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英文原文
This psalm relates to the public concerns of God's Israel. It is not certain when it was penned, probably when they were in captivity in Babylon, or about the time of their return. I. They look back with thankfulness for the former deliverances God had wrought for them and their fathers out of the many distresses they had been in from time to time, Ps 129:1-4. II. They look forward with a believing prayer for and a prospect of the destruction of all the enemies of Zion, Ps 129:5-8. In singing this psalm we may apply it both ways to the Gospel-Israel, which, like the Old-Testament Israel, has weathered many a storm and is still threatened by many enemies.
1-4
Domestic Happiness
家庭之福
上行之诗。
¹ 从我幼年以来，敌人屡次苦害我，愿以色列现在说：
² 从我幼年以来，敌人屡次苦害我，却没有胜过我。
³ 如同扶犁的在我背上扶犁，耕的犁沟甚长。
⁴ 耶和华是公义的；他砍断了恶人的绳索。
此处所论的，是历代以来神的教会；更准确地说，是教会亲自发声，如同一位如今已白发苍苍的年长者，追想古时之日，回顾往昔岁月。在回顾之中，所得的结论是：一、教会常常在世上被其仇敌大大欺压：以色列现在可以说："我是比任何百姓受欺压更深的那民，如同有斑点的鸟被四围一切的鸟啄击"（耶12:9）。诚然，他们因自己的罪将患难招惹到自己身上；神惩罚他们，是为他们（的罪）之故；然而他们的邻舍之所以恨恶并逼迫他们，却是因他们圣约的特有性质，以及他们信仰的独到处。"因为从我幼年以来，敌人屡次苦害我。"当知神的百姓历来就有许多仇敌，而教会自其婴儿期起，其状态便常常是受苦的状态。以色列的幼年在埃及，或在士师时代；那时他们受苦，自此以后或多或少皆是如此。福音教会自其存在之日起，便时有受苦；而在其幼年时期所负的轭最为沉重——初代教会所叹息其下的十次大逼迫便是明证。他们在我背上扶犁（诗129:3）。我们读到（诗125:3）恶人的杖落在义人的分上，在那里我们更期望见到的是犁，好为他们划出地界归己；而此处我们读到的是恶人的犁落在义人的背上，在那里我们更期望见到的是杖。但这两处的比喻可说是交错的；二者的意义却相同，且过于明显——即神的百姓的仇敌向来对他们极其残暴。他们撕裂他们，如同农夫用犁铧撕裂土地，要将他们撕碎，从他们身上榨取一切，如此将至高者的圣民消耗殆尽，正如久耕的土地被耕尽（如我们所说）完全失去地力。当神容许他们如此扶犁时，他的旨意是为他百姓的益处：要藉此开垦他们的荒地，好在其上播下恩典的种子，并从他们收割善果的庄稼；然而仇敌并不这样思想，他们的心也并不这样打算（赛10:7）；他们把犁沟延长，从不知止息，所图谋的无非是教会的毁灭。许多人将他们"在神百姓背上所划的犁沟"理解为他们所加的鞭伤。那些砍伐的在我背上砍——有人如此读。圣徒常常忍受残酷鞭打的试炼（被掳之民大概如此），以及残酷的戏弄（因为我们读到舌头的鞭挞，来11:36），于是在基督身上也应验了——他将背交给了击打的人（赛50:6）。或可指他们使以色列城邑成为荒场。锡安必因你们的缘故被耕种如田地（弥3:12）。二、教会始终蒙她在天上的朋友恩惠地搭救。（1）仇敌的计谋已被挫败。他们苦害教会，企图毁灭它，却未得逞。教会已经历了许多风暴；承受了许多冲击、许多交锋；然而它仍然存立：他们却没有胜过我。人会惊奇这艘船如何在海上存活——被风暴抛掷，一切的波浪洪涛都漫过它。基督把他的教会建造在磐石上，阴间的权柄不能胜过它，也永不至于胜过它。（2）仇敌的权势已被折断：神砍断了恶人的绳索，砍断了他们的辔头、他们的绳索，使其扶犁之功落空；砍断了他们的鞭子，使其鞭挞之功落空；砍断了他们联结在一起所凭的纽带；砍断了他们捆绑神百姓的囚索。神有许多方法使恶人无力推行他们针对教会所设计的恶计，并使他们的谋算羞愧。耶和华是公义的这句话，可指教会的苦难，也可指教会的拯救。〔1〕耶和华是公义的，他容许以色列受苦。神的百姓向来乐于承认这一点：无论仇敌何等不义，神在他们所遭遇的一切事上都是公义的（尼9:33）。〔2〕耶和华是公义的，他不允许以色列被毁灭；因为他已应许要保守他们作他自己的子民，他也必信守其言。他在与逼迫他们的人算账时是公义的，并要报应他们（帖后1:6）。
英文原文
Domestic Happiness
A song of degrees.
¹ Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
² Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.
³ The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
⁴ The LORD is righteous: he hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
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 their neighbours hated and persecuted them. "For these many a time have they afflicted me from my youth." Note, God's people have always had many enemies, and the state of the church, from its infancy, has frequently been an afflicted state. Israel's youth was in Egypt, or in the times of the Judges; then they were afflicted, and thenceforward more or less. The gospel-church, ever since it had a being, has been at times afflicted; and it bore this yoke most of all in its youth, witness the ten persecutions which the primitive church groaned under. The ploughers ploughed upon my back, Ps 129:3. We read (Ps 125:3) of the rod of the wicked upon the lot of the righteous, where we rather expected the plough, to mark it out for themselves; here we read of the plough of the wicked upon the back of the righteous, where we rather expected to find the rod. But the metaphors in these places may be said to be crossed; the sense however of both is the same, and is too plain, that the enemies of God's people have all along used them very barbarously. They tore them, as the husbandman tears the ground with his plough-share, to pull them to pieces and get all they could out of them, and so to wear out the saints of the Most High, as the ground is worn out that has been long tilled, tilled (as we say) quite out of heart. When God permitted them to plough thus he intended it for his people's good, that, their fallow ground being thus broken up, he might sow the seeds of his grace upon them, and reap a harvest of good fruit from them: howbeit, the enemies meant not so, neither did their hearts think so (Isa 10:7); they made long their furrows, never knew when to have done, aiming at nothing less than the destruction of the church. Many by the furrows they made on the backs of God's people understand the stripes they gave them. The cutters cut upon my back, so they read it. The saints have often had trials of cruel scourgings (probably the captives had) and cruel mockings (for we read of the scourge or lash of the tongue, Heb 11:36), and so it was fulfilled in Christ, who gave his back to the smiters, Isa 50:6. Or it may refer to the desolations they made of the cities of Israel. Zion shall, for your sake, be ploughed as a field, Mic 3:12. 2. That the church has been always graciously delivered by her friend in heaven. (1.) The enemies' projects have been defeated. They have afflicted the church, in hopes to ruin it, but they have not gained their point. Many a storm it has weathered; many a shock, and many a brunt, it has borne; and yet it is in being: They have not prevailed against me. One would wonder how this ship has lived at sea, when it has been tossed with tempests, and all the waves and billows have gone over it. Christ has built his church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not prevailed against it, nor ever shall. (2.) The enemies' power has been broken: God has cut asunder the cords of the wicked, has cut their gears, their traces, and so spoiled their ploughing, has cut their scourges, and so spoiled their lashing, has cut the bands of union by which they were combined together, has cut the bands of captivity in which they held God's people. God has many ways of disabling wicked men to do the mischief they design against his church and shaming their counsels. These words, The Lord is righteous, may refer either to the distresses or to the deliverances of the church. [1.] The Lord is righteous in suffering Israel to be afflicted. This the people of God were always ready to own, that, how unjust soever their enemies were, God was just in all that was brought upon them, Ne 9:33. [2.] The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; for he has promised to preserve it a people to himself, and he will be as good as his word. He is righteous in reckoning with their persecutors, and rendering to them a recompence, 2Th 1:6.
5-8
God's Regard to His Church
神对他教会的顾念
⁵ 愿恨恶锡安的，都蒙羞退后。
⁶ 愿他们像房顶上的草，未长成而先枯干；
⁷ 割的人不能装满一把，捆禾的人也不能装满胸怀。
⁸ 过路的也不说：「愿耶和华的福归与你们；我们奉耶和华的名给你们祝福。」
诗人既已因教会那如同从地狱深处所谋、要毁坏教会的诸多计谋被挫败而夸胜，便在此如同底波拉在她诗歌末了那样，为本诗作结：「耶和华啊，愿你的仇敌都如此灭亡！」（士5:31）。
一、有许多人恨恶锡安，恨恶锡安的 神、他的敬拜和他的敬拜者，对宗教和敬虔之人怀着反感，谋求二者的毁灭，并尽其所能使 神在世上不能有教会。
二、我们当祷告他们一切攻击教会的计谋都被挫败，使他们在此事上「蒙羞」「退后」，如同那些无法成就其图谋和期望的人：「愿他们都蒙羞」也就等于「他们都必蒙羞」。这所求所预言的混乱，借一个比喻加以说明：当 神的百姓要如同结果累累的棕树、或青翠结果的橄榄树那样发旺之时，他们的仇敌却要「如同房顶上的草那样枯干」。论他们为人，不足畏惧，因为他们要被变为草（赛51:12）。但论他们为锡安的仇敌，他们便已确定被标记为要毁灭，可以被人藐视，正如房顶上的草——又小又短又涩，一无是处。1. 它速速枯萎：「未长成而先枯干」——尚未长到成熟，因没有根；并且它所处之处越高（也许这正是它的骄傲），就越被暴晒的烈日所灼，因而越快枯干。「未及被拔起便先枯干」（有人如此读）。 神教会的仇敌是自行枯萎的，不必等到 神借审判将他们连根拔除。2. 它对任何人都无用处；他们也只是世上无用的重担；他们攻击锡安的计谋也永不会成熟或得以成就；无论他们对自己有何盼望，所得的不会比农夫从房顶上的草所得的更多。「他们的收获在愁苦之日必成为一堆」（赛17:11）。
三、没有智慧人愿祷告 神赐福那些割草或收割的人（诗129:8）。请注意，1. 这是一件古老而可嘉的习俗——不仅向陌生人和过路的人问安、祝他们有美好的一天，更特别为丰收劳工的兴旺祷告。波阿斯正是如此为他的收割者祷告（得2:4）：「愿耶和华与你们同在。」我们必须这样承认 神的护理，向邻舍表明我们的善意，并称赞他们的勤勉；若这出自虔诚正直的心，便作为敬虔的呼吁蒙 神悦纳。2. 宗教用语既是圣物，便绝不可用于轻浮可笑的举动之中。在房顶上割草乃是一件可笑的事，因此那些敬重 神之名的人，不肯将通常用于问安（带有敬虔意味）的形式滥用于其上；因为圣物是不可戏弄的。3. 任凭教会的仇敌在攻击教会的计谋中得着我们的祝愿，乃是危险的事。我们若「祝愿他们亨通，便是与他们恶行有份」（约贰11）。说无人祝福他们、向他们致敬，言外之意更多——就是说，一切智慧善良的人都必向他们呼喊羞耻，并求 神击败他们；凡有圣徒的祷告抵挡自己的人有祸了。「我咒诅他的住处」（伯5:3）。
英文原文
God's Regard to His Church
⁵ Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
⁶ Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:
⁷ Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.
⁸ Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.
The psalmist, having triumphed in the defeat of the many designs that had been laid as deep as hell to ruin the church, here concludes his psalm as Deborah did her song, So let all thy enemies perish, O Lord! Jdg 5:31.
I. There are many that hate Zion, that hate Zion's God, his worship, and his worshippers, that have an antipathy to religion and religious people, that seek the ruin of both, and do what they can that God may not have a church in the world.
II. We ought to pray that all their attempts against the church may be frustrated, that in them they may be confounded and turned back with shame, as those that have not been able to bring to pass their enterprise and expectation: Let them all be confounded is as much as, They shall be all confounded. The confusion imprecated and predicted is illustrated by a similitude; while God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-top. As men they are not to be feared, for they shall be made as grass, Isa 51:12. But as they are enemies to Zion they are so certainly marked for ruin that they may be looked upon with as much contempt as the grass on the house-tops, which is little, and short, and sour, and good for nothing. 1. It perishes quickly: It withers before it grows up to any maturity, having no root; and the higher its place is, which perhaps is its pride, the more it is exposed to the scorching heat of the sun, and consequently the sooner does it wither. It withers before it is plucked up, so some read it. The enemies of God's church wither of themselves, and stay not till they are rooted out by the judgments of God. 2. It is of no use to any body; nor are they any thing but the unprofitable burdens of the earth, nor will their attempts against Zion ever ripen or come to any head, nor, whatever they promise themselves, will they get any more by them than the husbandman does by the grass on his house-top. Their harvest will be a heap in the day of grief, Isa 17:11.
III. No wise man will pray God to bless the mowers or reapers, Ps 129:8. Observe, 1. It has been an ancient and laudable custom not only to salute and wish a good day to strangers and travellers, but particularly to pray for the prosperity of harvest-labourers. Thus Boas prayed for his reapers. Ru 2:4, The Lord be with you. We must thus acknowledge God's providence, testify our good-will to our neighbours, and commend their industry, and it will be accepted of God as a pious ejaculation if it come from a devout and upright heart. 2. Religious expressions, being sacred things, must never be made use of in light and ludicrous actions. Mowing the grass on the house-top would be a jest, and therefore those that have a reverence for the name of God will not prostitute to it the usual forms of salutation, which savoured of devotion; for holy things must not be jested with. 3. It is a dangerous thing to let the church's enemies have our good wishes in their designs against the church. If we wish them God speed, we are partakers of their evil deeds, 2Jo 1:11. When it is said, None will bless them, and show them respect, more is implied, namely, that all wise and good people will cry out shame on them, and beg of God to defeat them; and woe to those that have the prayers of the saints against them. I cursed his habitation, Job 5:3.
本篇关乎神以色列的公众利益。何时所作,无从确知,大概是在被囚于巴比伦之时,或在他们归回之时。本篇结构如下:一、他们以感恩的心回顾神为他们与他们列祖历代所行之多次解救(诗129:1-4);二、他们以信心的祷告与盼望,前瞻锡安一切仇敌的灭亡(诗129:5-8)。我们唱这首诗时,可两路应用于福音以色列——她如旧约以色列一样,经过许多风雨,至今仍受许多仇敌威胁。