Sermon Discussion Questions
READ Psalm 129
-
- Reading these psalms is among other things an exercise in empathy for us. Do we feel for the suffering of others? Share in your group a book, a movie, a news report or a personal experience which has deeply moved you as you learned about the suffering of others.
- (1-2) Reading through The Psalms of Ascent, we find frequent testimonies of suffering: think of the psychological suffering of Psalm 123 (‘we have had enough of contempt!’) or the suffering wrapped up in memories of what has been lost in Psalm 126 (‘those who sow in tears…he who goes out weeping’). What kind of suffering is being described in this psalm?
- These psalms were songs of worship. Does it surprise you that there is so much sorrow, sadness and negative emotion expressed in them? Is there a place for such sadness from the psalms in our worship today or should just accentuate the positive now?
- (3-4) “The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows,” The commentator, Christopher Ash, says that this verse is describing something indescribably horrible that happened to this person. It reminds me of a news report I heard recently of a young woman who was sentenced to 40 lashes with a whip for a dress code violation. With all the terrible things that are happening in the world, including our own sin, how does the psalmist restore our hope?
- How do we keep going in faith, knowing that although (4) “the Lord has [already] cut the cords of the wicked,” nevertheless those who hate Zion (5,6 and 7) have still not been “turned backward?”
- The last two psalms have ended with blessings given to the righteous but here we find a deliberate prayer that the wicked would never know such blessing. Is this a godly prayer and if so how does it square with the gospel?
- This is also a song that Jesus would have sung. If He has sung this song, how does it now make sense?
- Pray that the love of God in Jesus our suffering and crucified Savior would give us as a church a greater love for the people whom God loves. May we also find in these shadowlands a greater hatred of all that is wicked and evil.