Psalms 129 · The Lantern

Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up: may Israel now say.

Yea, many a time have they vexed me from my youth up: but they have not prevailed against me.

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.

"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?

"They have often attacked me from my youth, but as a matter of fact they did not prevail against me." And in the earlier, fifth psalm of ascent there is a similar beginning. This figure of speech is called "anaphora," that is, a repetition of the same word at the beginning of a number of verses.

The plowers plowed upon my back: and made long furrows.

But the righteous Lord: hath hewn the snares of the ungodly in pieces.

Let them be confounded and turned backward: as many as have evil will at Sion.

Let them be even as the grass growing upon the house-tops: which withereth afore it be plucked up;

Whereof the mower filleth not his hand: neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom.

So that they who go by say not so much as, The Lord prosper you: we wish you good luck in the Name of the Lord.

Psalms129