Day 802: Psalm 129- Perseverance

“Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”--
    let Israel now say--
2 “Greatly 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 has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
    be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
    which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand
    nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say,
    “The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
    We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
 
Meditation
God grows disciples through struggles. Grace awakens the believer to see treasure in our troubles. Paul writes in Romans 5:2-4 “… we rejoice in our sufferings knowing our suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character; and character produces hope…” Perseverance, then, is produced through the believer’s sufferings.
 
The first section of this Psalm of Ascent focuses on faith that perseveres through pain. “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,” the Psalm echoes, “yet they have not prevailed against me” (1-2). Christians may be knocked down, but in Christ we are never knocked out.
 
The pain and strain of suffering are real, intending to break us (3). But God will cut off life support from the enemy to deliver those who trust in Him (4). Eugene Peterson describes persevering faith from this psalm as “The person of faith outlasting all the oppressors.”
 
God is faithful to deliver and His enemies will be put to shame (5-7). Saints being sanctified from our struggles, developing the power to persevere, must focus faith on Jesus who persevered for us (Hebrews 12:2). We persevere with saints of old, “pressing on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call in Christ” (Philippians 3:14).
 
Christian struggle is never the end of the story. Through Christ we are victorious when “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed…” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). Let us push through affliction to learn perseverance.
 
Richly Dwelling
-Why is it difficult to persevere through pain and problems? Why is it important for the Psalmist to sing about the difficulty to learn perseverance?
 
-How does fixing our eyes on Jesus, celebrating His persevering power for us, strengthen us in our struggles and empower us to endure?
 
-Where do you need to persevere, straining through struggle and suffering to grow in sanctification and perseverance?
 
Key Verse
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me.