1A song of ascents. Many a time they have persecuted me from my youth— let Israel now declare— 2many a time they have persecuted me from my youth, but they have not prevailed against me. 3The plowmen plowed over my back; they made their furrows long. 4The LORD is righteous; He has cut me from the cords of the wicked. 5May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame. 6May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow, 7unable to fill the hands of the reaper, or the arms of the binder of sheaves. 8May none who pass by say to them, “The blessing of the LORD be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”
Matthew Henry's Commentary
Thankfulness for former deliverances. (1-4) A believing prospect of the destruction of the enemies of Zion. (5-8) 1-4 The enemies of God's people have very barbarously endeavoured to wear out the saints of the Most High. But the church has been always graciously delivered. Christ has built his church upon a rock. And the Lord has many ways of disabling wicked men from doing the mischief they design against his church. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; he has promised to preserve a people to himself. 5-8 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-tops, which in eastern countries are flat, and what grows there never ripens; so it is with the designs of God's enemies. No wise man will pray the Lord to bless these mowers or reapers. And when we remember how Jesus arose and reigns; how his people have been supported, like the burning but unconsumed bush, we shall not fear.