The Songs of Ascents

A Sermon Series

by

Jim Bordwine, ThD

Psalm 129

Introduction

If the entire world were to turn against you, what would be your defense? If an enemy displayed an amazing determination to destroy you and if that enemy returned in one form or another time and time again, what would be your protection? And what if the threat against you was not of this world-that is, what if it was not the routine kind of threat we normally think of, but was a threat from invisible forces and spiritual foes determined to eliminate you from this earth? Where would you turn?

What I'm describing is exactly what the people of God have faced since the day Adam fell from his communion with the Creator. The history of our race is a record of the consequences of that incident. Yet, through it all, God has preserved a people. Through it all, God has spoken to and protected His people. They have persevered generation after generation in spite of earthly enemies and in spite of enemies unseen. Why is that? Where do we turn to explain this truth? Obviously, we turn to God to explain how it is that His people have endured and continue to flourish even today. But what is it about God that causes this to be the case? What is it about God which guarantees that the words He has spoken to His people must come to pass? And what is it about God which gives us the assurance that we will never be overcome and that there will always be a people of God upon this earth? The answer is found in our text for this morning.

Our text: Psalm 129:1 “Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up,” let Israel now say, 2 “Many times they have persecuted me from my youth up; yet they have not prevailed against me. 3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they lengthened their furrows.” 4 The LORD is righteous; He has cut in two the cords of the wicked. 5 May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward; 6 Let them be like grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up; 7 With which the reaper does not fill his hand, or the binder of sheaves his bosom; 8 Nor do those who pass by say, “The blessing of the LORD be upon you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”

01. What does this Psalm teach us about God?

You'll notice as you read this Psalm, that almost all the comments are about what the worshipers of God had experienced. The writer describes the general history of the nation of Israel and uses some vivid images to convey to the reader the experiences which the people of God had known over the years. And in this description, there is only one statement which bears directly on the character and works of God; there is only one declaration concerning the nature of God. That statement comes in the middle of the Psalm: “The LORD is righteous...” (v. 4)

Let those words ring in your ears... “The LORD is righteous.” It is this attribute of God which is set in contrast, you'll notice, to all that Israel had experienced. It is this single trait of the LORD which stands in opposition to all the evil done against the people of God. “The LORD is righteous.” The people of God had faced many enemies, but the LORD is righteous. Many enemies had risen up against Israel and those enemies had been resolute in their goal of destroying the people of God, but the LORD is righteous. Israel had faced opponents who were better equipped, more experienced and more numerous, but the LORD is righteous. That statement concerning God remains the response of the writer of this Psalm no matter which incident the reader calls to mind and no matter which episode in Israel's history the reader might cite. The LORD is righteous and this had been Israel's salvation again and again; this truth about the nature of God had proven to be Israel's hope no matter who came against him and no matter how unwavering the enemy might have been.

This declaration concerning the character of God serves as a reply to the attempts of all of Israel's enemies to harass and destroy that nation. The writer speaks of the efforts of the wicked to oppose and overcome the people of God-and his images, as we'll see when we explore them more closely in a moment, are dramatic. He describes enemies who bear the marks of determination and brutality; yet, he says, the many attempts of the enemy have failed to exterminate the people of Israel. Read the writer's descriptions of what life had been like for the people of God and then, consider the fact that Israel yet remained on the earth; and then ask this question: how does the writer explain the fact that Israel endured? You do not find the writer speaking of Israel's military might or Israel's craftiness; you do find the writer speaking of Israel's God-the LORD is righteous.

The only reason the writer gives us to explain why enemies have failed to wipe out the people of God is that spectacular assertion: “The LORD is righteous.” Notice how that short phrase marks a turning point in this Psalm. The writer gives us a disturbing picture of what Israel had endured at the hands of enemies, but then he says “the LORD is righteous” and, from that point on, the perspective is one of confidence. It is following that statement that the writer explains what this attribute of God has meant for the people of Israel. It has meant their survival. The LORD's righteousness, once again, stands in contrast to all the schemes of Israel's enemies; in the mind of this writer, the LORD's righteousness is like a barrier which no foe can pass. The LORD's righteousness is that which guarantees that the people of God will not be overcome and shall, therefore, persevere according to what He has ordained for them.

But what is the righteousness of the LORD? When the writer states that “the LORD is righteous” and when he seems to rest the perseverance of his nation on that single statement, it is obvious that understanding the righteousness of God is crucial to our comprehension of what this Psalm is teaching. Typically, the righteousness of God is understood as the implementation of His holiness or the outworking of His holiness. The righteousness of God is revealed when He undertakes to enforce His holiness or when the LORD takes actions or causes events to fall out so that His holiness is upheld and magnified.

Righteousness has to do with conduct, as a survey of the Scriptures quickly reveals. In Psa. 5, the writer pleads with God: “O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness... make Your way straight before me.” (v. 8) The writer of that Psalm is asking God to ensure that he walked or behaved in a manner which reflected the character of God and he refers to that as being led in God's righteousness.” In Psa. 9, God's righteousness is mentioned in connection with His judgment of the world. The writer says that God will judge the world “in righteousness,” meaning by His standards and those standards are grounded in what God is-that is, they are grounded in His holiness. In Psa. 11, the writer says that because God behaves righteously, He loves those who live righteously (cf. v. 7). Many more examples could be cited in the book of Psalms alone. The point is that the righteousness of God has to do with how He conducts Himself and with what He requires from His creatures. To speak of the righteousness of God, therefore, is to speak of the consistency between His nature and His works.

This means that the LORD, in His righteousness, does not allow anyone or anything to succeed in contradicting or overturning His purposes because those purposes are grounded in His holy character. God ordains what comes to pass and He makes promises to His people based on what His holiness requires; God's works in this world rest upon what He, in His holy being, has determined should unfold. The righteousness of God is God's defending what He has said; God's righteousness is seen when He acts to protect and bring to completion what He has promised. Therefore, when enemies came against Israel, they came against a nation chosen by God; they came against a people who were in covenant with Jehovah and so, those enemies were coming against the LORD Himself.

The LORD had made certain promises to Israel and no enemy could succeed in destroying Israel until God's purposes were accomplished. God's righteousness, then, His protection and defense of His own words, was, as I stated, Israel's salvation on many occasions. When challenged, God came to the aid of His people because His holy character required that He keep His promises; and that activity on God's part is what is often referred to as the righteousness of God-God defending His word, God enforcing His decrees, and God ensuring that His will comes to pass.

Because the LORD is righteous, because of what this attribute means, God “cut in two the cords of the wicked,” the writer says. He means that the LORD disrupted the plans of the enemy and would not let the enemy accomplish the binding His people. Knowing that God's righteousness was the hope of the nation and knowing that God would never act in an unrighteous manner toward His people, the writer could continue and pronounce a judgment upon those who would come against Israel: “May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward... let them be like grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up.” (vv. 5, 6)

To “hate Zion” was to despise Israel and to despise Israel was to despise the God of Israel-again, because Israel existed and continued to exist only because it pleased the LORD. All enemies of Israel were enemies of God and the writer says they should be “put to shame” and “turned backward.” He means that the enemies of Israel face humiliation and defeat as long as it pleases the LORD for Israel to remain. Even the strongest of enemies, therefore, has no more endurance than the blades of grass which spouted up from the dirt roofs of Israel's houses only to be scorched quickly by the burning sun. That grass isn't even worth gathering, as v. 7 indicates. And no one who sees the end of Israel's foes would ever say that the blessing of the LORD was upon them, as v. 8 teaches.

This Psalm, in just a few words, teaches us that God acts to bring to pass His holy purposes. And it is this truth which means that His people are never really and truly threatened beyond what He has ordained is good and necessary.

02. What does this Psalm teach us about those who worshiped God?

The first thing this Psalm teaches us about those who worshiped God at this point in history is that they were well aware of Israel's trying history-in fact, this is the main theme of this song. As the writer reflected on the nation's experiences, he was able to make sweeping generalizations about Israel's suffering and encounter with various enemies precisely because that had been the lot for these people. This was a nation which knew much hardship and much combat. The origin of this nation occurred in the midst of strife as they were freed from bondage in Egypt only to be pursued by the army of Pharoah right to the point where only the intervention of God at the Red Sea saved them. From that time, any understanding of Israel's development as a nation could not be achieved apart from recognizing the pivotal wars and lesser military skirmishes in which the nation was involved. There were few extended periods of peace for Israel and so that writer could describe the nation's history as one of persecution from their youth (v. 1).

The word used here, translated “persecuted” (tsarar), refers to action taken which is designed to cause the most serious kind of distress. The writer isn't thinking of routine friction which occurs between nations. He has in mind a hatred directed toward the people of God which led others to work for their destruction. This is the kind of experience the people of Israel had known. The acknowledgement of much vicious persecution, however, is followed by the conclusion: “yet they have not prevailed against me.” (v. 2) In this case, the word “prevail” (yakol) conveys the idea of power necessary to accomplish an objective. The writer states that Israel's enemies, though desirous of seeing the nation destroyed, never quite had the power to overcome and subdue the people of God on a permanent basis. Israel did suffer many defeats, but was never completely destroyed.

Soon, the Psalm reveals why this is the case, but before the writer does that, he provides us with a picture of Israel's experience. He notes that what Israel's enemies did to the nation could be compared to what the plower does to the earth when he tills the soil (v. 3). This image is disturbing if you imagine what a plow would do to the flesh, yet the writer says that enemies “plowed upon [our] back.” As already stated, the writer means to convey that Israel's history was filled with examples of brutal enemies seeking the nation's ruin. Such incidents were all too common for these people-and we know from the record of Scripture that the writer is not exaggerating. Those who worshiped the LORD at this point in history understood well the character of the nation's development. Israel remained at this present time in spite of the many attempts to destroy the nation and in spite of the fact that, under normal circumstances, the nation should not even exist.

This brief summary of Israel's history serves at the background for that statement in v. 4: “The LORD is righteous...” The worshipers of God knew their history and they knew how many nations had tried to destroy them and they knew that Israel continued in spite of such circumstances. These people knew what had happened to Israel, as I said, but they also clearly understood why they had persevered and the reason for their perseverance is found in that phrase, “The LORD is righteous.” All of the explanation I gave previously about the righteousness of the LORD was understood by these worshipers. They knew that they served a God who preserved them according to His word, a God who would not allow His promises to go unfulfilled regardless of what circumstances stood in the way. The righteousness of God guaranteed that He would keep His word and Israel would continue for as long as it pleased the LORD. No power on earth could overcome the simple truth that God is righteous and that means that He defends His holiness-He defends His holiness by making sure that the word He speaks to His people comes to pass and by making sure that His purposes, which originate in His holy character, are achieved.

The people would rest, therefore, in the righteousness of God. Those who sang this song on their way to Jerusalem were living proof that God's righteousness meant the preservation and perseverance of the nation of Israel. They existed only because God had purposed for them to exist and that is why no plan of an enemy had ever fully and finally succeeded in the extermination Israel. The people continued because it was God's will that they do so. As long as God had a purpose for Israel's existence, the nation could not be destroyed because if that happened, it would mean that God was unable to keep His word and unable to accomplish His purposes. His righteousness is, as I said, God's defense of His proclamations. This is why the writer cites the righteousness of God of all the attributes that he might mention in this context. God will not allow Himself to be characterized as a liar or a deceiver because He is holy. God's enforcement of His will, God's orchestration of events according to His designs, God's righteousness was at the heart of Israel's survival.

With this knowledge of their history and this knowledge of God's righteousness, these worshipers made their way to Jerusalem singing the particular Psalm. They sang and they reflected on the amazing fact of Israel's survival and they sang and reflected on the reason for that survival-the LORD is righteous. He has not let even one of His promises fail; He has not allowed His will be thwarted even in the slightest, but has always guarded and protected Israel, even in those times when the nation suffered greatly, so that in this present day, there remained a people of God on the earth.

All of this allowed these worshipers to consider their present enemies and know that regardless of other factors, Israel was safe from extinction as long as it pleased the LORD. These worshipers understood that those who hated Israel were, in fact, arraying themselves against Jehovah and they would inevitably be shamed and turned back. All of the ravings of Israel's enemies even at this point in the nation's history represented no more of a threat than the grass that sprang up on their dirt rooftops and was almost immediately scorched by the sun. What threat was that, in reality? What hope did an enemy have of overcoming the people of God as long as He was pleased for them to continue on the earth? The righteousness of the LORD surrounded the people of God and with that truth, they journeyed to Jerusalem to appear before the LORD for worship. How joyful they must have been when they considered how unlikely had been their endurance. And that was all the more reason to praise the LORD and enter His presence with thankful hearts.

03. What does this Psalm teach us about our worship of God?

As you prepare to come to church each Sunday morning, do you ever stop and think “how is it that the people of God have continued on this earth generation after generation?” or “how do I explain the fact that the Church of Jesus Christ remains and grows in spite of all efforts against Her?” This world is a hostile place; it is a place where the very principles we hold dear are rejected and opposed, yet we continue from generation to generation. Why is that? Is it because we have learned to adapt? Is it because the people of God are just too sly to be overcome by an enemy? Is it because we are great warriors in the spiritual battle raging around us? Is it because we have learned to avoid confrontation with the enemies of the gospel?

According to this Psalm, we are here this morning and we are part of the continuing people of God only because the LORD is righteous. Only because He has made promises to us and only because those promises are grounded in His holy character do we see the people of God continuing century after century. He has spoken and, being a truthful God and a God who always accomplishes His purposes, God must bring to pass what He has ordained. When we see enemies coming against the Church and when we see the Church survive and even flourish, then we are witnessing the righteousness of God in action. As I noted before, God's righteousness is seen when He defends His word and when He causes circumstances to conform to what He has promised those who worship Him.

When we gather for worship, we are acknowledging many things about God-but one truth, in particular, which we are acknowledging is that the LORD is righteous and because of that attribute, He has not let our enemies prevail over us and He has not allowed us to be swallowed up by the adversary and He has not allowed His people to disappear from the earth. Our worship includes this recognition that the LORD has defended us and has defended His own word and is causing all things to work together according to what He desires. Our perseverance is proof that the LORD is, indeed, righteous and will cause His word to be true.

Our worship on Sunday mornings is not in recognition of some frail god who barely managed to make it through another week or some feeble deity who managed to hide us from those who would destroy us. Our worship on Sunday mornings is directed toward the God who speaks and brings to pass, the God who announces the end from the beginning, the God who promises and delivers, the God who declares what will be and then causes circumstances to conform to His will. This is a God to be glorified and this is a God to praise and this is a God in whom we can rejoice. Every gathering of this congregation is a testimony to the righteousness of God because every gathering is evidence that we continue to persevere in spite of our enemy and every gathering is evidence that God reigns and is ensuring that we experience everything He has promised.

The God to whom we sing our hymns is a righteous God. This means that when we sing, we sing with confidence. We don't sing in the hope that God will be what the words of our hymns describe but we sing with the confidence that He is exactly what the words of our hymns describe-and the fact that we are here to sing proves that. The God who speaks to us in His Word is a righteous God. This means that when we hear His words and when we repeat His words in our worship, we are listening and speaking with assurance because we know those words are true and reliable and will never fail to be true and never fail to be reliable. God is righteous and He will use all of His might and wisdom to ensure that His words remain true and that His holy character, therefore, is vindicated.

The God to whom we pray is a righteous God. That means that when we pray, we are praying to a God who loves justice and whose very character is the standard of justice. Our prayers ascend to the One who does not allow evil to triumph but who opposes evil and opposes all who seek to annul His pronouncements. Our prayers should be characterized by certainty and conviction. We are not praying to a God who might be able to answer if circumstances fall out in just the right manner-we are praying to a God who causes circumstances to fall out as it pleases Him. Our prayers are to a God who defends Himself and His word-this is what God's righteousness means. He will not fail to do good to us, He will not fail to keep His word to us and it is with that confidence that we make our petitions.

God's holy character requires that He keep His promises, as I said earlier. And His keeping of those promises is what we witness in history; and as we witness God at work, we are seeing His righteousness displayed. Whenever God undertakes to keep His word, whenever He causes circumstances to fall out in a favorable way for us, that is God exhibiting His righteousness. While the people who worshiped God at the time that Psa. 129 was used could look back and see how faithful God had been, that was nothing compared to what we can now look back on. We can look back on thousands of years of God displaying His righteousness in defense of His people.

If the people of Israel could rejoice in such a relatively brief display of God's righteousness in the preservation of that nation, what about us? Consider where we are in history and consider how much time has passed and consider, therefore, what our response should be. If Israel could give thanks, what about the people of God alive today? If Israel recognized the righteous God coming against all his enemies, what about the people of God today? We aren't the first generation to witness the righteous acts of God on our behalf, we are only the latest generation in the history of our race. We have every reason to give thanks to God with even greater zeal than those who have come before us; and we have every reason to praise God with even greater enthusiasm than those who have come before us. We are yet another generation to whom the LORD has displayed His righteousness and another generation which the LORD has kept and defended.

And when you think of the primary truth of this Psalm, that being that God defends His holy character by ensuring that His word comes to pass and His standard is upheld, then the Table sits before us as a monument to the righteousness of God. Look at this Table-what do you see? You see bread and wine displayed in commemoration of God's ultimate act of righteousness. In Jesus Christ, the God-Man, we have God defending His holy character and, at the same time, preserving His people. We have the Savior paying the penalty demanded by God's holy nature; and in that act, the way was made for God to keep His promises to redeem our race from corruption. This sacrament declares to us every Sunday morning the righteousness of God. It is amazing testimony to the fact that God ordained a way to preserve His holiness and reconcile sinners to Himself.

How should our worship be characterized in light of God's righteousness? Shouldn't our worship be filled with thanksgiving and praise? Shouldn't our hearts be full of gladness in the presence of God as we think about what He has done for us? Shouldn't we be humbled as we think of Christ and how He became the definitive display of the righteousness of God? In Him, because of Him, we not only persevere through this life, but we have been preserved for all eternity. Our worship would be incomplete without the reflection on the work of Christ afforded us in this sacrament. Here we see just how far God would go in order to vindicate His holy character and, at the same time, keep His promises to us. What a stunning tribute this Table is to the righteousness of God.

Let's pray...

The sacrament is given...

Conclusion

Our next Psalm will be Psa. 130. This Psalm speaks of the mercy of God. It was yet another song sung by the people of Israel as they made their way to Jerusalem to worship. Take time to read and mediate on Psa. 130 this week and note the writer's expectation of mercy.