Every five years in Australia, there is a census, and a question is asked about religious affiliation. Over the years, one significant trend has been the increasing number of people who claim to have “no religion”. In 1901, 96 per cent of people in Australia claimed to be Christian. In 2021, the number had dropped to 44 per cent. I expect it will drop further in the future. In the past, it was respectable to go to church, even though many people might have been Christian in name only. Today, to say you’re a Christian means to stand against the crowd, and that takes courage.

But we don’t have to be worried by these statistics, or think that the church is dying. Jesus told His disciples that He would build His church “and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18). Since it’s God’s church, it will never be destroyed. It has always faced opposition in different times and places. Its numbers have risen and fallen. But, in the words of today’s psalm, our enemies “have not gained the victory over [us]” (Psalm 129:2).

In Psalm 129, the psalmist looks backwards (vv. 1–4) and forwards (vv. 5–8), writing from the perspective of the people of Israel who are portrayed as an individual. The nation has known constant opposition “from my youth” (vv. 1, 2). This could refer to their years of slavery in Egypt. Even after Israel’s rescue, the nation continued to suffer at the hands of the various tribes of Canaan, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians. Their suffering is likened to a severe whipping, the agony of someone carving deep lines down your back.

Yet, the Lord has always shown His faithfulness by coming to set His people free (v. 4). We learn the same lesson from both the Bible and church history. Roman emperors like Nero (54–69) and Domitian (81–96) persecuted God’s people. In the past, rulers and administrators have restricted or tried to eradicate Christianity. Not only have they failed, but in many places the church actually grew. It’s how we know that God has protected His people.

It is by remembering the past that we can look to the church’s future with confidence. We saw in the previous psalm that long life is a blessing for the righteous (128:6). Here, the psalmist wishes a short life for his enemies (v. 6). They will be like grass on a roof which has no root and soon withers. Since their crops will never grow, they’ll never hear people commend them for the blessing of fruitful harvests (v. 8). God will protect His people and punish their persecutors.

We can also look backwards and forwards in our lives as individual children of God. In his hymn “Amazing Grace”, John Newton remembers how God’s grace sustained him “through many dangers, toils and snares”. God has done the same for us. Like Newton, we can be confident that this same grace “will lead me home”. Let’s be confident Christians.