‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,’ Let Israel now say— ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, When men rose up against us, Then they would have swallowed us alive, When their wrath was kindled against us; Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul; Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul.’ Blessed be the Lord, Who has not given us as prey to their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; The snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
This short Psalm is a Psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord, who delivered the people of Israel from certain death. I don’t know if this was originally written about a specific victory. Psalm 124 is one of the Psalms of Ascent, which were sung each year as the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem for Passover. This song reminded each generation to remember God as their deliverer from many instances of oppression.
A quick reading of this Psalm sounds as though trusting in the Lord is some kind of force field against the troubles of life. This isn’t a shortcut to a life of health and wealth. The history of the Jewish people shows us that they faced conflicts and enslavement for generations. The history shows us that this Psalm isn’t a pat answer, but rather a deep commitment to giving praise to God. They are recognizing that their fate, as bad as it was, could have been worse. This Psalm portrays their arrival at a radical acceptance and gratitude, which certainly wouldn’t have been an easy journey.
What about us?
So, how does this apply to us today? Do we just declare God as “on our side” against our political adversaries? What if there are people who follow God on both sides of the political conflict? There usually are.
God isn’t a part of your political party. We don’t summon God to join us, God calls us to join in with what God is doing. The people who wrote this Psalm had been oppressed and were eventually delivered. As I wrote about in Defender of the Poor, God comes to the aid of the oppressed. Not as a force field, but as one who was also oppressed. God meets you in the suffering, comforts you there, strengthens you, and sometimes brings physical deliverance.
The difficult part about this Psalm is the determination to see God’s love in the middle of oppression, and to be thankful even if everything is stacked against you. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Luke records part of the visit between Mary and Elizabeth including Mary’s song. There are many themes in this text. Here I’m looking at the extraordinary experience they share in their pregnancy. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud…
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart…
Jesus delivers “blessings and woes” to the rich and the poor in Luke 6:20-26. The woes are for the rich. Jesus didn’t give a nod to the rich people who were merely hard workers or well-meaning. He didn’t take the time to differentiate between those who were abusing their privileges or not. Jesus delivers blessings to…
If there’s one word that describes the Christian church the least, it would be the noun “unity.” This unfortunate reality seems to stretch all the way back to the earliest iteration of the Christian church. This lack of unity is the basis for Paul’s well-known metaphor, that the church is like a body. He creates…
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
