Psalm 129
"Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth"
Song of Ascents
Beginning of Psalm 129 in Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Folio 62r
Other name	Psalm 128 "Saepe expugnaverunt me a iuventute"
Language	Hebrew (original)

Psalm 129 is the 129th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth". In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 128.In Latin, it is known as "Saepe expugnaverunt me a iuventute".^[1] It is one of 15 psalms that begin with the words "A song of ascents" (Shir Hama'alot). The New King James Version calls it "A Song of Victory over Zion’s Enemies",^[2] and the Revised Standard Version calls it a "Prayer for the Downfall of Israel’s Enemies",^[3] but Albert Barnes notes that the psalm itself is merely entitled "A Song of Degrees" (i.e. a Song of Ascents) and it is not attributed to any author.^[4]

The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies.

Text

King James Version

1. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2. Many a time 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 hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5. Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
6. Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth afore it groweth up:
7. Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom.
8. Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you: we bless you in the name of the LORD.

Origin

Barnes argues that this psalm "would be applicable to many periods of the Jewish history, and it is not of such a nature that it can with certainty be referred to any one of them. There is nothing in it which would forbid us to suppose that it was composed on the return from the Babylonian exile, but there is nothing to fix it definitely to that event ... It would seem probable that it was composed during a time of trouble, of war, or of persecution. Why it was made one of the 'Songs of Degrees' is equally unknown".^[4]

Uses

Judaism

This psalm is recited following Mincha between Sukkot and Shabbat Hagadol.^[5]

Catholic Church

According to ancient tradition from the Middle Ages, this psalm was sung as the last psalm of the office of vespers on Monday, by the Rule of St. Benedict (530).^[6] The tract for Passion Sunday (the fifth Sunday of Lent) incorporates verses 1-4.^[7]

In the Liturgy of the Hours now, Psalm 129 is sung or recited on the Thursday of the fourth week of the four weekly cycle of liturgical prayers, and in the Office of the middle of the day.^[8]

Musical settings

Heinrich Schütz composed a metred paraphrase of Psalm 129 in German, "Die Feind haben mich oft gedrängt", SWV 234, for the Becker Psalter, published first in 1628.