Psalms 129

13. There is kindness in affliction, in that God does curtail and shorten it, he will not let it lie on too long (Isaiah 57:16): I will not contend for ever, lest the Spirit should fail before me. God will give his people a writ of ease, and proclaim a year of Jubilee — the wick…

(1 Peter 2:24) Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live to righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed. Augustinus in Psalm 129: Sacerdos noster a nobis accepit, quod pro nobis offerret; accepit a nobis carnem; in ips…

There is good reason to believe that God will lift up a fallen people, who desire to fear him, and wait for his help. Objection 6. They plow upon Christ's back, and make long and deep furrows on Israel from her youth (Psalm 129:1). Answer. True, plowing is a work of hope, but ha…

We fear the cross less at our heels and behind our back, than when its in our bosom; the Lord Jesus speaks of his suffering often beforehand and its wisdom to make it less, by antidated patience and submission, before we suffer; it were good, would we give our thoughts and lend…

Albeit human forces then be never so glorious in outward appearance, and make all the goodly shows that can be devised; yet the Prophet affirms that it is but like the grass and flowers of the field, which are green and flourish for a time, and suddenly are gone. He abases them…

I grant this is a thing full of misery, and a great indignity; but seeing he is pleased to suffer his name to be exposed to the outrages of the wicked, let us not much be moved, if we be wronged for his name's sake: for we are not better than he; neither must we expect better us…

Those that are lowly indeed, turn not their eyes to the reward and praise of humility, but with a simple heart do they behold the vile things, being glad to be occupied in the same, neither do they at any time perceive their lowliness. Here springs the water out of the fountain,…

The daughters, that is, professors, saw her, they beheld this beauty of hers (as Chapter 3:6), and they blessed her, that is, 1. They were convinced of her excellency, and accounted her blessed and happy, as Mary says of herself (Luke 1:48). And, 2. they wished well to her, desi…

The reapers receive the wheat which they cut down, into their arms and bosom. Hence that expression, by way of imprecation upon the wicked (Psalm 129:7): Let them be as the grass upon the house top which withers before it grows up, with which the mower fills not his hand, nor he…

There is no man that has left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my sake, and the Gospels, but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this life, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with pe…

2. When it goes ill with the Godly, yet God deals well with them, because while he is inflicting evil upon them, he is doing them good. That which the Text renders, you hast dealt well with your Servant, in the Hebrew it is, you hast done good to your Servant: Psalm 129:71. It i…

First, cords are, counsels, false pleas, forged and plausible pretences, which are ordered and contrived as though they were twisted together as a cord, strongly to persuade and prevail, and they are cords of vanity, which the vanity and misguided apprehension of carnal [illegib…

The seeming fruit of hypocrites dies and comes to nothing (John 15:6): he is cast forth as a branch and is withered. The hypocrite's fruit is like the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up (Psalm 129:6; Matthew 13:6). Fruitfulness adorns a Christian; the fru…

Our lives should be like jewels, though little in bulk, yet great in worth. Some die young, yet with gray hairs upon them; we must be like grass of the field, useful, not like grass of the housetop, Psalm 129:6, which withers before it be grown up. To live, and not be serviceabl…