Fathers

Psalms 129

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Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say, many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long. Yahweh is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked. Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion. Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up, with which the reaper doesn’t fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom. Neither do those who go by say, “The blessing of Yahweh be on you. We bless you in Yahweh’s name.”

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 129:2

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"Now may Israel say." She now seemeth to be speaking of herself: for she seemed not to have commenced herself, but to have answered. But to whom hath she replied? To them that think and say, How great evils do we endure, how great are the scandals that every day thicken, as the wicked enter into the Church, and we have to endure them? …

Exposition on Psalm 129 ↗

Jerome

They often attacked me from my youth: and indeed they could not prevail against me. They attacked me with base thoughts, they attacked me with anger. I gave in to the thoughts: if I gave in to the temptations, if I did something that the thought was driving me to, if anger overcame me and I did injury to my brother, I cannot say "and indeed they could not prevail against me": for they did prevail against me.

Homily 43, on Psalm 128 ↗