THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXXIX. Handling Long-term, Abundant Harassment

(Psalm 129:1-8)

 

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

            Long-term, abundant harassment has affected us in a lot of realms:

            (1) We have long faced hypocritical harassment by the legacy media on the charge of systemic racism: David Sypher, Jr.’s piece, “The Washington Post ends toxic narrative that cops are hunting black men” in Spectator World magazine, June 24, claimed, “‘I’m a black man who supports police reform where it makes sense.  But . . . (w)hat the Washington Post did was offer a half-truth, repackaged as moral clarity.  But a half-truth is still a lie – and this one has done real damage . . . The narrative they helped shape still dominates our culture.  It lives on in our schools, in our politics and in our popular media.’” (“Quotable,” Republican-American, June 30, 2026, p. A6)

            (2) We have long faced harassment from many scientists and government officials on the climate: “June 18, Associated Press writer Seth Borenstein, a reliable believer in (human caused) climate change, asserted that ‘a key threshold for limiting global warming will be nearly unavoidable,’ with the point of no return expected to arrive in 2028 . . . (However, a) half century ago, leading scientists warned that the world faced a period of global cooling.  ‘Climatological Cassandras are becoming increasingly apprehensive, for the weather aberrations they are studying may be the harbinger of another ice age,’ Time magazine reported 51 years ago this (June) . . . ‘(T)here is a long history – dating back to the 1970s – of so-called climate scientists and government bureaucrats making catastrophic predictions about the environment that never materialized,’ the Free Beacon (recently) noted . . . The ‘climatological Cassandras’ long have been suspected of proffering data that are not just provably wrong, but deliberately misleading . . . (They ignore) the Medieval Warm Period” that came “between 950 and 1250 A. D. . . . when temperature averages are believed to have been as high, if not higher, than . . . now.  The Little Ice Age, a time of unusually cold temperatures beginning after the Medieval Warm Period, and extending into the mid-19th century, also supports the belief that the earth’s climate is subject to dramatic shifts, and that forces other than human activity are influencing climatological trends.” (“Lies weaken ‘green’ initiatives,” Ibid., June 27, 2025, p. A6)l

            (3) We have long faced hypocritical political harassment from progressives: “Ever since the emergence of Donald Trump as a political figure . . . Democrats have been claiming to be defenders of democracy.  This assertion is always annoying to people . . . who . . . value democratic traditions . . . Take the June 24 Democratic primary election for mayor of New York – please.  In an election . . . of fewer than 17% of New York voters, socialist Zohran Mamdani” won with “just one-third of the Big Apple’s Democrats . . . He is ‘pro-Palestinian, pro-defund the police, supports rent freezes, and favors expanding city services and raising taxes’” noted “National Review Online on June 24 . . . (H)e supports . . . a $30-an-hour minimum wage . . . city-run grocery stores, and free bus service,” so it “seems inconceivable that a majority of mainstream Democrats, Jewish voters, Republicans and independents would want someone like Mr. Mamdani as New York City’s top elected official.” (“A disastrous primary,” Ibid., June 30, 2025)

            (4) We have long faced economic harassment due to progressives: Chris Powell’s piece, “What nominated Mamdani is trouble here, too” (Ibid., July 1, 2025, p. A6) observed that the “cost of living is too high” in Connecticut because the “cycle began with government driving up the cost of living, especially the cost of housing, with inflation and taxes, crushing the poor and the once-middle class.  This caused people to seek more free stuff and subsidies from government . . . thereby driving inflation and taxes up more . . . (A)s the French economist Frederic Bastiat discerned long ago, government is the great fiction by which everybody tries to live at the expense of everybody else.”  

 

Need: So, we ask, “How does God want us to handle facing long-term, abundant harassment?”

 

I.                 Psalm 129:1-2a, 3 described how the people of Israel had faced long-term, abundant harassment:

A.    In verses 1-2a, the psalmist called on the people of Israel to claim that their foes had greatly harassed them for a long time, since the time when the nation was a youth in its origin in the Exodus!

B.     The psalmist in verse 3 likened Israel to a scourged man with welts on his back like furrows in a ploughed field, welts created by those who had oppressed them (Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Psalm 129:3).

II.              Nevertheless, Israel’s enemies had not prevailed against her (Psalm 129:2b), for the Lord was righteous, and He had figuratively cut the nation free from the unjust cords by which the wicked held her in bondage to their harassment, Psalm 129:4.  God had freed Israel from the impact of the harassment.

III.          Psalm 129:5-8 then figuratively anticipated God’s future, just recompense on Israel’s harassing enemies:

A.    In the Song of Moses, at Deuteronomy 32:35, Moses taught Israel that they were not to avenge themselves if wronged, that vengeance belonged to God.  The same truth is taught in Romans 12:19-20.

B.     Accordingly, the psalmist anticipated God’s vengeance on those who had harassed Israel, Psalm 129:5-8:

1.      The psalmist hoped that all who hated Israel might be turned back from their wicked deeds in shame, v. 5.

2.      He hoped that Israel’s harassers might be like grass that sprouts on the dirt that collected on the rooftops that has no depth so that it quickly withers, Psalm 129:6.

3.      Expanding on this simile, the psalmist hoped that a man might not fill his hands with such grass as if it were a valuable harvest for his animals, nor that there would be enough to fill his arms with it, v. 7.

4.      Indeed, the psalmist hoped that those who passed by and saw these harassers like grass on a rooftop might not say, “The blessing of the Lord be upon you” or “We bless you in the name of the Lord,” Psalm 129:8.

 

Lesson: Though Israel faced long-term, great harassment, her harassers had not overcome her with their actions, for the righteous Lord had freed her from their harassment.  Israel was thus to let God recompense her harassers.

 

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.  (2) In facing long-term, great harassment, may we rely on the Lord for His deliverance and just recompense to the harassers.

 

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

            Various Scripture passages instruct us on God’s deliverance from the harassment we noted in our introduction, guidelines to follow for relief while we wait on the Lord to administer just recompense on the harassers (as follows):

            (1) On the legacy media’s harassing charge of systemic racism, (a) godless Marxism is behind much of the charges of systemic racism: J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in his February 16, 1967 testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee, claimed, “‘Communists seek to advance the cause of communism by injecting themselves into racial situations and exploiting them, . . . to intensify the frictions between blacks and whites, to prove that discrimination against minorities is an inherent defect of the capitalist system . . . to foster domestic disunity, etc. . . . Communist Party activity in the United States . . . has contributed to disrupting race relations in this country’” (Brannon S. Howse, Marxianity, 2018, p. 179).  (b) Matthew 7:12 directs us believers to treat every other human being as we would want to be treated.  Thus, we should not be racist.  (c) Since the charge of systemic racism itself needs to be overcome, we need to apply 1 Peter 2:12 and live such good lives that those good deeds glorify God and discredit the false charges we might face.

            (2) On the harassment of many scientists and government officials on climate change, (a) Genesis 8:22 promises that as long as the earth remains, God will make the earth livable for mankind.  (b) That verse also informs us that there will be “cold and heat” along with seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, day and night, so variations in the climate like the Medieval Warm Period and the ensuing Little Ice Age are to be expected as part of the variations of the climate predicted in that verse.  (c) Since the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age occurred before the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries so that the burning of fossil fuels could not have affected those eras’ climates (E. M. Burns, West. Civ., 6th ed., p. 663), we must not feel guilty over climate variations!

            (3) On the hypocritical political harassment by progressives who claim to be defending democracy against Donald Trump, (a) “(t)he truth is that socialism enslaves people.  As more socialist policies and their lack of morality are implemented, you see more suffering and oppression” (Ibid., p. 17).  (b) Conversely, “Christianity and capitalism are tied together because of what the Bible says about private contract and work ethic.  To paraphrase the Apostle Paul: If you don’t work, you don’t eat.  In addition, the Bible supports capitalistic principles with its admonitions against stealing, coveting (socialism is based on wanting what someone else has earned), cheating, and lying (think: ‘dialectical deception’).  Wealth isn’t evil.  Money isn’t evil.  Only ‘the love of money’ is condemned” as “idolatry” (Ibid., p. 16).  (b) Thus, we need to be settled on Scripture’s truths on private contract and work ethic and apply them.

            (4) On economic harassment due to progressives who promote socialism that feeds on stealing and coveting rather than a solid work ethic and private contract, (a) “William Bradford, leader of the Pilgrims” initially tried “a system of common work and sharing of goods,” but the Pilgrims were then “on the verge of dying out.  He shifted to a system of private ownership and individual responsibility, and productivity soared” (Ibid., p. 15-16).  (b) God would want us to promote individual responsibility, private ownership and a Christian moral and work ethic instead of the socialism that is being pushed on many people who just want the government to keep “giving them free stuff”!    

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life.  May we then rely on God for deliverance from and recompense to long-term, abundant harassers.