Psalms 124 · Scripture Insight Network

1If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say,💬

2if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, when men rose up against us;

3then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us;

4then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul;

5then the proud waters would have gone over our soul.

6Blessed be Yahweh, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.💬

7Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped.

8Our help is in Yahweh’s name, who made heaven and earth.

Commentary (3)

Introduction1

Psalms 124

Matthew HenryENDevotional

Reformed

David penned this psalm (we suppose) upon occasion of some great deliverance which God wrought for him and his people from some very threatening danger, which was likely to have involved them all in ruin, whether by foreign invasion, or intestine insurrection, is not certain; whatever it was he seems to have been himself much affected, and very desirous to affect others, with the goodness of God, in making a way for them to escape. To him he is careful to give all the glory, and takes none to himself as conquerors usually do. I. He here magnifies the greatness of the danger they were in, and of the ruin they were at the brink of (Psa 124:1-5). II. He gives God the glory of their escape (Psa 124:6, Psa 124:7 compared with Psa 124:1, Psa 124:2). III. He takes encouragement thence to trust in God (Psa 124:8). In singing this psalm, besides the application of it to any particular deliverance wrought for us and our people, in our days and the days of our fathers, we may have in our thoughts the great work of our redemption by Jesus Christ, by which we were rescued from the powers of darkness. A song of degrees of David.

Verse 11

Psalms 124:1

Matthew HenryENDevotional

Reformed

The people of God, being here called upon to praise God for their deliverance, are to take notice, I. Of the malice of men, by which they were reduced to the very brink of ruin. Let Israel say that there was but a step between them and death: the more desperate the disease appears to have been the more does the skill of the Physician appear in the cure. Observe, 1. Whence the threatening danger came: Men rose up against us, creatures of our own kind, and y…

Verse 61

Psalms 124:6

Matthew HenryENDevotional

Reformed

Here the psalmist further magnifies the great deliverance God had lately wrought for them. I. That their hearts might be the more enlarged in thankfulness to him (Psa 124:6): Blessed be the Lord. God is the author of all our deliverances, and therefore he must have the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not return thanks to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him because we had such a narrow escape. We were delivered, 1. Like a lamb out o…