Psalm 124

1 If it had not been that the Lord was among us, let Israel now say;

2 if it had not been that the Lord was among us, when men rose up against us;

3 verily they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us:

4 verily the water would have drowned us, our soul would have gone under the torrent.

5 Yea, our soul would have gone under the overwhelming water.

6 Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us for a prey to their teeth.

7 Our soul has been delivered as a sparrow from the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are delivered.

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

Psalm 124 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 124

\\<>\\. Some think this psalm was written by David, after the conquest of the Philistines and Ammonites, and other nations that rose up against him and Israel, like the proud waves of the sea, and spread themselves like a flood; and whose destruction was like the breach of many waters, 2Sa 5:18,20, 10:19. Others, after his deliverance from the persecution of Saul, or from the conspiracy of Absalom. Theodoret is of opinion that David wrote this by a prophetic spirit, concerning the enemies of the Jews, upon their return to their own land, from the Babylonish captivity; who envied them, and rose up against them, but the Lord delivered them. And others apply it to the times of Antiochus, when the Jewish church and state were threatened with ruin; but the Lord appeared for them, in raising up the Maccabees. Kimchi interprets it of the Jews in captivity; and drama of the deliverance of the children of Israel at the Red sea. It may be applied to any time of distress the church and people of God have been in, and he has wrought salvation for them.