Bible Commentaries
Psalms 124

Verses 1-8

A song of degrees of David, setting forth the assistance and deliverance of Jehovah in the midst of great dangers.

v. 1. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, if it had not been for His merciful and almighty protection, now may Israel say, that is, all believers, as constituting together the spiritual Israel;

v. 2. if it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, as they will time and again in the interest of unbelief,

v. 3. then they had swallowed us up quick, gulping the believers down while they were still alive, when their wrath was kindled against us, flaming up in ferocious hatred;

v. 4. then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul, the result being a quick drowning;

v. 5. then the proud waters had gone over our soul, that is, the insolent enemies would have accomplished their destruction; for the situation was such as to place them beyond all human help; it was an extremity in which only the assistance of the Lord sustained them.

v. 6. Blessed be the Lord, to Him alone all praise and glory, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth, not permitting the enemies to carry out their evil designs.

v. 7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, by the merciful providence of the Lord, and we are escaped. Both figures, that of rapacious wild beasts eager to sing their teeth into their prey and that of fowlers placing their snares for unwary birds, show, on the one hand, the greatness of the danger, on the other, however, the miracle of God's deliverance. Therefore the psalmist concludes:

v. 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord, in reliance upon His glorious essence and all His attributes, as they are revealed and proclaimed in His Word, who made heaven and earth, for the almighty Sovereign of the universe is, at the same time, our merciful Father in Jesus, our Redeemer, whose deliverance and assistance we enjoy.