The plowers plowed upon my back: they made long their furrows.
Ver. 3. The plowers plowed upon my back] Which was never without some cross upon it, yea, some plough passing over it. The Church is God's husbandry; and he will be sure to plough his several, whatever becometh of the wild waste. She is his threshingfloor, Isaiah 21:10, and hath but little rest or respite. Enemies are flails to thresh off our husks, files to brighten our graces, ploughs and harrows, without which we should bear but a very thin crop. God's people do γεωργειν τας συμφορας, sow the seed of prayer in the long furrows which those ploughers made on their backs; like as the Jews in their feasts break their glasses, as Jerusalem was broken.
They made long their furrows] Heb. furrow; as if there were totum pro vulnere corpus. Here, haply, the psalmist alludeth to those exquisite torments whereunto many of the martyrs were put, sulcati fidiculis.