church of Jesus Christ.
May the enemies of the church “be put to shame and turned backward” (v 5).
This could be read as a prayer, or as a statement of what will happen. Both are true.
We pray for this, and this will certainly happen; God’s enemies will be put to shame and turned backward.
Verse 6 is another agricultural picture. The houses in Israel were made of wood and mud and they had a flat roof made of earth. A few tufts of grass would grow on the roof, especially after some rain, but the hot eastern sun would soon burn it away. The writer of this psalm asks that the wicked may be like this.
This is, as we have noted, an imprecatory psalm, one that calls for God’s judgment on the wicked.
Many Christians have questioned whether we can pray these psalms in our New Testament situation.
Aren’t we supposed to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us?
And, yes, this is true on a personal level.
But these psalms are not personal expressions of revenge but are prayers for God’s justice.
In these psalms we pray for God’s justice on unbelievers who rebel against God and do harm to his people.
If they recognise their sin, repent of it, and turn to the Lord they will be saved.
But if they continue in their evil ways they will be judged. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Rom 12:19)
In the book of Deuteronomy the people of Israel pronounced blessings on those who love the Lord and obey his commands, and curses on those who did not (chapters 27-28).
And Paul concludes 1 Corinthians with these words;
“If anyone does not love the Lord – a curse be on him” (16:23).
Verse 7 continues this agricultural picture of reapers harvesting a field of grain.
But the crop is so poor that the reapers can’t even find enough good stalks to make up a handful.
And as they bring their stalks to the one who binds the sheaves he does not have enough to fill his arms!
This too is a picture of God’s judgment on those who oppress and persecute his people.
Verse 8 describes a curse of God’s enemies by putting this in the negative;
“nor do those who pass by say, ‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you! We bless you in the name of the Lord’!”
At harvest time, when the people of Israel walked past the fields of their neighbours and saw a full harvest, they would express their joy for such a great crop, and bless them, and be thankful for their prosperity!
But this psalm pictures the opposite.
No one would go past the poor fields of the wicked and shout, “Great harvest you’ve got there! God’s blessing on you!” The image is a cartoon; it is so ridiculous that it is laughable! (E Peterson)
God’s enemies will not be blessed but cursed.
They will not thrive, but die.
They may be rich and famous in this life but they will have no eternal blessing.
The enemies of Christians may flourish and be successful for a time, but they will not last, and will be cursed by God.
Wherever the kingdom of God is present there will always be opposition.
The Scriptures warn us about this over and over.
Jesus warned us to expect opposition and suffering.
Each day we need to take up our cross and follow our Lord Jesus.
Forewarned is forearmed; and the Holy Spirit will strengthen us for this spiritual battle.
We are called to serve Jesus as Lord and love those around us.
We are called to build the church of Christ and extend his kingdom.
We do this knowing that,
“God is working his purpose out, and the time is drawing near; nearer and nearer draws the time, the time that shall surely be, when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.” (SttL 413)
This is our Christian hope!
Amen