“May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow;”
~ Psalm 129:6
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you have a favorite tune that you like to sing over and over? Is there a tune that you like to sing over and over with other kids? God’s specially chosen guys and gals had several tunes that they would sing over and over. The tunes that God’s specially chosen guys and gals would sing over and over as they went on long treks – such as when they made their pilgrimages to the city of Jerusalem or when God had Nebuchadnezzar have his army take them away as exiles to Babylonia, became known as ascent songs or songs of degrees. There are fifteen ascent songs or songs of degrees in the Book of Psalms. Psalm 129 is one of the ascent songs that God’s specially chosen guys and gals would sing over and over. This ascent song may have been sung over and over by God’s specially chosen guys and gals who had been exiled to Babylonia to continually let God know of their committed allegiance to Him and to continually ask God to make their enemies wither away. This ascent song has two stanzas of four verses to a stanza. Ascent songs – as they were being sung over and over and maybe in ever increasing loudness and tempo by God’s specially chosen guys and gals, were prayers to God. The choruses that have now taken over the praise times in Christ-follower communities throughout the United States are types of ascent songs. Your grandpaa – because your grandpaa is tone deaf, does not sing well the ascent type choruses with the guys, gals and kids who are in the Christ-follower community that your grandmaa and grandpaa are attending. Even though your grandpaa rarely sings, your grandpaa senses God’s blessings as the guys, gals and kids in the Christ-follower community sing the words of different choruses over and over.
How are the roofs constructed on the houses where you are living? The houses where you are living more than likely have pitched or slanting roofs. Do you know what the roofs on houses looked like in the region where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived? Because the region where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived did not get much rain, the houses in the region where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived had flat roofs that were finished off with a layer of clay. Have you ever seen a plant growing on the roof of a house? Your grandmaa and grandpaa would often see a parasite type plant growing through the terra-cotta roofing tiles that were used to roof the houses in Bolivia. Because grass seeds are easily blown around by the wind, invariably some of the grass seeds would end up on the flat roofs of the houses in the region where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived. Some of the windblown seeds that would end up on the flat roofs of the houses where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived would begin to grow. Because seeds cannot grow well in clay, a seed that sprouts in the clay that has been layered on the roof of a house that is in the region where God’s specially chosen guys and gals lived will not have the kind of protection that it would need from the hot sun resulting in the plant that had just begun growing on the roof of a house would soon wither and die. Do you think that it is wrong to wish something bad to happen to another kid who has hurt you? Verse 6 says, “May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow;” How would you like it if another kid wished that you would wither and die before you could become an adult? This is what God’s specially chosen guys and gals were wishing in the ascent prayer that they sang to God on their long journeys. God’s specially chosen guys and gals wanted God to cause the guys and gals who were keeping them in exile in Babylonia to wither and die. Your grandpaa believes that God – as God the Spirit, breathed this ascent prayer song on some guy to scribe for God’s specially chosen guys and gals to sing back to God.
God’s specially chosen guys and gals realized – after God exiled them to Babylonia, that their only hope for God’s help was to completely entrust God with their hearts’ wishes. God has allowed testing life incidents to occur in your grandpaa’s life so that you grandpaa would also learn to trust God for His help. When a taxicab almost ran over your grandpaa while he was tooling around Santa Cruz’s first circle on his gray 125 Yamaha motorcycle, your grandpaa tipped the motorcycle that he was riding over on its left side as the taxicab went speeding by in front of your grandpaa. When your grandpaa tipped his gray 125 Yamaha motorcycle that he was riding over on its left side, your grandpaa put his left arm down to . . . the muscles on the back of your grandpaa’s left elbow were torn lose and a bone was chipped in your grandpaa’s left elbow. Your grandpaa did not wish that something bad would happen to the taxicab driver but . . . after the surgery to reattach the muscles to the back of your grandpaa’s left elbow and to remove the bone chip in your grandpaa’s left elbow, your grandpaa woke up not being able to move the fingers on his left hand and not being able to lift his left arm. Your grandpaa’s enemy was his left arm – which did not want to cooperate with what your grandpaa wanted it to do. Your grandpaa did not wish that his left arm would wither and die but . . . God heard your grandpaa’s prayers asking Him to give your grandpaa back the full use of his left arm. A co-worker of your grandpaa had three – forty-five minute sessions of bullet radiology done today in hopes of killing three cancerous nodules that are growing on his brain. Your grandpaa’s busted left elbow was nothing compared to what God’s chosen guys and gals faced as exiles in Babylonia and nothing compared to what John is facing today in his battle against his cancer enemy. Your grandpaa has come to know after having going through times of suffering, that suffering is a catalyst for pursuing, understanding and knowing God in ways that he would never otherwise.
Psalm 129 (581)