Psalm 124 A Song of Ascents. Of David.

 ¹“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,”

Let Israel now say—

²“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,

When men rose up against us,

³Then they would have swallowed us alive,

When their wrath was kindled against us;

⁴Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,

The stream would have gone over our soul;

⁵Then the swollen waters

Would have gone over our soul.”

⁶Blessed be the Lord,

Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.

⁷Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers;

The snare is broken, and we have escaped.

⁸Our help is in the name of the Lord,

Who made heaven and earth.

Preamble: Though this Psalm celebrates God's great and ongoing deliverance of the nation of Israel, it is not an over reach to see the people born out of His Son Jesus Christ coming through that nation as included in it. 

Commentary

Vs. 1-5 This Psalm makes it clear that neither Israel the nation, nor any individual believer anywhere in any generation ever keeps or sustains themselves. For it is only the Lord our God who in standing with us does not give us over to the wrath of our enemies. For in this evil and violent world where our God is only hated and blasphemed continually; and thus, we bear this worlds wrath and rejection for belonging to Him. We know that it is the Lord our God, the Lord Jesus Christ who is keeping us and preserving us from them, from Satan (the god of this world and age) who rules in the hearts of all unbelieving people and nations, whose hearts and minds he fills with all manner of hatred and evil suspicions about Him and us. And so, if it were not for the Lord our God being on our side (and thus keeping and preserving us) they would have swallowed us up. This Psalm then is a Biblical confession of that fact, that the Lord our God is our Everlasting Keeper!

Vs. 6-8 Therefore, we bless our Lord and Savior who has not given us as prey to their teeth (vs. 6), whether this is the nation of Israel itself, in all of its long history and troubles, (and yet through it all, it has survived), or us the N.T. saints, born of God’s Spirit, born-again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus we now bear that moniker. We bless the name of the Lord, just as the world curses it. For time and again we have escaped all their snares and traps by which they have laid before us and sought to destroy us and our faith (vs. 7). For even when persecution of Jews and Christians awakes and arises in every generation, we still survive, and grow, and flourish, because our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Lets us all then celebrate that fact in our places of worship everywhere!

Scripture Quotations

New King James (1982): Thomas Nelson.