Shalom,
Psalm 129 is addressing the persecution of the nation of Israel (and of the church) by those who don't know or want God. We can fall into complacency where this is concerned unless we take the time to look at these things! I like this passage that I found in the Bible Exposition Commentary:
Egypt tried to drown the Jews (Ex 1:15-22), but the Lord drowned Egypt's crack troops (Ex 14:19-31). The Assyrians tried to starve them into surrender, but God wiped out the Assyrian army (Isa 37-38). Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of Babylon, tried to burn them up, but the Lord delivered them (Dan 3). Belshazzar blasphemed the God of Israel and defiled the holy vessels of the temple, but that very night, the Medes and Persians killed him. The Persian soothsayers tried to throw Daniel to the lions, but God rescued him and the beasts killed the soothsayers instead (Dan 6). Hitler killed over six million Jews in his gas chambers, but he was soundly defeated, and the nation of Israel was born a few years later. The church of Jesus Christ has experienced persecution, but it still stands and will stand until Jesus returns (Matt 16:18). This persecution will continue, right up until Jesus appears in the air for the church! Every true believer can identify with Paul's testimony in 2 Cor 4:7-12.
As believers in Jesus of Nazareth, we WILL suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12), but we also have THIS promise if we don't quit! Romans 8:18:
18 [But what of that?] For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred upon us!
There is a lot going on in John 6! I want to direct your attention specifically today to verse 63:
63 It is the Spirit Who gives life [He is the Life-giver]; the flesh conveys no benefit whatever [there is no profit in it]. The words (truths) that I have been speaking to you are spirit and life.
There is no natural thing we can do as human beings that will accomplish anything in the Heavenly realm! We cannot earn our way to Heaven and we can NEVER be "good enough" for Heaven because the Word of God tells us that to miss it even once is to be guilty of breaking all the Law (James 2:10) So what exactly is Jesus saying here? He is revealing the Truth that the ONLY way to eternal Life is through the Word! He had preached the Gospel to them! Re-read John 6 and see if you can pick up on what he was saying. Then He brought all down to this verse! Receive the Living Word that He was speaking and receive the Life! That word "life" is the Greek word, "zoe", which means: the absolute fullness of life which belongs to God! It IS the same LIFE that God has in Himself! And when we receive HIM (Jesus) we receive this same LIFE! Hallelujah!
In Ezekiel today we see the judgment of God against the nations that rejoiced at the judgement of Israel and Judah! God was disciplining His own chosen people for their sin, but that did NOT give other nations the right to come against them! God had promised that one day the nation would be restored and it has happened in our lifetime! We have also seen what has happened to nations who have come AGAINST Israel! Woe to them! Continue to pray for the peace and prosperity of the nation of Israel and its capital of Jerusalem! To NOT do so is to go against God's Word and the results will NOT be pretty! AMEN!
Shalom in Him!
