How to Become Anti-Fragile - Psalm 129
Psalm 129
A Song of Ascents.
1 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—
let Israel now say—
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows.”
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
Remember, these “Songs of Ascents” are the songs that the Israelite pilgrims would sing as they made their way up to Jerusalem every year for the big festivals. The boy Jesus certainly sang these with his family.
Think about how singing something like this would shape a child for life!
Something antifragile is something that not only withstands hardship but actually thrives as a result of hardship.
(Americans are not antifragile these days.)
Psalm 129
A Song of Ascents
1 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth”—
let Israel now say—
2 “Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth,
yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back;
they made long their furrows.”
So, the Israelites taught their kids to SING that, though they had been sorely oppressed by their enemies— “they plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows”—they were not defeated.
They acknowledge difficulty—they sing about it!—but they all tell themselves they’ve not been defeated.
Can you imagine singing that your whole life? Can you imagine how antifragile that would make you?
The psalm closes with a defiant statement that God will defeat Israel’s enemies:
4 The Lord is righteous;
he has cut the cords of the wicked.
5 May all who hate Zion
be put to shame and turned backward!
6 Let them be like the grass on the housetops,
which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand
nor the binder of sheaves his arms,
8 nor do those who pass by say,
“The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
We bless you in the name of the Lord!”
It strikes me that this is EXACTLY the kind of music we need to be singing and memorizing these days. We need to be reminded that God’s people will ultimately be vindicated, and that all evil purposes (and those who adopt evil purposes) will be defeated and thwarted.
What do you think?