(REFLECTIONS ON Psalm 129:1-8)

3 “The plowers plowed upon my back; 
They lengthened their furrows.” 

Let us take some time this morning to visualize this verse. Plowers are farm workers who prepare land for planting by plowing the soil. Plowing involves turning and loosening the soil to break up compacted ground. During this process, workers create furrows, which are long, narrow trenches that help with planting, water flow, and overall soil preparation.

However, rather than the ground, the psalmist describes the plowers plowing and creating deep ridges and trenches on their back. It is this image of a slave master that is physically digging into the back of one of their slaves, or an oppressor treating the oppressed as an object, in such an inhumane way that furrows are dug leaving flesh, blood and scars, that the psalmist is describing here.

Again, let us take some time this morning to visualize this verse. Brothers and sisters, this image is not just for a moment in time, but it is an experience and an image for the psalmist buried deep within his memory because of how long-lasting this oppression was.

This is not just the psalmist’s experience, but it also represents the experience of Israel. Not just for one short moment in time, but “from my youth up.” Although Israel was treated as a field, with their oppressors plowing upon their back, lengthening their furrows, yet the psalmist also declares, “They have not prevailed against me.“

This is Israel’s testimony. Oppressed, enslaved, but not broken. However, it wasn’t out of their own personal fortitude that they endured, but it was the Lord’s righteousness that gave them strength to overcome. As the psalmist writes,

4 The Lord is righteous;
He has cut in two the cords of the wicked.

The chains of oppression, the cords that bound Israel, were cut in two by the Lord because He is righteous. In His righteousness, He was faithful to His covenant relationship with Israel, and He set them free. 

Brothers and sisters, let us find strength in the Lord because He is righteous, and His righteousness is upon us that believe in the faith of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is righteous, and so we find strength in the Lord, because through Jesus Christ, His righteousness will cut in two the cords of the wicked. Just as the Lord came to the rescue for Israel in their slavery, so too can we find strength in the Lord and say, “Yet they have not prevailed against me.”

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Psalm 129