Song of Ascent: Plowed Backs
May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow, Psalm 129:6 · Berean Standard Bible
Let those enemies be as useless and short-lived as grass that grows on a rooftop—it looks green for a moment, then withers away.
You can picture this: rooftop grass in an arid climate has shallow roots, no real soil beneath it, and dies quickly in the sun. It's the opposite of deep-rooted vegetation. The psalmist is asking God to make enemy plans and power as temporary and fruitless as that dying grass—all appearance, no substance.
The psalmist, continuing the prayer for God's judgment on enemies.
This image connects to Jesus's parable of seeds on rocky ground and other biblical metaphors about the contrast between what's rooted in God and what isn't. It's saying that opposition to God's purposes is inherently unstable.
The prayer specifies the fate: enemies will become as fragile and transient as grass sprouting on rooftops—visible but rootless, withering before maturation.
The image of roof-grass (deshe'h ha-gag) was a well-known trope in ancient Israel's climate, where summer heat scorched shallow-rooted vegetation almost immediately. Commentators from Jerome onward noted this as a symbol of apparent vigor masking fundamental weakness. The verb yibash ('withers') uses the same root as Isaiah's famous assertion 'all flesh is grass'—human pride and power are fundamentally ephemeral. This parallels Psalm 37's repeated assertion that the wicked will quickly vanish.
Israel, using natural imagery to articulate the brevity and futility of their enemies' power.
This connects to Scripture's larger meditation on human frailty before God's eternity—appearing in Ecclesiastes, Job, and 1 Peter 1:24-25, where human glory is compared to grass.
4The LORD is righteous; He has cut me from the cords of the wicked.
5May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame.
6May they be like grass on the rooftops, which withers before it can grow,
7unable to fill the hands of the reaper, or the arms of the binder of sheaves.
8May none who pass by say to them, “The blessing of the LORD be on you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.”
Read all of Psalm 129 — They have plowed my back and made their furrows long. Israel has suffered — but the cords of the wicked are cut.
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