10/27/19

Tom Lowe

 

Psalm 124 (KJV): Our Help is in the Name of the Lord

 

  1. {A Song of degrees of David.} If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
  2. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:
  3. Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
  4. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
  5. Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
  6. Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
  7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
  8. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

 

Introduction:

This is the second of the “songs of the steps” with an author’s name attached to it. In this case the author’s name is David. There are a number of occasions in David’s hectic life when he could have written this psalm. He could have written it when he went alone into the valley to face Goliath, or when Saul eyed him with a sullen hate at court, or when time and again he and his men escaped by a seeming hairbreadth from Saul’s executioners, or when Absalom rebelled and the fate of the nation hung poised in the balance, or during some of his wars with Syria and Edom. There is no reason why David could not be the author of this psalm.

However, granted its Davidic authorship in the original, Hezekiah seems to have adopted it. The situation in his day seems to be so perilous, so analogous to some of David’s experiences that he seems to have picked up this psalm and incorporated it in this series of songs that revolve around the Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah could not find better words to express the way he and his people felt as they saw the last of that dreaded foe.

One of the supreme values of the Word of God is that it puts into words for us those deep feelings of our hearts we would have trouble expressing in any other way. This is an ideal psalm to sing after some personal or national deliverance. It is a psalm of deep emotion. Notice its repetitions: if, if, then, then, then, against us, against us, our soul, our soul, our soul.

 

Commentary: Psalms 124:1-8 (KJV)

 1) {A Song of degrees of David.} 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,’ now may Israel say; ‘If it had not been the LORD who was on our side,’” (124:1-2a). This fact is so real that the psalmist appears to be rambling. He falters in his speech and repeats himself. Here we notice the italics which indicate that missing words in the original have been supplied by the translator.

There is something striking, a kind of rugged grandeur about this kind of writing. It is packed with emotion because it is written from the heart; writing too hot, too fervent to be bothered about ideal sentence structure and grammar.

There were those who would have loved to have Egypt on their side. There had been many warrior pharaohs in the past and they had extended the land under Egyptian control to the cataracts of the Nile and to the banks of the Euphrates. Those were Egypt’s glory days, which were now in the past. Egypt had become weak and divided. Ethiopians had seized the kingdom and their main concern was to conceal the weakness of Egypt from the Assyrians.

There were those who thought it would be good to have Babylon on their side. But Babylon was to be an even more terrible enemy for Judah than Assyria―and far more successful. Isaiah soundly rebuked Hezekiah for suggesting an alliance with Babylon. There was no use looking to Babylon. The only place to look was to the Lord.

After all, what hope did Assyria have of conquering Jerusalem when the Lord was on their side? None.    

 2) If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:

“Men rose up against us,” the psalmist says. He is referring to Sennacherib, the dreadful Assyrian warlord, a man having the fearsome expression of pride, ferocity, and power. Nonetheless, the Lord, the God who keeps faith with His own, was the key to all that had happened. “If it had not been the LORD,” declared the psalmist. What an “if” this is. One shudders to think what might have happened to us, without the delivering, preserving hand of our heavenly Father. If we are on the Lord’s side, and living upright lives, we will never need to doubt as to whether He is on our side. We may rest assured that God is on our side. Weigh these two in the balance, God and men, and how foolish do our fears appear (Ps. 56:11).

The King would paint a gloomy picture. The situation was desperate. What were walls however high, moats however deep, to the Assyrians. Ahead loomed months of siege, battle, flame and smoke, attacks and counterattacks. Hunger, famine, desperation would stalk the streets. People would die in battle, as well as starvation and disease. And then the inevitable would happen. The walls would be breached. The terrible Assyrian storm troops would be in the city raping, torturing, and killing.

Then came the messenger, breathless, wild-eyed. “My Lord, king! There is a strange stillness in the enemy camp. There have been no morning parades, the trumpeters are silent, and there are no campfires. All is silent and still. The Lord is on Jerusalem’s side. That made the difference. There was recognition of the Lord’s presence.  “Were it not for the Lord,” the psalmist, like Israel, would never have survived (Ps 94:17; Gen. 31).

The Assyrians did not know it but they had touched the apple of God’s eye. Before they were through they would pay for it dearly and to the full.          

Nonetheless, the fear of being devoured alive was very real in Jerusalem in those days. But God protected them from being devoured. He also protected them from starvation and disease and sickness. 

                  

 3) Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

“They had swallowed us up quick,” or rather, they had quickly “swallowed us up” and utterly destroyed us. The word “quick” is old English for alive. Without God on their side, when they went against the wrath of men, they would be swallowed alive like a monster would swallow its helpless victim.


  4) Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:

The psalmist changes the figure of speech. He now describes the Assyrian invasion as a flood. The flood is seen as steadily rising.  First water, then the raging torrent as it burst its banks carrying devastation with it, then the wild waters of the sea, the mighty ocean waves. Our enemies are compared to proud waters due to their great numbers, swelling rage, and the mighty power of their military.

That is what the Assyrian invasion was like. The enemy had come in like a flood, inundating city after city throughout the land. All that was left for the proud waves to conquer was Jerusalem, and the triumph would be complete. Between Jerusalem and disaster had been nothing but the thickness of a stone wall―and God.

The words “waters,” “stream,” and “proud waters” (5) picture the Red Sea crossing (Ex. 14) and/or the Jordan River crossing (Josh. 3)

 

  5) Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

Our enemies are compared to “proud waters” [wild waves] due to their great numbers, swelling rage, and mighty forces. Yet, as a matter of fact, the “proud waters” never have gone over us. They have threatened us again and again; but there has always been a “hitherto shalt thy come, but no further” (Job 38:11). God makes from soft sand, a strong barrier to the sea. His voice on high is greater than the voices of the waves (Job 38:8; Ps. 93:3, 4). Trust Him! As it has been, so shall it be. The safety of God’s people is due to the mercy of the Lord.

 

  6) Blessed bethe LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

“Blessed be the LORD” is a metaphor from wild beasts which tear and devour their prey with their teeth [prey for them to devour]. These outbursts of praise are so characteristic of the sweet psalmist (Ps.28:6; 31:21).              

 

  7) Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

In this modern era we are not familiar with snares used to capture birds and the term fowlers [A shooter or trapper of wild birds.].

Israel was already in the teeth of the monster and enmeshed in the net of the fowlers. With immense relief and gratitude the congregation exclaims “the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” The author has thus given a happy ending to the psalm.

I have marveled at the way in which the Evil One ensnares us. Quite unexpectedly he begins to weave the meshes of some net around the soul, and seems about to make it his captive. And then, suddenly, the strong and skillful hand of our heavenly Father appears upon the scene to help us, whereupon the snare falls into a tangled heap and the soul is set free.

 8) Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

The psalm ends with a creed of faith of a more general sort, yet rising out of the experience just described. This is frequently the case also with the psalms―"Our help is in the name of the LORD.” All the help of omnipotence is pledged on the side of the weakest of the saints. How wonderful is that?