Psalm 129 is our text today. The next of the Psalms of Ascent. As they lead us on our ascent to God, here we see a righteous Lord and afflicted pilgrims. This is a somewhat unique psalm actually. I don't know that I can think of another psalm in the whole Psalter just like it. In one sense, in part because it's a psalm of such confidence. I mean, you read this psalm You don't feel like it's dark or black or hopeless. In fact, there's a lot of confidence that exudes from this psalm. And at the same time, it's about suffering and crying out to God for justice in this suffering. So it's a wonderful psalm to sing, which again, helps put in perspective so much of our pilgrimage to the new Jerusalem. In Psalm 129, we sing of suffering for following the Lord, but we also sing that the Lord's righteousness will prevail over our enemies. So let's read the Psalm together here. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, let Israel now say. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The flowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous. He has cut the cords of the wicked. May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward. Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his arms, nor do those who pass by say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you. We bless you in the name of the Lord. You see in verses one through four of this Psalm here, suffering and salvation. Here we have a confidence from the Lord's righteous deliverance in the past. And the psalm does start with this theme of affliction. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth. All Israel is called upon to confess this, even in a sense as a part of their worship. You might picture here the assembly gathered in the temple and the priest leading them out saying, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth. Let Israel now say, this is true. This is not just some abstract thing. This is the reality of what life has been for us as God's people. Confess this, sing this even, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth. There's a real emphasis here upon affliction. First of all, you see how great this affliction has been. whether it's talking about how many times the enemy has attacked or how deep the suffering has been that the enemy has inflicted. Either way, this is described as great, great suffering. And if you walk back through Israel's history, of course, you will see that that was exactly the case. Where, in a sense, did Israel come into its own as a nation in slavery in Egypt? What were they suffering? but their overlords demanding of them work, whipping them, produce more, do more. They were born in suffering. And then even as God delivered them by his mighty hand out of Egypt, brought them to the Red Sea and began to bring them to the promised land, we find time and time again, nations opposing them, people putting them down. Once they're in the promised land, We find again times of affliction. We go to the time of the judges where over and over again is their sin brings them into affliction. And even when we come to the time of the Kings, we think of David and Solomon and Israel's glory years. They very soon devolved back into times of affliction. And so it really is true. Israel confesses. greatly have they afflicted me from my youth." This has been from the time I was born as a nation, so to speak. This has been my whole life. This isn't just a part of it, just a piece of it. This is what characterizes my entire existence, our entire existence together as a nation, we've been afflicted. And in fact, when it gets to verse three, it evokes an image here that when you begin to think about it too literally, it becomes a pretty gruesome image. But I think it's one the psalmist reaches for on purpose to be able to dig into how deep the suffering has been. The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. Pardon me. I don't know if any of you have plowed before. I have, although that's not my main job on the farms that I worked on. In fact, one farm was a no-till farm, so we didn't really use a plow on that farm. But it's kind of fun to actually plow a field, right? It's kind of fun to just watch those. A moldboard plow is a pretty amazing invention, actually. Just watch it do its work. It just cuts right into the soil and just so smoothly and beautifully turns it over, right? But that's the nature of what a plow does, right? It digs in and turns over the soil. A farmer, of course, will do that in part to break up the soil so that the vegetation that's there will be turned into the soil and eliminated from growing as competition to the crops. You know, you want that kind of soil. So you eliminate what's there by digging in, turning over those furrows and making that field productive. Here though, Israel is the field. Israel has become a field for her enemies to plow. And they take all of their affliction, all of their hatred, all of their vengeance, and they dig into her back and rip up the flesh, cut into her very life, and turn her into nothing more than dirt. Literally, you talk about being treated like dirt. This is what's happening. You're being treated like a field that we can just grow crops on for our own benefit. You don't matter at all. You are trodden down on your face and we plow your back to get what we want out of you. It's a very painful image that is brought to the fore here in verse three. Very short, but very painful. The plowers plowed upon my back. And in fact, they did their job thoroughly, the most they possibly could. They made long their furrows. From stem to stern, they ripped up the flesh of God's people. God's people are afflicted in this world. And the roots of this affliction, I think Israel's right to say from my youth, because the roots of this affliction actually go all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Throughout all generations, as God promised there, the seed of the woman would be at enmity. There would be a war going on between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. And that's a war that there will never be a truce in. One side will conquer the other. And of course, from the seed of the serpent side, they're out to conquer. They're out to take what they can get. Throughout all generations, this has been the case. And that's why we see this very image, this very idea of affliction being taken up into the one who is the great fulfillment of everything Israel was about, the servant of the Lord in Isaiah. When he says this, I gave my back to those who strike, pardon me, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. And of this very servant, it was said in Isaiah, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his stripes, we are healed. Here we are seeing one arise, the servant of the Lord, who would actually take all of this affliction on himself, not because he deserved it in any way. This was what Israel in the flesh could never say, right? Yes, from our youth, we have been afflicted. Pardon me. But this servant did not deserve this affliction, and yet he willingly takes it. He gives his back to be struck, to be plowed upon. And perhaps even some of this imagery comes from the the furrows in the back of one who has been whipped repeatedly. Jesus did this for us, for his people. He gave himself for our iniquities. He took upon himself everything that God's people suffer. And therefore, the church, the body of Christ can sing this Psalm as well. It really is true. that in our union with Christ, this Psalm applies to us. Our afflictions by those who hate Zion are Christ's afflictions. Paul said this, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. And in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's affliction for the sake of his body, that is the church. This affliction the Psalm sings about is the affliction of God's people. It's an affliction fulfilled by Christ, but then worked out even in His people. Those who follow a suffering Savior will indeed suffer, but it won't just be suffering for our sin now anymore. It will be a suffering that will yield an eternal ripe crop of glory. Now dealing with Psalm 124, which in many ways is similar to Psalm 129, We use the illustration of the martyrs who had given their lives for Christ in times of intense persecution. And that is certainly one way that the plowers have plowed upon the back of God's people down through the centuries. But for the last few centuries, at least for us in the West here, this really has not been the primary mode of attack on the church by Satan's servants. That really has not been the main way in which God's enemies, the seed of the serpent, have tried to attack his people. And we can thank God for this, of course, yet I don't think it should make us let down our guard or realize, not realize, that the attack is still there. There has been a proliferation in the last couple centuries of doctrinal deviation, cults of every kind, even calling themselves by the name of church, or Christian. Have you ever heard of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Folks, that is not the church. That is a cult. And that is, that represents an attack of Satan on the true church. That is Satan's seed attempting to overthrow Christ's kingdom. That's what that is. pardon me, and how many mainline, as they're called today, mainline denominations in this very nation forsook the true gospel of Jesus Christ in the 20th century, and yet still call themselves churches. We are churches, we are Christians. Folks, that is nothing but an insider attack upon the church of Jesus Christ. That is plowing upon the back of Christ's body. That is trying to destroy what Christ died for with his blood. There has been much talk in recent decades about the number of Christians in Africa. And truly, we can only give thanks to God for all the true believers there. But from what I hear, the majority of what passes for Christianity there is the prosperity gospel, which again is a false gospel and an attack on the body of Christ. It's an attack on Jesus Christ and His church. Here in America, we're more afflicted perhaps with make your own kind of Christianity, even within churches, which this too is an attack upon Christ's church. We need to recognize it for what it is. How many professing evangelicals today deny the inerrancy of scripture, conform what God says to the latest quote, scientific unquote findings, twist the scripture to fit with the latest fad ideologies, pardon me, and try to bring this into the church? Folks, we need to recognize that for what it is. False teaching is a grievous affliction to God's people. And I think if you love the church, you cannot help but feel the plow slicing through, screaming nerves in the body of Christ when this happens. It rips up the body of Christ and tears at the spiritual sinews that hold us together as God's people. This is an attack, an all-out attack from Satan, and it's happening today. From our youth, the plowers have plowed. The enemies of God attack, but it's not only doctrinal deviations that attack the church. It's also divisions. The apostle John proclaims, if anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, He is a liar. He is a liar. And who is a father of lies? For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. How much damage has been done to the body of Christ by those professors who walk according to the flesh and not according to the spirit? What happens? The works of the flesh become evident. enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy. That's what Galatians lists as the works of the flesh. This is the world, the flesh, and the devil attacking God's church when this kind of thing is going on. Galatians, in fact, calls this biting and devouring one another, just like plowing. Satan loves the subterfuge of destroying the church from within, sending in his servants to divide and to destroy. That kind of attack is still going on very much today. I think we can also say that disordered loves or worldliness within the ranks of the church are an attack upon the church, affliction of the church. Should we consider worldliness an affliction of the church? James says, You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." There it is. You're on the side of the enemies. You're the attackers. You're the affliction. If you go after this world, if you love the things of this world. So again, to go back to The Apostle John, do not love the world or the things in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And folks, you have to recognize these things, the desires of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, the pride of life. Do you realize what these things are? They're not just individual sins, and though they are that, but when people indulge in these things, professing believers indulge in these things, They are taking the side of the enemy. They are taking the side of the enemy against Christ's church and they are attacking her. And it's all the more devious because it's from within. Does worldliness matter? Yes, worldliness matters very much. I don't think it's possible for us as humans to reckon how much suffering has come upon God's true people by false teachings, by divisions and by disordered loves and worldliness within the church. Yes, disordered loves are like a plow that cuts through and buries all the lush green growth of the garden of the Lord, the church, all the spirit is calling forth in life. The plow comes through and kills. Folks, these afflictions of the church that we're talking about here are real and they are unrelenting. Greatly have they afflicted us. The apostle Paul felt this plowing in his own life in ministry. He said in 2 Corinthians 4, we are afflicted in every way. He wasn't just talking about outsiders, he's talking about every way, right? We face afflictions, trying to serve Christ, trying to live for Christ, trying to accomplish Christ's mission, and yet we face afflictions. But you know, in that very text, he went on to strike another note that is sung in Psalm 129. There is affliction, yes, but God's enemies never win. You see, remember what it says in Psalm 129? Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. And the apostle Paul himself goes on to say in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body, pardon me, the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. Folks, I believe the apostle Paul, if we can put this in a very real sense, felt in his bones the pain of the afflictions that came upon the church. He could not help but as he loved the people and loved the churches that he ministered to, and as the afflictions came upon them, and even as those very afflictions grew up in the church and were directed against him sometimes, precisely for his love for the church, he is slandered in return. Precisely for trying to lead them to Christ, he is derided as someone trying to claim power for himself. He felt these afflictions very deeply And yet, what did it work out to? Did it stop the church? Did it eliminate the people of God? No, they didn't look great and powerful from this world's perspective, and yet they have not prevailed, the psalm says. They can't win. Why is that? Why is it that God's enemies try and try and try ever since the Garden of Eden to prevail over his people, and yet they never succeed? Look with me right here at verse four. The Lord is righteous. He has cut the cords of the wicked. Here's the heart of the psalm. Here's why God's enemies don't succeed against his people. The Lord is righteous. That is, he always does what is right, which is closely connected with his salvation. He is described here as cuts the cords of the wicked. the things they use for their strength to bind their slaves here, so to speak, or even to bind themselves together in there. Maybe we can even picture what they use to bind the oxen to a plow. God cuts their cords. It's interesting that the only other place in the Psalms this term cords is used actually is in Psalm 2, verse 3, where the raging kings of this earth say that they will throw off the Lord's cords from them. We don't have to be bound to him. We don't have to listen to what he says. And so they go on to exalt their own power. Here, the Lord takes his mighty sword, his battle ax, and he simply cuts off their cords. They have no power ultimately against the righteous. They will not accomplish their nefarious plans. So as you look back throughout history, and you look at even in our experience as a church, I believe the church should say, greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, but they have not prevailed against me. Yes, folks, I do believe if you've been spiritually alert at all in the church, you will have felt the plow ripping the flesh from the bone. The affliction is there, but praise be to God, the church is still here. And that's not due to us and our strength. It's due to God being righteous. He always does what is right. He always does what is just. Satan does not win. The world does not win. Nothing works to destroy God's people because the Lord is righteous. Overt persecution doesn't work to prevail over God's people. Subtle infiltration does not work to overcome God's people. Constant warfare, generation after generation after generation has not enabled the seed of the serpent to overcome the seed of the woman. And so the pilgrim church goes on singing on her way to glory. And as she looks to the future, then, she sings the second part of this Psalm, which we find in verses five through eight. And if the first part of the Psalm was about suffering and salvation, because the Lord is righteous, about the affliction and the deliverance the Lord provides, the last part of the Psalm turns to the theme of justice. And here again, we have confidence, but it's a confidence that doesn't come just from looking at the past. It's a confidence that comes in prayer for the Lord's righteous judgment to be enacted in the future. What we have here is another one of what's been called an imprecatory psalm. May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backwards. That is a psalm that prays for judgment on all of God's enemies. Now, we've talked about these imprecatory Psalms before, we've come to some of them, pardon me, some of the most brutal ones you might say we've already encountered. We'll come to another one, for instance, in Psalm 137, but sometimes people struggle with these imprecatory Psalms. Should a Christian really pray these things? Should we be calling down God's judgment on people who hate Zion, which is to say, They hate the Lord, His rule, His reign, His kingdom, and His people. Everything that represents the Lord, Zion, that's where He reigns from, right? I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion, and they hate that. They hate that God rules in this world, and therefore they hate His people. But is it right? Is it possible to say, believe in the Sermon on the Mount and believe in the imprecatory Psalms too? And my answer to that is yes. Yes, I believe it is true, actually, that you can love and hate at the same time in the proper way because the Lord Himself does that. And so it is appropriate and right in God's righteous government of His kingdom to pray for judgment. Let me just suffice it for today to say again, these are righteous prayers for the people of God to pray. I came across something Charles Spurgeon wrote about this, has a touch of his humor in it, but it's a pretty arresting statement. And so he says, so we say rightheartedly, 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. How can we wish prosperity to those who would destroy that which is dearest to our hearts? 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. Now, just think about in our world today, who is treated as enemies of the human race? They have to be eliminated. And who is called upon to do that? It's an interesting exercise to see what people look at that way. But I believe the Psalm is helping us to see exactly what Spurgeon said. that those who hate Zion actually are the enemies of the human race. They really are the seed of the serpent who is out to destroy everything God made and everything that represents God, and they will do anything in their power to do it. Are there really people like that? Yes, there always have been, and there will be until God puts an end to all this. And it's appropriate for God's people to realize this. You see, one thing the imprecatory Psalms do is they help us to realize, they break us out of our sentimentality. They help us to love in the real world where we really recognize what sin is and how dangerous and how deadly and how destructive it is, right? There's no sugarcoating this here. In fact, this is what the humorous part of Spurgeon's statement, which I didn't say yet. He says, remember he preached in the 19th century. It may be that some wretched 19th century sentimentalist will blame you, that is if you pray a prayer of imprecation. He says, if so, read another over him. Right? Sentimentalists, that's not loving to pray this kind of a prayer. That's not being nice people. If you pray, may the Lord, all who hate Zion be put to shame and turn backward. No, actually folks, if you love what is good and true and beautiful, if you love the Lord, then there's a sense in which you have to pray against everything that would attack his honor and attack what is truly good. If you want the universe to actually end up in a just place, And who doesn't want that? Sin is going to have to be dealt with truly. In fact, what these imprecatory Psalms, what people who oppose them don't realize is they don't realize what's at stake here in these Psalms. The question is, will there actually be justice in the universe? Will God's salvation actually put the world to right? Or will it be a sham kind of salvation, a coverup that doesn't actually deal with all the sin of the world? And we say, the Lord is righteous. His righteousness will deal with all the sin of the world. And sin can only be dealt with through the forgiveness obtained by Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection or through condemnation. There is no other way to deal with sin. And so for those who hate the Lord and His rule and His people, there is only one way the Lord will be glorified and for righteousness to prevail. And that is exactly what imprecatory Psalms pray for. And so what does this Psalm in particular pray? It prays first of all for the enemies of God and His people, those who hate Zion, to be dishonored and defeated Let them be put to shame and turned backward. That's a military metaphor. They go into the battle swaggering. They're cocky. They think we've got this. We're gonna crush these people of God. They think they're stupid idiots for following God, right? Look at these pilgrims. They don't know what it takes to really make it in this world. We do. We have the power and we will crush them for their stupidity. They swagger into the battle. And basically, the psalmist prays, they'd end up like Goliath. They're going to be put to shame and dishonored. They're going to be defeated, turned backwards, running for their lives when the Lord moves against them. It prays also that they will be dried up. Let them be like the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaths his arms, nor do those who pass by say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you and return. We bless you in the name of the Lord." What this is talking about here is harvest blessings. In other words, as we've seen in the Old Testament, when God is blessing His people in the land, He's sending the rain, He's sending the sun, and they're enabled to live in their inheritance with Him and worship Him in peace as His people and live righteous lives before His face. This is God's blessing. This is what mankind was made for. And so every time they would have their harvests, This is how we would enjoy God's blessing, right? We are sharing in God's goodness in our lives. He's brought forth this crop. We even see these kinds of blessings used in the book of Ruth in chapter two, when Boaz goes out to the reapers. And what does he say to them? He says, the Lord bless you, right? As they're reaping in the field and they return, Lord bless you. This is sharing in God's blessings. It's like a circulation of all of God's goodness between his people who are intelligently recognizing his goodness, thanking him for it, and even sharing it with others. We bless you in the name of the Lord. They're joyful in God's goodness. And the Psalm prays here, may that never happen to God's enemies. In other words, may all of God's blessings be removed from them. So instead of giving life, what do they become like? He describes them here as grass on the housetops. There are flat roofs in that part of the world with dirt on top. Yes, sometimes grass or various things would sprout up there, try to grow. But what would happen to it in the blazing heat of the sun without water? It withers away and dies. It never brings anything to fruit. Does anybody go up into the roof to harvest their grain? No, of course not. It doesn't grow there. That's why he says, the reaper does not fill his hand or the binder of sheaves his arms. In other words, what this Psalm is praying for is that all the circulation of God's blessings in a society amongst people, God pouring out his goodness, people receiving it with gratitude and enjoying it and multiplying it and living in it and sharing it with others, basically the good society, what a good life is. and it prays, may that not happen. By the way, this just gives us pause to think that it is a wonderful thing to share in life as the circulation of God's blessings. When we come here together as a church, we are a human society reflecting the blessings of heaven, sharing in them together. God feeding us by faith with His Spirit, by His Word, by the Lord's Supper. Even through the lives of other believers, we are sharing in God's blessings here together. And even when we close our service, and we in effect say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you, we bless you in the name of the Lord. What are we doing? But recognizing, rejoicing in, receiving, enjoying together all of God's goodness. Life is good because God is giving his people his blessing. And that just isn't a pie-in-the-sky idea. It's actually stated repeatedly over and over when we meet together as God's people, we enjoy it. It's true. But those who reject God, who hate his people, they are devoid of this blessing. Think in some ways of how they take themselves away from this blessing. How many people who hate Zion today are out there in the world who would never even want to come to an assembly like this? They don't see the blessing of God here, right? They don't see sharing in God's life here together with fellow believers. Like, get me away from that. Don't pronounce any blessings on me. Well, in effect, they're getting what they're asking for. You hate God? Well, then you're gonna remove from all of his blessings. He's the source of life. If you don't love him, here's what's gonna happen to you. Your life is going to amount to nothing. In other words, there will be no harvest. There's no reaper for your life, no harvest, nothing worthwhile. So God's people pray this prayer as a prayer for true justice to come about in God's universe, in God's kingdom. In other words, those who run to Christ as a refuge, those who submit to the Son as their ruler, who find their forgiveness and life in Him, come under God's blessing. Those who hate the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ, well, if the universe is gonna be put back to rights, they're gonna get what is right. And that is, their life is going to amount to nothing. I would ask you today, by the way, as you hear God's people sing this psalm, do you share in these blessings? And if you hear God's people pray imprecatory prayers, I hope and I pray, if you're not one of His people, that it puts the fear of God in you. Because what God's people pray here will come true. And if you don't submit to the Son, this is what is going to happen to you. Your life will amount to nothing. And God will make your life right with the universe by bringing you into eternal condemnation. And it's the only right thing for Him to do. And we will glorify Him forever for it. He's a just God. I hope that's not the case of any of you here today. For those who are in Christ together today, I hope this prayer is for you a prayer of confidence. When you look around at the world today, When you begin to get eyes of faith to see what's really going on in the church as the body of Christ, and you begin to realize that the afflictions that are being inflicted upon the church are plowing upon the back of Jesus Christ. And you begin to see the reality of this spiritual warfare, we sometimes call it in the world today. How do you have courage? How do you have confidence to face the future? One of the ways you have that God has given to you is to pray this kind of a prayer, to say, may all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned back. God, defeat your enemies. God, protect your church, your beloved, your very own flesh and blood, so to speak. God, the very life of your son was given for her, that we might be united with you God, you have linked your glory to the good of your people eternally. You cannot let the enemies of Zion stand against them. So God, do your work. Folks, pray that prayer with confidence today. As you look to the future, do you have confidence even though you are afflicted? Yes, you feel the pains of this world. Remember this, you are following a suffering savior. and as a member of his body, you will suffer too. That is the life of God's people in this world. You're going to have to have, as one man put it, tough faith. This isn't easy, but in the end, evil will be defeated, so keep marching on to Zion. Sing Psalm 129 and keep marching to Zion. And sing Psalm 129 and keep marching to Zion. If you wanna do that together as God's people, let's confess our faith that Jesus is Lord altogether. Jesus is Lord. Amen. Let's look to him in prayer.