SONG OF DEGREES.
Israel’s Retrospect.
AS has been before pointed out, Psalm 127 is the central psalm of the whole group of the Songs of Degrees, there being seven preceding and seven following. Psalm 128 is thus introductory to the last seven; and, as is often seen in the prophetic writings, it gives the final issue of God’s ways with His people and of their exercises, before detailing their pathway of sorrow and distress by which they reached the goal. It presents a beautiful picture of earthly blessing consequent upon Jehovah’s dwelling in Zion. In the present Psalm Israel reviews the past, and the first four verses contain the account of their sorrowful afflictions as a nation, combined with their confession of God’s unchanging faithfulness:
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 expression “from my youth,” found in the first two verses, will refer to Israel’s earliest the beginning of their history in the land of Egypt; and, tracing their career all down the centuries, they have to confess that many a time they had been afflicted by their enemies. The record of their sorrows and chastenings from this source is found, indeed, in almost every historical book of the Old Testament. And wherefore had they thus been afflicted? Scripture after scripture proclaims that it was because of their disobedience and rebellion, their refusal to walk in subjection to Jehovah their Redeemer. “If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments, and do them; then... I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be My people.... But if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments. I will set My face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you,” etc. (Lev. 26)
Such is the invariable condition of enjoyed favor and blessing in all dispensations. It is equally so with Christians as with Israel; for the principles of God’s government of His people are the same in all ages. If Israel, therefore, has to utter this sad lamentation, it is yet the confession of their obstinate and stiff-necked forgetfulness of God’s claims upon them as His redeemed people. Here, however, they recall their sorrows rather to magnify the faithfulness of God; for they add, after speaking of the afflictions they had suffered from their adversaries, “Yet they have not prevailed against me.” The prophets are full of this blessed truth—that while God allowed, and indeed sent, nation after nation to overcome and chastise His rebellious people, He never wholly gave them up; but, watching over them with infinite tenderness and yearning of heart, He interposed again and again for their succor for His own name’s sake. For example, we read, “The Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. And the Lord said not that He would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but He saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash.” (2 Kings 14:26, 2726For the Lord saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter: for there was not any shut up, nor any left, nor any helper for Israel. 27And the Lord said not that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven: but he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam the son of Joash. (2 Kings 14:26‑27).) It was thus owing to the tender mercy of the Lord, to His covenanted faithfulness, that Israel could say, in looking back upon the oppressions of their enemies, “Yet they have not prevailed against me.”
The illustration in the next verse does but intensify the character of their past sufferings. The plowers are named in verse 3, because, as the plow the earth, so the whip tears up the back. Long furrows will thus mean long stripes and wounds. A striking comment upon this description may be cited from Isaiah: “Why should ye be stricken any more?... from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.” (Chapter 1:5, 6.)
But if Israel has endured these bitter sorrows under the rod of their enemies, they now confess that the Lord is righteous. In one word they justify God for all His past dealings with them, owning in this very expression that they had only received their deserts. As Nehemiah said, “Howbeit Thou art just [righteous] in all that is brought upon us; for Thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly,” so now Israel owns that God has been righteous in all His ways; and this is surely the place of all blessing. When the awakened soul, like the dying malefactor, justifies God and condemns himself, he is on the eve of forgiveness and blessing; and when the believer under chastisement justifies God the end is reached; for he has “heard” the rod and who has appointed it. When Israel, therefore, says that the Lord is righteous it tells us that the object of God’s past visitations in judgment has been attained, that His name has been magnified in His people’s deliverance and blessing.
It is also possible that Israel celebrates Jehovah’s righteousness, not only in His past dealings with them, but also in their present deliverance, for they add, “He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.” The same double application of God’s righteousness is seen in the Epistle to the Romans: it is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, and it is exemplified in the justification of those who believe in Jesus. The “cords” of the wicked will signify the bondage under which Israel had been subjected to the wicked. The kings of the earth and the rulers of the earth are said in Psalm 2. to take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, “Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us,” that is, the bands and cords in which God held and restrained them. What Israel then proclaims is that God has emancipated them from their thralldom and servitude, and set them at liberty in their own land for His service.
The second part of the Psalm commences with verse 5, and contains the expression of Israel’s desire for the confusion and defeat of the haters of Zion. To understand this it must be borne in mind that the haters of Zion are God’s enemies. Zion has now (in these Psalms) become the dwelling-place of Jehovah and the seat of His throne. Hence it says in the preceding Psalm, as before noticed, “The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion”; and in Psalm 122, speaking of Jerusalem, the Psalmist says, “They shall prosper that love thee,” for it was become the city of the great King. To hate Zion, therefore, was to take up a position of utter antagonism to God, and to His purposes of blessing for His people. What would answer to it now would be to hate the Church of the living God; for as we may see in the case of Saul of Tarsus, to entertain hatred against believers was to cherish enmity against Christ; for not only does He identify Himself with His own, but, as united to Him by the Holy Ghost, He regards them as a part of Himself, members of His body; and this explains the question which He addressed to Saul, “Why persecutest thou Me?” It was, consequently, to be in communion with God’s mind in that dispensation—for Israel to say, “Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.” Indeed, when the throne of Christ is established in righteousness, all enemies will be put under His feet.
Then we have a further amplification of Israel’s desire:
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.
Isaiah uses the same illustration of grass upon the housetops to set forth God’s judgment upon His enemies. He says, “They were as grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.” (Isa. 37:2727Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded: they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up. (Isaiah 37:27).) It is a figure to show the effect of judgment upon the haters of Zion. Under the wrath of God, it would soon be manifested that they were cut off from the sources of nourishment and life, and thus would wither away like grass which has no depth of soil. There would be therefore no fruit, as it were, for God or man—nothing for the mower or for the binder of the sheaves.
It is, then, a solemn thing to hate what God loves; and let it be remembered that the carnal mind is enmity against God. No unconverted person, therefore, can love that on which the heart of God is set, and as such he is exposed to God’s righteous judgment. But a further thing is here added: even the passers by, seeing the condition of these enemies of Zion, will refrain from giving the customary salutation, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord.” When in communion with the mind of God, we can only reflect His attitude towards those by whom we may be surrounded, and we could not, for example, desire a blessing upon those who are under His judgment. It is now the day of grace, and we can and should pray for those whom the god of this world has blinded, but we could not desire their blessing while in the state of active hostility towards the Lord and His people. Thus the apostle John writes, “If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine [‘the doctrine of Christ—the true teaching concerning the Person of Christ’], receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.” (2 John 10, 1110If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds. (2 John 10‑11).)
It would help us greatly to perceive that the attitude of God towards all should govern the attitude of the Christian. The believer, indeed, in any dispensation is to represent God as revealed in that dispensation. Thus a Jew was to express the righteous Jehovah as made known to him, and a Christian is to display in his walk, conduct, and ways, the God of grace as revealed in Christ. To recollect this will greatly aid in the interpretation of the Psalms, as well as furnish the needed guidance in our coming into contact with believers and with the unconverted. It will scarcely need to be remarked, after what has been already said, that for the practical carrying out of this principle we must ourselves be walking in communion with God in the power of the Holy Ghost. To walk with God is the secret of all blessing and power.