Introduction
A Song of degrees.
The psalm is divided into three parts. Psalms 129:1-3 are a retrospect of Israel’s affliction from his youth; Psalms 129:4 is a grateful acknowledgment of deliverances; Psalms 129:5-8 contain an anathema upon the haters of Zion. The religion of Moses was a reproof of the heathen idolatry, which drew down upon the Hebrew people the enmity and persecution of the nations. Situated, as they were, nearly central to the great nations of antiquity, and of all the fierce political struggles for supremacy among the mighty monarchies, God alone could preserve them alive. The retrospect of these sufferings reaches back to Egypt. The poet surveys them from the standpoint of recent deliverance, (Psalms 129:4,) which determines the date later than the decree of Cyrus, (Ezra 1:1-4,) (for it must be considered as postexilic,) and with a tone of sadness as not being yet free from the power of living enemies, whom he execrates, which probably points to the hostility of the Samaritans, Ezra 4:0. The moan of Israel, now aged, over the hardships of life, is like that of Jacob before Pharaoh, Genesis 47:9
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