1 A song of degrees. Many a time haue they afflicted me from my youth: may Israel now say.
2 Many a time haue they afflicted me from my youth: yet they haue not preuailed against mee.
3 The plowers plowed vpon my backe: they made long their furrowes.
4 The Lord is righteous: hee hath cut asunder the cordes of the wicked.
5 Let them all be confounded and turned backe, that hate Zion.
6 Let them bee as the grasse vpon the house tops: which withereth afore it groweth vp:
7 Wherewith the mower filleth not his hand: nor hee that bindeth sheaues, his bosome.
8 Neither doe they which goe by, say, The blessing of the Lord be vpon you: wee blesse you in the Name of the Lord.
Thankfulness for former deliverances. (1-4) A believing prospect of the destruction of the enemies of Zion. (5-8)
1-4 The enemies of God's people have very barbarously endeavoured to wear out the saints of the Most High. But the church has been always graciously delivered. Christ has built his church upon a rock. And the Lord has many ways of disabling wicked men from doing the mischief they design against his church. The Lord is righteous in not suffering Israel to be ruined; he has promised to preserve a people to himself.
5-8 While God's people shall flourish as the loaded palm-tree, or the green and fruitful olive, their enemies shall wither as the grass upon the house-tops, which in eastern countries are flat, and what grows there never ripens; so it is with the designs of God's enemies. No wise man will pray the Lord to bless these mowers or reapers. And when we remember how Jesus arose and reigns; how his people have been supported, like the burning but unconsumed bush, we shall not fear.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.