If it had not been the Lord who was on our side.
God in the troubles of the good
I. Acknowledged as the Deliverer from great troubles (Psalms 124:1-5).
1. The words represent the great troubles from which the Almighty wrought deliverance, as springing out of the hostility of man.
2. The hostility of man is represented by two figures--
(1) As the rage of wild beasts (verse 3).
(2) As the rage of rushing waters (verses 4, 5).
II. Praised as the Deliverer from great troubles (verses 6, 7).
1. Temporal. Israel in Babylonian exile.
2. Spiritual. Without figure, the unregenerate soul is in thraldom, and the Gospel alone can deliver it.
III. Trusted as the Deliverer from great troubles (verse 8). This trust is founded--
1. On His past goodness.
2. On His glorious name.
3. On His unbounded resources. (Homilist.)
The Church in various aspects
I. The Church rightly estimating her danger (verses 3-5, 7).
II. The Church rightly recognizing her Deliverer (verses 1, 2, 8).
III. The Church rightly expressing her gratitude (verse 6). This psalm abounds with striking figures, which, intelligently explained, may be forcefully applied. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Ifs and thens
To this writer the nation’s life had been full of “ifs” and “thens”--its saddening possibilities with their dreary consequences. If we had stood alone, if God had not been round about us, if unerring wisdom had not thought for us and worked for us when the calamity threatened,--then had we been as the bird in the snare of the fowler, then had we been overwhelmed! Ifs and thens,--possibilities and their consequences.
I. Human possibilities may be under Divine control. Whenever God calls a life into existence, He fills it to the brim with “ifs” and “thens,” with possibilities and their consequences. Take the first recorded scene in human life, remembering that it is highly symbolic. “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the Garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it;” that was a life of far-reaching possibilities, which God made still clearer by laying down His “if” and “then”: if man obeyed, then all would be well; if he disobeyed, then all would be ill. God has treated every life since upon the same broad, universal Scale; and we need to bear in mind constantly, earnestly, that our life is arranged in the same fashion.
II. Divine deliverance follows Divine control. God has filled each life with its possibilities that there may ever be the supreme need for His guidance. God has not stereotyped life for us. Each sets up his life’s story from founts of movable type; it may be in this way, it may be in that, as we set the type. This makes life so magnificent, so awful. But when God is on our side, when we have chosen Him for our controller, when we set the type of life as He directs, then the printed page comes forth at last fair and clear upon imperishable parchment; and God shall read its record before assembled worlds, and pronounce it “well done,” for it will be His work done by us under His superintendence and by His strength. Let the life be under Divine control, and it must be crowned with Divine deliverance as surely as sunrising brings the light. (G. Davies.)
Why God’s people are afflicted
Why should believers need to be rescued from the teeth of the wild beast: why not prevent the wild beast from laying hold of them? Why should they need to be delivered from the snare of the fowler: why not prevent the snare from being set? Why should they need to be snatched from the swiftly rushing torrent, which is just about to overwhelm them: why not keep back the floods of waters, and bid their proud waves be still? Afflictions are sent by God.
I. To promote our spiritual improvement. The branches are pruned, and they bring forth more fruit: the flowers are crushed, and they yield their precious perfumes: the gem is cut deeper, and it sparkles with new lustre: the gold is thrown into the crucible, and, purified from the dross, it shines with greater splendour than ever. Once, in company with a clerical friend in a rural district, I paid a visit to a member of his church, whose affliction had been severe and protracted. He was a stone-mason. His sufferings had evidently been sanctified; and, some remarks being made in connection with this, he said, “I must have been a very hard stone, sir; for I have needed a great deal of hewing.”
II. To test our sincerity. Not on a review day can the brave man be distinguished from the coward. Amidst brilliant uniforms, and waving banners, and the sounds of martial music, and applauding spectators, you cannot discriminate the true man from the counterfeit. But the real character is known, when comes the tug of war, and the enemy is before you, and friends and companions are falling thick around you. So it is in the Christian warfare. Far more moral courage is demanded for a sick-bed than for a field of battle, where men are urged on to the work of mutual destruction. And who can tell what a hallowed influence may proceed from afflictions, when endured in an uncomplaining and cheerful spirit! (N. McMichael.)
The Lord on our side
1. The figures employed describe the situation of God’s people in any place or age, when they suddenly find themselves overtaken by calamity, when sorrow bursts upon them like the mountainous wave on a ship, when floods of ungodly men make them afraid, when they seem to feel in their flesh the teeth Of slander and malice, when they are unexpectedly entangled in perplexities and difficulties like the bird in the snare. So the early believers in the Messiah were troubled by Jewish and Roman persecutors, saints in many lands have been worried by Papal wolves, the evangelists of the last century were mobbed by worldly men, and the Christians in Madagascar and British India were more recently assailed by heathen foes. So the man of business is smitten by misfortune, disease springs upon its unsuspecting victim, and a family is diminished by death. So the convicted sinner is stricken by the terrors of God’s law, the convert has to fight against the world, the flesh and the devil, and the righteous soul is in heaviness through manifold temptations. All the cry is, what can be dons? How may we escape? Who will help us?
2. If Christians, we can profitably call to mind many escapes from evil.
3. It becomes us carefully to trace blessings to their source. The poet is less particular to describe the danger and the escape than to proclaim and praise the great Deliverer. We did not save ourselves. It was not the stamp of our foot that quieted the earthquake, not the sound of our voice that stilled the tempest, not the might of our arm that slew the lion, not the power of our hand that rent the network. It was lint any creature except as sent by God, armed with a portion of His strength, and for the sake of Jesus Christ, that in any degree accomplished our salvation. (E. J. Robinson.)