Psalms 129:4

The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. THE LORD IS RIGHTEOUS: HE HATH CUT ASUNDER THE CORDS OF THE WICKED. The righteousness of God is His people's ground of hoping deliverance. Israel's true standing is on the righteousness of faith: then at once, when she recognizes this, the righteousness of God, which is inseparably connected with His faithfulness to His promises to Israel's fathers, binds Him to deliver her (Romans 10:3). This shall be so in the latter days, (Romans 2:1.) "The cords of the wicked" are those with which Israel's enemies had bound her. Instead of their cords (cf. "the rod of the wicked," ) remaining on Israel, Yahweh-Messiah's cords shall bind t...

1-4 The enemies of God's people have very barbarously endeavoured to wear out the saints of the Most High. But the church has been always graciously delivered. Christ has built his church upon a rock. And the Lord has many ways of disabling wicked men from doing the mischief they design against his church. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; he has promised to preserve a people to himself....

Verse Psalms 129:4. _THE LORD-HATH CUT ASUNDER THE CORDS OF THE WICKED._] The words have been applied to the sufferings of Christ; but I know not on what authority. No such scourging could take place in his case, as would justify the expression, - "The ploughers made long furrows there, Till all his body was one wound." It is not likely that he received more than _thirty-nine_ stripes. The last line is an unwarranted assertion....

THE LORD IS RIGHTEOUS - Righteous in permitting this; righteous in what he has done, and will do, in the treatment of those who inflict such wrongs. We may now safely commit our cause to him in view of what he has done in the past. He was not indifferent then to our sufferings, or deaf to the eries of his people; he interposed and punished the oppressors of his people, and we may trust him still. HE HATH CUT ASUNDER THE CORDS OF THE WICKED - By which they bound us. He did this in our “youth;” when we were oppressed and beaten in Egypt. Then he interposed, and set us free....

EXPOSITION THIS psalm consists of a retrospect (Psalms 129:1) and an anticipation (Psalms 129:5). The retrospect shows Israel oppressed by enemies for a long term of years, but finally vindicated and delivered (Psalms 129:4). The anticipation shows her enemies afflicted in their turn, and suffering the just reward for their misdeeds. PSALMS 129:1 MANY A TIME HAVE THEY AFFLICTED ME FROM MY YOUTH. Israel's recollection is one of frequent, almost constant, "affliction." She has been downtrodden beneath the feet of Egyptians, Moabites, Mesopotamians, Canaanit

THE LORD [IS] RIGHTEOUS,.... Or gracious and merciful; hence acts of mercy are called righteousness in the Hebrew language; the Lord has compassion on his people under their afflictions, and delivers them; or is faithful to his promises of salvation to them, and just and righteous to render tribulation to them that trouble them, and take vengeance upon them; HE HATH CUT ASUNDER THE CORDS OF THE WICKED: alluding to the cords with which the plough is fastened to the oxen, which being cut, they cannot go on ploughing; or to the cords of whips, which when, cut cannot be used to any purpose: it designs the breaking of the confederacies of wicked men against the people of God; the confounding their counsels and schemes, and disappointing their devices; so that they cannot perform their enterprises, or carry their designs into execution, or go on with and finish their intentions. The Targum re...

Three Songs of degrees. Psalms 129:1. _Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me._ The trials of some of God's people begin very early. When first we put on the armor of God, the adversary is usually very bitter against us. Some of our old friends and acquaintances cannot bear to see the change in us, and they bitterly oppose us, so that God's children may have to say, «From our youth they have afflicted us.» But you must not think that the beginning of sorrows will be the end of them. Oh, no! «Many a time have they afflicted me.» God's children are often called to pass under the rod, and the rod is frequently held in the hands of the children of men. Your Saviour carried the cross, and he expects you to carry it, too. He does not tell you to take it

PSALM 120-134 The Psalms of Degrees Fifteen brief Psalms follow, called songs of degrees, or, ascents. They were in all probability used by Israel going up to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate the feasts of the Lord--”Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, a testimony for Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.” They are indeed Psalms of “the goings-up” for we rise higher and higher as we read through them. Prophetically they give us again the steps from trial and suffering to the glorious consummation. As they are so simple in language and construction no lengthy annotations are needed. Psalms 120:1 begins with distress, picturing again the suffering of the righteous godly remnant. In Psalms 121:1 the Keeper of Israel, the Covenant Keeping God, is revealed

CXXIX. PERSECUTED BUT NOT CAST DOWN. Psalms 129:1. Israel's tyrants compared to ploughmen who have extended their ploughing far, but Yahweh in His righteousness cut the cord which fastened the ox to the plough and then, of course, the ploughing ceased. PSALMS 129:5. The enemies of Zion are to be like grass which springs up casually on the flat roof, but before it reaches its full height (?) is withered. Nobody would think of formal benediction on a crop which was not worth the carrying....

THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ RIGHTEOUS. just: i.e. in His judgments. CORDS: i.e. of bondage. Compare Psalms 2:3. THE WICKED. lawless ones. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44....