Rejoicing in Affliction

“Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—let Israel now say.
Ps. cxxix. 1.

“From my youth they’ve oppressed,”
Let the church say in chorus.
“They have greatly distressed
But have not triumphed o’er us.
They have plowed on our back,
Bloody furrows endeavored,
But their traces and tack
God in righteousness severed.”

Yield you not to dismay
When affliction encroaches,
But rejoice that you may
Share the Savior’s reproaches,
For as Christ felt the rod,
He must also subject us,
Yet the troth of our God
Shall preserve and perfect us.

Could we count all the care
Of today’s tribulation,
‘Twere not fit to compare
With the promised salvation,
Which a curse-swollen earth
Stands on tiptoe to share it,
When she joins our rebirth
As we all things inherit.

May the foes of the blest
Be ashamed and confounded,
Be as grass on the crest
Of a roof gable grounded,
Which the sun’s healthy grace
Makes their depthless growth fail them,
With no baler’s embrace,
And no passers-by hail them:

Refrain—“May the Lord lift his face
Upon you and your labor!
May his peace and his grace
Shine upon you, O neighbor!”

—8/8/26. From Psalm 129. To “The Braes o’ Balquhidder.”

Scripture references:

I. Ps. 129:1-4
II. 1 Pet. 4:12-14, 17-19
III. Rom. 8:18-25
IV. Ps. 129:5-8
Refrain— Num. 6:24-26

Psalm 129 is cool. I’ve always loved how the turn comes at the end, in v. 8, where we switch from imprecation on the foes of the church into blessing on its friends and fellow laborers, framed as a denial of this blessing to those under imprecation. It’s a neat little device. I’ve always envisioned it as switching from a minor key to a major one right there. It’s the sort of thing where little kids don’t know the verse but they love to get to the chorus.

I can’t remember if I started with Psalm 129 on this one, or if I started from a tune and connected it to the psalm. I know that I found “The Braes o’ Balquhidder” (pronounced bal-WHID-er) while looking up “Wild Mountain Thyme.” The latter is under copyright, as it was written (or recorded?) in the ‘50s, but it’s based on Braes o’ Balquhidder, which is from the 1800s and therefore fair game. Not that I mind using a copyrighted tune, but I am sure it would make it harder for any church that wanted to sing it, if that were a thing that happened. And then I found this lovely video by Scott James Watson on YouTube:



It’s gorgeous. I have no idea where it comes from, as it doesn’t match the tune as originally published. So maybe it’s still copyrighted. It does, however, match The Tannahill Weavers singing it from 2006:



So I am not sure. But it is lovely, and I still prefer it to Wild Mountain Thyme for a church setting; it feels a little more reverent, a little more at home with guitar chords in a chapel, maybe. I’m not sure. Maybe it more belongs on a Christian folk album.

I had an idea I wanted to write a little more for this one. My outline (I never outline, but I tried it here) included plans for a verse based on the weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:16-18) and a full verse around Aaron’s blessing (Num. 6:24-26), but 48 lines once you throw in the refrain is plenty long for such a folksy tune. More than that and my Lutheran ancestry starts showing, and you need a little more musically to hang your hat on, then. And the text is plenty meaty already, in my opinion. The weight of glory is on some level just further exposition on Creation’s longing for the revelation of the sons of God, and Aaron’s blessing is already pretty well in the refrain.

So there you go. I am pretty happy with how this turned out. And it is fun to sing, as more than a few jaunts in the car have confirmed for me.

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Originally posted on Substack.