Psalms 124:1-19. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick,
That is, alive,
Psalms 124:3. When their wrath was kindled against us:
If it had not been God who had engaged to take care of his people, they would all have perished, but that God must be Jehovah. I wish that our translators had not been carried away by the superstition of the Jews, and that they had used the word «Jehovah» where it is employed in the original. This verse and the previous one would have read, «If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up alive,» as some beasts, and birds, and fishes swallow their prey and as some men would do with us if they could, that is, swallow us up alive, making a short and speedy end of us, not waiting to tear us in pieces, but swallowing us whole and alive.
Psalms 124:4-19. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
The figure is varied. We are first likened to the lamb that is liable to be swallowed by the lion, and next we are compared to one who is in danger of being carried away by a devouring flood, which shows no pity to any, but sweeps everything before it down to destruction.
Psalms 124:6. Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
Neither to Satan and his legions, nor to wicked men, has God delivered us. We are not to be their prey, for God claims us as his own.
Psalms 124:7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
What a joyous song that is for the escaped soul to sing! Whenever a Christian man has fallen into difficulties through not walking uprightly when he has gone astray from the right path, and has been caught in the fowler's net, and is in such trouble that he does not know what to do, when God comes, and cuts the net, perhaps with the sharp knife of affliction, and the imprisoned soul again finds freedom from worldly associations, and happy liberty in the service of God, I do not know a sweeter song than this that he and others of God's rescued birds can sing as they mount up into the clear light of God's countenance, «Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.»
Psalms 124:8. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
This is a good lesson for us to learn from the past experience of the Lord's people. God and God alone did deliver his servants in the past and herein is our confidence for the present and the future; our help is in the name the revealed and manifested character of Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth.
This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 123, 124, and 125.