Psalm 129:2

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

129:1-4 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Many a time ... - This repetition is designed to fix the thoughts on the fact, and to impress it on the mind. The mind dwells on the fact as important in its bearing on the present occasion or emergency. The idea is, that it is no new thing to be thus afflicted. It has often occurred. It is a matter of long and almost constant experience. Our enemies have often attempted to destroy us, but in vain. What we experience now we have often experienced, and when thus tried we have been as often delivered, and have nothing now therefore to fear. We are not to regard it as a strange thing that we are now afflicted; and we are not to be discouraged or disheartened as if our enemies could overcome us, for they have often tried it in vain. He who has protected us heretofore can protect us still. He who defended us before can defend us now, and the past furnishes an assurance that be will defend us if it is best that we should be protected. It does much to support us in affliction if we can recall to mind the consolations which we had in former trials, and can avail ourselves of the result of past experience in supporting us now.

Yet they have not prevailed against me - They have never been able to overcome us. We were safe then in the divine hands; we shall be safe in the same hands now.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. prevailed—literally, "been able," that is, to accomplish their purpose against me (Ps 13:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth,.... This is repeated for the confirmation of it, to excite attention to it, and to express the vehement affection of the speaker;

yet they have not prevailed against me; the Egyptians could not prevail against literal Israel; the more they were afflicted, the more they grew and multiplied; in the times of the Judges, one after another were raised up as deliverers of them; neither the Assyrians, Chaldeans, nor Romans, nor any other, have been able to cut them off from being a nation; they continue to this day: the enemies of the church of Christ, even the gates of hell, have not been able to prevail against it, being built upon a rock, so as to extirpate and destroy it, neither by open and cruel persecutors, nor by secret and fraudulent heretics; nor could the enemies of the Messiah prevail against him, for though they brought him to the dust of death, they could not hold him in it; and they themselves, through his death, were conquered by him, as sin, Satan, the world, and death itself; nor can the enemies of the saints prevail against them, God being on their side, Christ making them more than conquerors, the Spirit in them being greater than he that is in the world.

Geneva Study Bible

Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. yet they have not prevailed against me] Cp. 2 Corinthians 4:8-10.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. The repetition emphasizes the fact of Israel's long and bitter suffering. Yet they have not prevailed against me. Israel has not been given as a prey to the heathen's teeth (Psalm 124:6). She is still a nation, unsubdued; she holds her own; the struggle is not ended. Psalm 129:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Israel is gratefully to confess that, however much and sorely it was oppressed, it still has not succumbed. רבּת, together with רבּה, has occurred already in Psalm 65:10; Psalm 62:3, and it becomes usual in the post-exilic language, Psalm 120:6; Psalm 123:4, 2 Chronicles 30:18; Syriac rebath. The expression "from my youth" glances back to the time of the Egyptian bondage; for the time of the sojourn in Egypt was the time of Israel's youth (Hosea 2:17, Hosea 11:1, Jeremiah 2:2; Ezekiel 23:3). The protasis Psalm 129:1 is repeated in an interlinked, chain-like conjunction in order to complete the thought; for Psalm 129:2 is the turning-point, where גּם, having reference to the whole negative clause, signifies "also" in the sense of "nevertheless," ὅμως (synon. בּכל־בּכל), as in Ezekiel 16:28; Ecclesiastes 6:7, cf. above, Psalm 119:24 : although they oppressed me much and sore, yet have they not overpowered me (the construction is like Numbers 13:30, and frequently).