SPEAKER_00: Psalm 129, a song of ascent.
SPEAKER_00: Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: Let Israel now say, Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: Yet they have not prevailed against me.
SPEAKER_00: The plowers plowed upon my back.
SPEAKER_00: They made long their furrows.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He has cut off the cords of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward.
SPEAKER_00: Let them be like the grass on the housetops which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper doesn't fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his arms, nor do those who pass by say, The blessing of Yahweh be upon you.
SPEAKER_00: We bless you in the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Now, over the past few years on Communion Sundays, I have occasionally preached in the Psalms of Ascent.
SPEAKER_00: The Psalms of Ascent are Psalm 120 to 134, 15 Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: They're short Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, so we've I've been hitting about two or three of them a year.
SPEAKER_00: I don't expect you to have remembered or noticed, but uh they all are linked together by their categorization of the Psalms of Ascent.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the little description at the top of this, a song of ascents.
SPEAKER_00: And that literally means a song of degrees or a song of like going up, songs of worship, the going up towards God, but more importantly, songs that the Jews sang as they were journeying towards the temple, towards Jerusalem, Jews from around the dispersion, so from Central Asia, uh Central Africa, middle of Europe.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, massive distances were covered.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews would journey to Jerusalem uh for the feast days, maybe once a year.
SPEAKER_00: Some wealthy families might do it multiple times, some poor families might do it once a lifetime.
SPEAKER_00: But they would memorize these psalms.
SPEAKER_00: These are psalms for the road, psalms that would be sung on the way.
SPEAKER_00: And if your family goes on road trips, you would you maybe have the same thing in your own family songs that your kids sing in the car and that make you regret going on road trips.
SPEAKER_00: This is what how these songs function.
SPEAKER_00: Um, most of them are celebratory, most of them are about worship.
SPEAKER_00: The many of them are about going to Jerusalem and about uh ascending the hill uh into Jerusalem and looking at the temple, and many of them are uh about brotherly love, which you could imagine is important when you've got you know long car rides.
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of you need songs about brotherly love just on your way to church in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's 10 minutes, but quiet down back there.
SPEAKER_00: We're not going to church.
SPEAKER_00: I will pull this camel over right now.
SPEAKER_00: That's some of these psalms have that kind of feel to it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, blessed are the brothers who dwell in unity.
SPEAKER_00: No, seriously, dwell in unity back there.
SPEAKER_00: This psalm stands out though, Psalm 129.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't come across as celebratory, it comes across as kind of graphic, really.
SPEAKER_00: They've afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: That's how this begins.
SPEAKER_00: This is not one of the songs you request.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sing the one about being afflicted since we were babies, Mom.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just a passing phrase, greatly they've afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's repeated.
SPEAKER_00: Let Israel now say.
SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, everybody together now.
SPEAKER_00: We've been persecuted and afflicted and stricken by God since we were young, since we were since our youth.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody sing it.
SPEAKER_00: And it's repeated.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2 GREATLY they have afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the song.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a song that the main point of the psalm is that really nothing is as it seems.
SPEAKER_00: The main point of the psalm is that everything is kind of reversed.
SPEAKER_00: You read the psalm through the first time, and it seems like Israel, God's people, are afflicted and persecuted and are losing.
SPEAKER_00: And it seems like the persecutors are lofty, you know, they're grass on the rooftop, they're they're lofty and they're green and they're prosperous.
SPEAKER_00: What would you rather be?
SPEAKER_00: Lofty and green and prosperous, or having your back ripped open by spikes.
SPEAKER_00: And so you read it through the first time and you think, yeah, this is lame to be God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But then you start to look at it a little bit more carefully, and it is one of those psalms that the main point of which everything is reversed.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is as it seems.
SPEAKER_00: The key word in this is the middle of verse 5, the word that's translated in the ESP backward.
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, in English poetry, in English literature, the main point might be the conclusion.
SPEAKER_00: That's where everything gets wrapped up, and maybe it's foreshadowed with the introduction.
SPEAKER_00: But not in Hebrew poetry.
SPEAKER_00: In Hebrew poetry, the main point is often, usually the middle.
SPEAKER_00: And that's such as the case of Psalm 29.
SPEAKER_00: The main point of the Psalm is backwards, or in Hebrew, it's reversed.
SPEAKER_00: This is a psalm about the great reversals of God.
SPEAKER_00: That God reverses, reverses the normal order of the world.
SPEAKER_00: The ethics and the world systems that the world possesses and how the world functions is turned on its head when it comes to biblical ethics and biblical values.
SPEAKER_00: The world values prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs will be the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: The world values confidence.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Blessed are the meek, for they're the ones that will inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The world values power, and the eyes of the Lord go to and fro looking for those who are low.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, everything is reversed when it comes to biblical ethics, biblical worldview.
SPEAKER_00: I always think of 1 Samuel 2, Hannah's Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember Hannah, she was barren, she didn't have children, and she was being mocked by her rival wife that had plenty of children, and Hannah was disgraced, and she writes, 1 Samuel 2, when the Lord gives her Samuel, and it's all about the reversals of God, that the Lord takes the mighty warriors and his arrows, and the Lord breaks his arrows on his knee, and the Lord finds the poor person, the wounded, the one who's broken down, the barren, and she prospers.
SPEAKER_00: The eyes of the Lord look for those who are proud in spirit, and the Lord humbles them, and the eyes of the Lord look for those who are humble in spirit, and the Lord exalts them.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is reversed.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, the path to life goes through death.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to seek to gain your life, you'll lose it, but if you lose your life for the sake of Christ, you'll gain it.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's biblical ethics right there.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was wealthy in heaven, had the riches of the kingdom, 1 Corinthians 9, the riches of the triune God were his.
SPEAKER_00: It's repeated all the most common word in the psalm, they, these nations of the world afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: They have plowed upon my back, they are like the grass in the hillsop.
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk more about why that pronoun is used later, but for now, suffice it to say this is a psalm about the nations of the earth and how even they will be reversed.
SPEAKER_00: The main point of the psalm is that Jesus reverses everything.
SPEAKER_00: I want to give that to you in two points.
SPEAKER_00: First, Jesus turns suffering inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus turns suffering inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Greatly, they have afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: Let Israel now say, so this is Israel describing her youth.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was born into suffering.
SPEAKER_00: There's never been a time in Israel's history where she has not experienced suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Israel was an infant in Egypt, 400 years in slavery, enslaved in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: That was birthed in suffering.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to date the advent of Egypt to, I mean the advent of Israel before Egypt, you still find suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers.
SPEAKER_00: Jacob, a stranger from the promises, as he had to flee from his family.
SPEAKER_00: Abram, even, journeying around, his wife kidnapped not once but twice by Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: Having to go to war, Abraham did to rescue Lot and his family.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Israel was born through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically, the psalmist here, I think, has in mind the captivity in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: This is the birth of Israel as a true nation, centuries in slavery.
SPEAKER_00: This is echoed in Hebrews 11, where Paul describes Moses' thinking and saying he counted it as more valuable to be afflicted with God's children than to have the wealth of Pharaoh's household.
SPEAKER_00: That's the reversal I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Moses sizes things up.
SPEAKER_00: He has a life in Pharaoh's household with wealth and prosperity, and he says, I would rather trade that to suffer and be afflicted with God's people.
SPEAKER_00: And you might say, I mean, can't we get a broker here?
SPEAKER_00: Can't we come up with kind of a middle road?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how about you leave Pharaoh's household just to be with God's people, but not necessarily the suffer with God's people part?
SPEAKER_00: Like, is that one of the options?
SPEAKER_00: Can I identify with God's people without the suffering that goes with being God's people?
SPEAKER_00: And no, God designed his people to suffer and to be afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Hebrews, Paul goes on to say that the Lord disciplines his children.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's why the Lord is sanctifying his children.
SPEAKER_00: And so Israel will sing, Greatly they afflicted me from my youth.
SPEAKER_00: They here, beginning with Egypt, the Amalekites, the Edomites, go to war against them.
SPEAKER_00: But specifically the Amalekites in the wilderness, the Moabites, even, blocking their path, the Amalekites in Balaam's prophecy, going to war against Israel, causing them to wander for 40 years in the wilderness where they all die.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the psalmist means when he says, Greatly they afflicted me when I was a baby, Israel sings.
SPEAKER_00: I was afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: And it carries on throughout their life.
SPEAKER_00: Israel's a nation has always been afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: They go to war against Egypt, they go to war against the Assyrians, they look for refuge from Egypt, they make treaties with the Assyrians, and God rebukes them.
SPEAKER_00: And the few moments in Israel's history where they trusted Yahweh and prayed to Yahweh, they were delivered.
SPEAKER_00: But those are few and far between.
SPEAKER_00: By and large, you can read 1st and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, it's the story of Israel trusting other nations and then being punished.
SPEAKER_00: Always afflicted, ending, of course, in exile.
SPEAKER_00: They're finally, Israel, ten tribes carried off by the Assyrians, two tribes carried off by the Babylonians, conquered by the Persians, they are afflicted and in exile.
SPEAKER_00: They finally return, this is the book of Esther, to rebuild the promised land, and they're afflicted again.
SPEAKER_00: And you would be naive to read the book of Esther and think, wow, that's never happened before.
SPEAKER_00: The nations of the earth trying to wipe out the Israelites, this is new.
SPEAKER_00: No, I mean, this is, it's always been this way.
SPEAKER_00: And so the song begins.
SPEAKER_00: Just again, imagine the scene.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites are journeying to the temple to worship.
SPEAKER_00: And what are they singing on the way?
SPEAKER_00: We are greatly afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when an Israelite reads this, they're reading it in light of 1 Samuel 2.
SPEAKER_00: They're reading it in light of the fact that Yahweh, typical Yahweh, traverse things.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering becomes sanctifying, losing becomes winning, beauty becomes ashes, strength becomes weakness, weakness becomes strength, death becomes life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great change in God's economy.
SPEAKER_00: The Israelites understand that, and they're even singing about it here.
SPEAKER_00: So they've been afflicted.
SPEAKER_00: Their affliction is, of course, from the other nations, God is sovereign over it.
SPEAKER_00: Their affliction is real, though.
SPEAKER_00: Just because God is sovereign over it doesn't mean the affliction isn't real.
SPEAKER_00: For example, here's a description of the affliction.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, the plowers plowed upon my back, made long their furrows.
SPEAKER_00: So the image is here of an ox with a plow.
SPEAKER_00: The plow is the, you know, tied by cords to the ox.
SPEAKER_00: The ox pulls the plow through the field.
SPEAKER_00: It makes the furrows, the furrows of the, you know, kind of the uh arroyos or the kind of the ditches through the ground, and then you put the seeds in the ditch, and then you put the dirt over the top and water it, and the seed germinates and it grows through it.
SPEAKER_00: But you need to plow the ground first to turn over the soil.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just throw the seeds on the soil, you've got to plow it for the crops to really grow.
SPEAKER_00: And so the plow goes across the field, pulled by the oxen.
SPEAKER_00: The blades, some some of these plows will just do one furrow, some will do two or three furrows.
SPEAKER_00: You can get a team of oxen there and plow several furrows, and this is what the psalmist feels like is happening to his back.
SPEAKER_00: The oxen are walking along his back.
SPEAKER_00: They're dragging their plow over his back.
SPEAKER_00: If you've had back pain, you can sympathize with this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, back pain can blind you like other pains generally don't.
SPEAKER_00: It can make it hard to stand, hard to sit, how to walk, hard to hard to walk, hard to talk, hard to think.
SPEAKER_00: It cripples you.
SPEAKER_00: Now imagine blades on the end of that pain.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the psalmist is experiencing.
SPEAKER_00: The plow is dragged over his back.
SPEAKER_00: Deep furrows, either.
SPEAKER_00: Long furrows.
SPEAKER_00: Furrows that go for centuries, and we're talking about Israel.
SPEAKER_00: These are deep ruts in the ground.
SPEAKER_00: They plowed upon my back.
SPEAKER_00: They made long their furrows.
SPEAKER_00: These are deep wounds.
SPEAKER_00: Notice they're not fatal wounds.
SPEAKER_00: He survives this.
SPEAKER_00: Israel survives this, but Israel is just ripped open by the oxen pulling their plows over their back.
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is not lethal suffering, but serious, great, chronic suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Since they were young, they've experienced this pain.
SPEAKER_00: It is intense compared to giant furrows.
SPEAKER_00: It was Hugh Latimer, the British martyr who died under Bloody Mary.
SPEAKER_00: He had a quote in his commentary in Psalm 129.
SPEAKER_00: He said, There's no busier plowman in all the world than the devil.
SPEAKER_00: There may be plowmen that make short furrows, but the devil is not one of them.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the devil only makes long furrows.
SPEAKER_00: Short furrows he knows not anything about.
SPEAKER_00: Long furrows here speaks to the degree of suffering, to the duration of suffering, that this has been happening since childhood.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's important to remember what's the point of furrows?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you plow a field first?
SPEAKER_00: You turn over the soil to bring out the nutrients and so the seed can be implanted, so it's soft soil for the roots to grow deep.
SPEAKER_00: It can maintain water.
SPEAKER_00: If the soil hasn't been furrowed, the seed can't go down and can't germinate, but also the water won't absorb.
SPEAKER_00: It'll just run off.
SPEAKER_00: And so all this is necessary to make the crop actually grow.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the point here in Psalm 129 is why does God plow your back?
SPEAKER_00: Why does God work in his people, turning them open in a very graphic and extreme and painful way?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what is God doing?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is he's planting seeds, seeds of sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament picks up this theme, of course, that when you go through suffering and trials, it is the dross being melted away.
SPEAKER_00: It's a demonstration of the world that you value Christ more than the world's, that you know, you're you're persecuted for being a believer, and you say it's okay, I'd rather be persecuted to have my faith authenticated than I would rather not be persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: And this is, of course, has been the story of God's people since the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Since Abel through the church age, you know, the church began in persecution too.
SPEAKER_00: This is always the story.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is why Jesus says, listen, when you're persecuted, they persecuted, of course they'll persecute you.
SPEAKER_00: They persecuted me, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: Peter says, When you're persecuted, don't act like anything strange is happening to you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, whoa, I'm being persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: This shouldn't be.
SPEAKER_00: Come on now.
SPEAKER_00: Haven't you sung Psalm 129?
SPEAKER_00: I mention that just because I definitely see this tendency in a lot of Christian thinking, perhaps from the blessings of uh living in a country like the United States, but we see storm clouds of persecution, like the potential of persecution on the horizon, storm clouds gathering, and it's very easy for us to have the response of, This ought not be.
SPEAKER_00: I won't stand for this.
SPEAKER_00: When you're persecuted, don't act like anything strange is happening to you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they persecuted Christ, and of course of course it'll turn against you at some point since their youth.
SPEAKER_00: But you notice in this, the seed is planted, you go through suffering, you go through loss, and that ends up validating your faith.
SPEAKER_00: It ends up strengthening your faith in a very basic way.
SPEAKER_00: You think you've you lose your job, and you you say I'd rather be a Christian and have no job than not be a Christian and have a job, or you lose a child, death of a loved one, and you still worship the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very profound demonstration to the world and to yourself that you value the Lord more than even your own family.
SPEAKER_00: A spouse dies, parents die, children die.
SPEAKER_00: You're punished for something you didn't do, you're punished for something you did do.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of doesn't matter.
SPEAKER_00: Through all of it, you say, I'd rather know the Lord and have this happen to me than to not know the Lord and not have this happen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, people in the world suffer too, but their suffering doesn't produce sanctification.
SPEAKER_00: Your suffering, it does.
SPEAKER_00: It causes you to grow more in love with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It causes you to grow deeper roots in your love for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: This is nonsense to a non-Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, in the non-Christian world, you pursue a life absent suffering.
SPEAKER_00: You pursue a life absent difficulty.
SPEAKER_00: But in the Christian economy, you don't.
SPEAKER_00: In the Christian economy, you recognize that suffering and persecution come and they're actually used for your good.
SPEAKER_00: They won't ultimately separate you from God, of course.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can separate you from love of God in Christ Jesus, not height nor depth, nor angels, or angelic rulers, demons, principalities, any of those things can't actually separate you from the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so why does those things happen?
SPEAKER_00: Why does the sword and shipwrecks and nakedness and famine to use Paul's examples in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 4?
SPEAKER_00: Why did those happen to you?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they happened to you to increase the transparency of your faith and to increase the genuineness of your faith and to demonstrate it to the world.
SPEAKER_00: So you say my back was plowed open, but the seeds of righteousness are planted in there, the seeds grew, they produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: So Job's wife comes to you and says, You know, your child dies, why don't you curse God and die too?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you still hold on to worshiping God?
SPEAKER_00: And your response is, the Lord brought me into this world, the Lord will take me out, but blessed be the name of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: You demonstrate that you love Yahweh more than even your own family, and so your back was plowed open, yet you remain righteous because the Lord, verse 4, is also righteous.
SPEAKER_00: And so you demonstrate God's righteousness by holding fast to Him through suffering.
SPEAKER_00: That's Israel in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: No, verse 4 lets you know the suffering won't last forever.
SPEAKER_00: Because Yahweh is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: He has cut the cords of the wicked.
SPEAKER_00: So the oxen plow, they bring the plow over your back, and then God cuts the oxen free.
SPEAKER_00: The oxen here compared to the wickedness.
SPEAKER_00: The wicked people are plowing your back, but God will come along and cut the cord.
SPEAKER_00: So then the oxen can wander away, they leave their plow there, and the evil and the suffering is over.
SPEAKER_00: Now, so the good news is that your back won't be plowed forever.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the good news is that God will step in at some point and cut the cords of the oxen.
SPEAKER_00: I have bad news that goes to that, though.
SPEAKER_00: The bad news is that that doesn't happen in this life.
SPEAKER_00: The bad news is that happens when you die, and you're in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the whole point again of Romans 8, that you may suffer and be afflicted in this life, but it won't ultimately separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation is secure, purchased by Christ, sealed and guaranteed by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It is yours.
SPEAKER_00: So when you're in heaven, the suffering is brought to a completion.
SPEAKER_00: Your sanctification becomes complete.
SPEAKER_00: And you have perfect joy and harmony and fellowship with God because Yahweh is righteous.
SPEAKER_00: So the cords of the wicked will be cut.
SPEAKER_00: But just ask Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen in this life.
SPEAKER_00: It does not happen in this life.
SPEAKER_00: But God ultimately will reverse the suffering of the church.
SPEAKER_00: You read the psalm and you think, man, it's can't I be on the side of the oxen instead of the side of the field?
SPEAKER_00: I'd rather be an ox than a field in this analogy.
SPEAKER_00: But you recognize God is at work and He will reverse it.
SPEAKER_00: The back is plowed open, so the seed is planted and will grow in flower.
SPEAKER_00: And so just a practical observation from this.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the language it's used.
SPEAKER_00: Suffering is real, it is intense, but God is at work through it.
SPEAKER_00: You don't always know what God is doing through it except sanctifying you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you say, I want to know what God is doing through this trial, well, you may not get to know specifically what God is doing through this trial, but you know God is doing something through the trial for his glory and for your good, even though you can't connect the dots how.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the suffering is still real.
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to say, Oh, It's not real suffering because God's at work.
SPEAKER_00: You know, try telling that to Israel.
SPEAKER_00: No, Israel, you're not really having your back plowed open because God's doing something.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the whole point is that God is doing something through your back being plowed open.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, suffering is real, evil is real, evil exists in the world, suffering exists in the world in a very real and profound way.
SPEAKER_00: And God is at work through it.
SPEAKER_00: We can define evil, we can define suffering, but we can't understand specifically what God is doing with it, but we know that he is doing something with it.
SPEAKER_00: And the picture for this becomes the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Of course, this is where all the roads meet.
SPEAKER_00: At the cross, you see the devil's greatest plot come to nothing.
SPEAKER_00: It was the devil who decided to crucify Jesus to bring his messianic hopes to an end once and for all, you know, crucifying even on Good Friday.
SPEAKER_00: And what a great irony.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's what God uses to lead to the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God uses to show that He is at work in evil.
SPEAKER_00: He is at work in grotesque evil.
SPEAKER_00: And Judas, who betrayed Jesus, God is at work to the betrayal of Christ to ultimately lead to the resurrection and the birth of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Lord will reverse these, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hate Zion will be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: They will be turned backwards.
SPEAKER_00: So the first point is that God turns suffering inside out.
SPEAKER_00: He plants a seed, it grows into a fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But secondly, Jesus turns our enemies upside down.
SPEAKER_00: He turns suffering inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, Jesus turns our enemies upside down.
SPEAKER_00: What I mean by this is he reverses our enemies.
SPEAKER_00: This is the accusation brought against the church in the Roman Coliseum.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, the crowds got together and they accused the church of being those that turned the world upside down.
SPEAKER_00: The Christians are turning everything upside down.
SPEAKER_00: We have a world order that exists on wealth and idol worship, and Christians come in and call people to repent and it wrecks everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's not a New Testament phenomenon.
SPEAKER_00: You see it in the Old Testament, you see it here in verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hate Zion will be put to shame and they'll be reversed.
SPEAKER_00: Zion here refers to Jerusalem and the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hate Jerusalem don't really hate Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: They hate Jerusalem because they hate Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Those who hate the temple don't really hate the temple.
SPEAKER_00: They hate the temple because they hate Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: And so those who hate Zion, God will vindicate himself.
SPEAKER_00: He'll reverse them.
SPEAKER_00: Hate here speaks of not just those who don't believe in God or not just those who say, I don't know about God.
SPEAKER_00: But hate here speaks of those who say, I know about God and I reject him.
SPEAKER_00: I've thought about God and I believe he's not true.
SPEAKER_00: I've reasoned in my heart about God and I don't like him.
SPEAKER_00: It's emotional, it's mental, it's volitional, it's deliberate.
SPEAKER_00: It's saying, I reject God and all that he stands for.
SPEAKER_00: That's hatred.
SPEAKER_00: And those who hate Yahweh will have it brought back on their heads.
SPEAKER_00: Hatred towards God is a boomerang.
SPEAKER_00: It'll knock you out.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the image here.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be put to shame and they're gonna be turned around.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna hit by be hit by God's wrath so hard they won't know what hit them.
SPEAKER_00: All those who hate Zion will be put to shame and turn backwards.
SPEAKER_00: And now we get to our second agricultural illustration.
SPEAKER_00: We had the earlier one about the furrows.
SPEAKER_00: Second agricultural illustration.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be like grass on housetops, which withers before it grows.
SPEAKER_00: The reaper doesn't fill his hand with it, the binder of sheaves doesn't even gather it.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a little bit outside of our American experience.
SPEAKER_00: Our American agricultural experience doesn't understand grass on housetops with reapers and sheaves and all that.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a very common Northern Virginia illustration that will help you with this.
SPEAKER_00: This happens in my house.
SPEAKER_00: There's a few times a year when there's rain and there's debris, and now you get a weed growing out of the gutter.
SPEAKER_00: Grass growing out of the gutter.
SPEAKER_00: And I see some of you looking at me judging me.
SPEAKER_00: Stop it.
SPEAKER_00: This happens at your house too.
SPEAKER_00: You just deny it right now in your heart.
SPEAKER_00: You're not aware of it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's there.
SPEAKER_00: And so the grass grows in your gutters.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: Now it's not there for long.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, once it stops getting rained on, it's gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: And if it gets hot in the summer, it's dead.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the grass in your yard dies, the grass on your roof is definitely gonna die.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just there for a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Just for a little bit, and it doesn't affect anything.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when you're when you're mowing your grass, do you also mow your roof?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't even think of it.
SPEAKER_00: You you you see the landscapers going around your neighborhood and you ask them, hey, how much to mow my yard?
SPEAKER_00: And they look at your yard and they're like, oh, they measure it and you're like, oh, 50 bucks to mow your yard.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy looks and sees grass in your gutter.
SPEAKER_00: Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, 70 bucks.
SPEAKER_00: We gotta get the gutter.
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna bring a mower up to mow this little plot of grass in your gutter.
SPEAKER_00: It's comical.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language of Psalm 129.
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of image they're going for.
SPEAKER_00: The houses in Israel are flat, dust settles on the top of it, rain gets a little moisture up there, and now the seeds from weeds and grass will get on there, and it will actually grow grass in the flat roof.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe if you're walking down a hill, you look into the city and there's green grass.
SPEAKER_00: It's elevated on the ceilings, and it looks like you have a lawn on your roof.
SPEAKER_00: Remember for like five minutes.
SPEAKER_00: The people come to town to harvest the crops.
SPEAKER_00: They don't harvest the crops and then climb up on your roof to harvest the grass on your roof.
SPEAKER_00: That's the comical illustration.
SPEAKER_00: It's supposed to be funny.
SPEAKER_00: You're supposed to picture hauling a lawnmower to mow your gutter.
SPEAKER_00: Like you're not gonna harvest.
SPEAKER_00: Those who the language in verse 7 there, the binder of sheaves is not gonna walk up a ladder to your roof to get wheat off of your roof.
SPEAKER_00: It's there for such a short time, and then it is reversed, then it is gone.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I mentioned the most common word in this psalm is the third person plural pronoun.
SPEAKER_00: They, they, they.
SPEAKER_00: They have afflicted me.
SPEAKER_00: They are the wicked, they are put to shame, they are like the grass in the hilltops.
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't they name the why doesn't he name the nation?
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't he give the nation a name that persecutes Israel?
SPEAKER_00: Have you thought about that?
SPEAKER_00: It's interesting to think about.
SPEAKER_00: Why doesn't he say what nation it is he's talking about?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is because it's a lot of nations, but also because those nations come and go.
SPEAKER_00: Have you met an Amalekite?
SPEAKER_00: It's not on the census form.
SPEAKER_00: Amalekite.
SPEAKER_00: Check it.
SPEAKER_00: Nope, not there.
SPEAKER_00: The nations come and go.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know a Moabite?
SPEAKER_00: An Edomite?
SPEAKER_00: A Jebusite?
SPEAKER_00: This is the great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: Israel is afflicted and persecuted and suffers, and yet they're still there.
SPEAKER_00: Amalachites, they went the way of the wilderness wanderings.
SPEAKER_00: They went the way of Haman.
SPEAKER_00: They're gone.
SPEAKER_00: It's like grass on the roof.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the grass at the right time in the right light, you think, man, they have a lawn on their roof.
SPEAKER_00: How cool is that?
SPEAKER_00: No, it won't even be there tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord turns our enemies upside down.
SPEAKER_00: Those who pass by, if you see what happens to that grass, those who pass by won't even say, the blessing of Yahweh be upon you.
SPEAKER_00: So now we're leaving the agricultural illustration, getting back to real people, real nations, real life right here.
SPEAKER_00: When you see the enemies of God suffering for their sin, suffering in hell, this is eschatological.
SPEAKER_00: When you see the reality of hell and that those who reject God end up there and they're suffering in hell, they're going to be suffering so intently you wouldn't even say to them, the Lord bless you, because that would be perverse.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very common greeting in Arabic, in Hebrew, in the Middle East, in the ancient Near East, in the Middle East today.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very, very common greeting.
SPEAKER_00: It would be a normal greeting in Arabic.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord bless you.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: Peace be upon you.
SPEAKER_00: God's peace be upon you.
SPEAKER_00: Shalom.
SPEAKER_00: Very, very common greeting.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when you see the reality of suffering in hell, you wouldn't even give that greeting to the person under the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't even see them suffering for their rejection of God and say, hey, by the way, the Lord bless you.
SPEAKER_00: It's perverse.
SPEAKER_00: It's so reversed.
SPEAKER_00: So reversed.
SPEAKER_00: The prosperity in this life will be so exposed and so insipid and gone in the next life, you wouldn't even give the person a greeting.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to be put to shame.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to wither, shame from verse 5, wither from verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: They'll be forgotten.
SPEAKER_00: And they're gone.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this great reversal is seen in two more ways to wrap this up real quick.
SPEAKER_00: First, do you see Jesus in this psalm?
SPEAKER_00: You can't read this psalm without thinking about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And when you remember this Psalm was written anywhere between 400 and 700 years, we don't have an exact date on this Psalm, but anywhere between 400 years to 700 years before Jesus, it takes on even a more powerful illusion here that you're seeing this.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Jesus was afflicted from his youth, wasn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He was born in Israel, persecuted almost immediately out the gate.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees betrayed him to Herod.
SPEAKER_00: Herod goes out and tries to kill all of the babies to get Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has to flee to Egypt of all places for refuge.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he is being persecuted from the time he was a child.
SPEAKER_00: There were more Israelites during the reign of Herod the Great, the so-called Great.
SPEAKER_00: There were more Israelites living in Egypt than in Israel during this time.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus was one of them because he was persecuted right on out of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He flees Egypt finally coming back, so the words to Hosea could be fulfilled, out of Egypt I called my son.
SPEAKER_00: He comes back to Israel where he's raised and again persecuted.
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees opposed him, the religious leaders of Israel despised him, the Romans murdered him.
SPEAKER_00: From cradle to grave.
SPEAKER_00: His back plowed open.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman whip would have these thongs on it that would have nails and glass embedded in the leather straps that would rip open a person's back.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Jesus was whipped with.
SPEAKER_00: Making long furrows in his back.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's fulfilling this psalm.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually the cords holding him, the nails and cords holding him to the cross cut as he's laid into the grave.
SPEAKER_00: So what seed was planted in Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: As his back is ripped open, what seeds were planted in him?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is the seeds of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: You think, why would God have his son suffer in that way?
SPEAKER_00: Isn't there a different way?
SPEAKER_00: Well, through the suffering comes the resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: If he is not whipped and beaten and murdered, then the empty grave isn't validated.
SPEAKER_00: For Jesus to really be resurrected, he has to really die.
SPEAKER_00: He has to really be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's the reversal.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we see it again that the path to resurrection and eternal life comes through death.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord lives it out.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus reverses the second half of the Psalm, too.
SPEAKER_00: This psalm ends, the Hebrew reading of this Psalm ends with the nations being our enemies, with the nations being opposed to us, and with God bringing his judgment and wrath upon them.
SPEAKER_00: That's how the Psalm ends.
SPEAKER_00: But you recognize that Jesus reverses even that.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew's gospel, the first gospel written, ends with the command to go to all of the nations preaching the gospel, making disciples of all the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The church, from Jerusalem to Judea to the Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth, the church is scattered through the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The nations go from being the enemy of God's people to becoming God's people through the great reversal at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, who is perfectly holy and knew no sin, had our sin given to him, so that in his suffering, he atones for our sin.
SPEAKER_00: He became sin who knew no sin, so that in his suffering and substitution we might become the righteousness of God in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: And now he takes the enemies of God's people and he sends messengers to them to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews are broken off, the Gentiles are grafted in.
SPEAKER_00: To use the language of Romans 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_00: So all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's the great reversal.
SPEAKER_00: So much so that you go into eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And in eternity, what do you find there?
SPEAKER_00: The tree of life that brings healing to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Not even talking about the kingdom here, the nations.
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the nations will bring their commerce in and out of the city, and the trees of life, the river that flows from the temple of God, will bring eternal life for healing to the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Those who are God's enemies are reversed through faith in Christ, through the cross of Jesus Christ, become sanctified and receive eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great reversal, and it's available for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you place your faith in Christ, if you confess your sins to Jesus Christ, your sins can be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And your suffering can be sanctified.
SPEAKER_00: And your life has a purpose through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we're thankful that you turn you make the old new, you turn ashes into beauty, you turn death into life.
SPEAKER_00: You turn our sin into righteousness through the death of Jesus on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: You sanctified what is appalling and grotesque and offensive.
SPEAKER_00: But you do so through the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for anyone here today who has never trusted you with their life.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that today they would surrender their life to you and trust you.
SPEAKER_00: I give you thanks for this in Jesus' name.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our service times and church information are on our website at ibc.church.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: location, go to tms.edu.
SPEAKER_00: I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord bless you.