Psalm 129

A Pilgrim Song

^1–4129“They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young”

—this is how Israel tells it—

“They’ve kicked me around ever since I was young,

but they never could keep me down.

Their plowmen plowed long furrows

up and down my back;

Then God ripped the harnesses

of the evil plowmen to shreds.”

^5–8Oh, let all those who hate Zion

grovel in humiliation;

Let them be like grass in shallow ground

that withers before the harvest,

Before the farmhands can gather it in,

the harvesters get in the crop,

Before the neighbors have a chance to call out,

“Congratulations on your wonderful crop!

We bless you in God’s name!”