Psalm 129
The Message
129 1-4 “They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young”
—this is how Israel tells it—
“They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young,
but they never could keep me down.
Their plowmen plowed long furrows
up and down my back;
But God wouldn’t put up with it,
he sticks with us.
Then God ripped the harnesses
of the evil plowmen to shreds.”
5-8 Oh, let all those who hate Zion
grovel in humiliation;
Let them be like grass in shallow ground
that withers before the harvest,
Before the farmhands can gather it in,
the harvesters get in the crop,
Before the neighbors have a chance to call out,
“Congratulations on your wonderful crop!
We bless you in God’s name!”
Psalm 129
New International Reader's Version
A song for those who go up to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.
129 Here is what Israel should say.
“My enemies have treated me badly ever since I was a young nation.
2 My enemies have treated me badly ever since I was a young nation.
But they haven’t won the battle.
3 They have made deep wounds in my back.
It looks like a field a farmer has plowed.
4 The Lord does what is right.
Sinners had tied me up with ropes. But the Lord has set me free.”
5 May all those who hate Zion
be driven back in shame.
6 May they be like grass that grows on the roof of a house.
It dries up before it can grow.
7 There isn’t enough of it to fill a person’s hand.
There isn’t enough to tie up and carry away.
8 May no one who passes by say to those who hate Zion,
“May the blessing of the Lord be on you.
We bless you in the name of the Lord.”
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
