Greatly Have They Afflicted Me

“’Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth’—

    let Israel now say—

‘Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,

    yet they have not prevailed against me.

The plowers plowed upon my back;

    they made long their furrows.’

The Lord is righteous;

    he has cut the cords of the wicked.

May all who hate Zion

    be put to shame and turned backward!” (Psalms 129:1-5 ESV)

Zion is now a term used for Jesus Christ and for his church. Those who believe in Jesus Christ with genuine God-persuaded faith are God’s holy temple in whom he dwells by his Spirit. We are God’s holy people, his holy nation, and there is no other. Only through faith in Jesus Christ can we be God’s holy people, the sheep of his pasture. We are the Israel of God. But that faith must show itself genuine via self-denial, dying daily with Christ to sin, and walking in obedience to our Lord’s commands in holy living.

[Hebrews 12:18-24; Revelation 14:1-5; Isaiah 28:16; 1 Peter 2:4-10; Romans 9:22-33; Genesis 17:7-9; Genesis 18:19; Romans 2:28-29; Romans 9:4-8; Galatians 3:16,26-29; Galatians 4:22-31; Ephesians 2:11-22; Ephesians 3:6; 1 John 2:22; John 8:18-19,38-47; Jude 1:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-16; Hebrews 8:6-13; Romans 6:1-23; Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23]

And when we are following Jesus Christ with our lives, we are going to have enemies. We are going to have opposition. Satan may even be against us even before we believe in Jesus, even from birth or early childhood. I know that for me this was the case. For I had a father who was the epitome of Satan to me who was an abuser, a bully, who took out his anger and his hatred on anyone he could, and who used his children and his spouse for his own sinful pleasure. For he did not know love.

So, I know what it is like to be afflicted from my youth and to have others prevail against me, first my father, then pastors of churches, and then a sexually addicted spouse, and others within the purported family of God. And I can definitely feel this idea of plowers plowing upon my back and making long their furrows. And it seemed for a long time that they kept coming at me, one after another after another. And for a while I gave up and retreated. But praise be to God he brought me back and renewed my spirit.

I have cried so many tears over my lifetime that it is amazing that I have any left. But God had a plan for my life even before he created the world. And he is the one who put me in the womb of my mother and who placed me in that family where he knew I was going to be severely abused. And he is the one who has given me many life experiences over which I had no control, where he allowed others to abuse me and to mistreat me and to be mean and hateful towards me and to reject me and to cast me aside.

But the Lord allowed all of that to take place in my life to make me into the person that I am today so that he could use me in the way in which he has been using me these past 20 years, in particular. I had to go through all that persecution for the Lord to make me strong and determined to stand up against giants, if necessary, in order to speak the truth of the gospel and to call people to repentance and to genuine walks of faith in Jesus Christ, and to warn them against making sin their practice, and of the consequences.

But this isn’t all about me. The Lord had me share some of my testimony here as an illustration of what this passage of Scripture is teaching, because I am not alone in this. Many people throughout the world have been and are still being abused and misused and ill treated by people who hate and who murder and who take advantage of those who are weaker than them. And many faithful followers of Christ are being mistreated by professers of faith in Jesus Christ who are living worldly, not godly lives, according to the flesh.

But you know what? The New Testament teaches us that we are to love our enemies. We are to pray for them and do good to them and bless them, i.e. say to them or about them or do for them what is beneficial for them in the sight of God, i.e. what is for their good, as God deems good (Luke 6:27-36). So, when I read verse 5 here, “May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turned backward,” what I saw was a prayer for the salvation of our enemies, that they will repent of their sins and now follow Jesus with their lives.

So, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and you have enemies who are persecuting you for righteousness’ sake, and for the sake of the gospel, even within the gatherings of what is called “church,” do not be afraid. Do not be disheartened. And please do not give up hope! Trust God with your life. Believe in his sovereignty over your life. And surrender your all to him. Let him guide you and direct you in how you should respond to your enemies, and then follow the Lord in obedience to his will for your life.

For Jesus never promised us an easy life. He never promised us that if we follow him that life for us will go smoothly and that everyone will like us and that we will be happy-go-lucky (carefree, easy going, nonchalant) all the rest of our days. What he promised us is that we will be hated and mistreated and persecuted and beaten and put in prison and falsely accused of wrongdoing and of being of Satan and called crazy and put to death, like he was, because we follow him and we walk in obedience to his commands.

So, please understand that the life of a follower of Jesus Christ is supposed to be hard and loaded with opposition and persecution, and that even our family members and fellow professers of faith in Jesus Christ may be our worst enemies. But this is supposed to produce in us a seriousness of our walks of faith and a determination to follow our Lord in obedience and in holy living despite what others do to us or say about us. For all this is for the glory of God and for his purposes to make us who he wants us to be.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Hear My Cry

By G. M. Eldridge

When my soul is worn and weary

And my eyes are filled with grief,

When my hands in desperation

Reach to heaven for relief,

Would I find the words there waiting

If I had the strength to start?

Could a mortal tongue interpret

All the sorrow of a heart?

Spirit, search me in my weakness,

And discern this growing gray.

Intercede in understanding,

Hear the things I cannot say.

Hear my cry, heav’nly Father,

You have known my ev’ry pain.

You have seen all my sorrow,

Hear my cry once again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOJiTN56xTg

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