abundant (in quantity · adjective, feminine singular construct
afflicted
צְרָר֣וּנִיtze.ra.Ru.ni
H6887
to cramp · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix
youth
מִנְּעוּרָ֑יmi.ne.'u.Rai
H5271
(only in plural collectively or emphatic form) youth · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
prevailed
יָ֥כְלוּYa.khe.lu
H3201
to be able · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Matthew 16:18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it…
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Revelation 12:8-9 And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
Psalms 42:1 As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Psalms 118:13 Thou hast thrust sore at me that I might fall: but the LORD helped me.
Psalms 125:1 They that trust in the LORD shall be as mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever.
John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have ov…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 129:1-4
The church of God, in its several ages, is here spoken of, or, rather, here speaks, as one single person, now old and gray-headed, but calling to remembrance the former days, and reflecting upon the times of old. And, upon the review, it is found, 1. That the church has been often greatly distressed by its enemies on earth: Israel may now say, "I am the people that has been oppressed more than any people, that has been as a speckled bird, pecked at by all the birds round about," Jer 12:9. It is true, they brought their troubles upon themselves by their sins; it was for them that God punished them; but it was for the peculiarity of their covenant, and the singularities of their religion, that…
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,.... This is repeated for the confirmation of it, to excite attention to it, and to express the vehement affection of the speaker;
yet they have not prevailed against me; the Egyptians could not prevail against literal Israel; the more they were afflicted, the more they grew and multiplied; in the times of the Judges, one after another were raised up as deliverers of them; neither the Assyrians, Chaldeans, nor Romans, nor any other, have been able to cut them off from being a nation; they continue to this day: the enemies of the church of Christ, even the gates of hell, have not been able to prevail against it, being built upon a rock, so as…
Psalm 129:1-4
1. They have often afflicted me from my youth, let Israel now say: 2. They have often afflicted me from my youth; but they have not prevailed against me. 3. The ploughers have plouched upon my back, and made long their furrows. [108] 4. But Jellovah who is righteous, hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
1. They have often afflicted me from my youth. This Psalm was probably composed at a time when the Church of God, reduced to a state of extreme distress, or dismayed by some great danger, or oppressed with tyranny, was on the verge of total destruction. This conjecture, I conceive, is supported by the adverb of time, now, which appears to me to be emphatic. It is as if th…
The Church Fathers
They often attacked me from my youth: and indeed they could not prevail against me. They attacked me with base thoughts, they attacked me with anger. I gave in to the thoughts: if I gave in to the temptations, if I did something that the thought was driving me to, if anger overcame me and I did injury to my brother, I cannot say "and indeed they could not prevail against me": for they did prevail against me.
"Now may Israel say." She now seemeth to be speaking of herself: for she seemed not to have commenced herself, but to have answered. But to whom hath she replied? To them that think and say, How great evils do we endure, how great are the scandals that every day thicken, as the wicked enter into the Church, and we have to endure them? But let the Church reply through some, that is, through the voice of the stronger, let her reply to the complaints of the weak, and let the stable confirm the unstable, and the full-grown the infant, and let the Church say, "Many a time have they vexed me from my youth up" [Psalm 129:2]. Let the Church say this: let her not fear it. For what is the meaning of this addition, "From my youth up," after the words, "Many a time have they fought against me"? At present the old age of the Church is assailed: but let her not fear. Hath she then failed to arrive at old age, because they have not ceased to fight against her from her youth up? have they been able to blot her out? Let Israel comfort herself, let the Church console herself with past examples. Why have they fought against me? "For they could not prevail against me."
"They have often attacked me from my youth, but as a matter of fact they did not prevail against me." And in the earlier, fifth psalm of ascent there is a similar beginning. This figure of speech is called "anaphora," that is, a repetition of the same word at the beginning of a number of verses. Now we must understand the advanced age of the church when the apostle says, "Little children, it is the very last hour." For whatever transpires at the end of the world proclaims its old age most aptly. Therefore, the church says that she has been well attacked from her youth so that you may understand that what has always been attacked has never come to an end. For she grows by the persecutions of the wicked and she grows larger by her own contrition. For even if she seems to lose holy men in this life, nonetheless she is shown to acquire them for a future homeland; and thus she cannot be brought to an end when it is agreed that she grows by her losses. Also the following words declare this to be the case; he says, "But as a matter of fact they did not prevail against me." He says that the ones whom he had mentioned earlier as having fought against him were not able to overcome him. An attack is not completed, if further conflict breaks out. Nor should it be called a victory when it is certain that a renewed battle may take place.
Dictionary and topics
Enemy · The wickedness of David’s — The wickedness of David’s
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Israel is gratefully to confess that, however much and sorely it was oppressed, it still has not succumbed. רבּת, together with רבּה, has occurred already in Psa 65:10; Psa 62:3, and it becomes usual in the post-exilic language, Psa 120:6; Psa 123:4, Ch2 30:18; Syriac rebath. The expression "from my youth" glances back to the time of the Egyptian bondage; for the time of the sojourn in Egypt was the time of Israel's youth (Hos 2:17, Hos 11:1, Jer 2:2; Eze 23:3). The protasis Psa 129:1 is repeated in an interlinked, chain-like conjunction in order to complete the thought; for Psa 129:2 is the turning-point, where גּם, having reference to the whole negative clause, signifies "also" in the sens…
Ps 129 The psalmist briefly reviews Israel’s history of trouble (129:1-2) and redemption (129:3-4). He concludes with curses against the enemies and blessings on the godly (129:5-6).
129:1-2 Israel’s earliest youth as a nation was during its sojourn in Egypt.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 129:2
Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
Many a time have they afflicted, me from my youth. Israel repeats her statement of her repeated afflictions. The fact was uppermost in her thoughts, and she could not help soliloquizing upon it again and again. These repetitions are after the manner of poetry: thus she makes a sonnet out of her sorrows, music out of her miseries. "Yet they have not prevailed against me." We seem to hear the beat of timbrels and the clash of cymbals here: the foe is derided; his malice has failed. That "yet" breaks in like the blast of trumpets, or the roll of kettledrums. "Cast down, but not destroyed", is the shout of…
