Victory through Suffering
Psalm 129:1–8
The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows. Psalm 129:3
Psalm 129:1–3 describes Jesus, the Messiah, as well as the Jews from whom he came. Jesus was beaten literally. Like Israel, Jesus might well have said, “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.” Jesus would certainly have added, “yet they have not prevailed against me” (v. 2).
How could they? Jesus is God, the sovereign Ruler of the universe. Therefore, although Satan and the united kings of the earth should gather together “against the Lord and against his Anointed” (Ps. 2:2), God the heavenly King only laughs at them, for he has rescued us from sin by Christ’s death, raised Jesus from his dark tomb, and lifted him to glory, therefore announcing triumphantly, “I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill” (v. 6).
Because Jesus lives, we also live, and because he has been victorious, we shall be victorious too. Victory is not gained by avoiding our share of this world’s oppression. Jesus said, “In the world you will have tribulation,” but added, “take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). We must triumph as he did, enduring oppression and ultimately passing through the portal of death to resurrection.
Often in the long course of history, Christians have been forced to cry, as Israel did, “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth.” However, underneath that cry and sometimes even over it, we also hear the confession, “yet they have not prevailed against me.”
Why is this pattern of oppression and suffering so necessary? The answer is, So the world might know that our power is not from ourselves, but from God. The apostle Paul was repeatedly imprisoned, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, starved, and threatened, but here is what he wrote to the believers at Corinth to encourage them: “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’s sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:7–11).
There is a forceful Christian battle cry, composed in Latin and placed next to the burning bush: Nec tamen consumebatur! It means, “Yet not consumed.” God’s people may be oppressed but they are never consumed and so can cry, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865
Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.