Psalms 124

Psalms 124:1

Psalm 124: The AllImportant “If"124:1 “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side . . .“Everything depended on that if. It spelled the difference between deliverance and disaster. But the Lord was there, and that made all the difference. Probably no people have had as many narrow escapes as the Jews. According to all natural laws, they should have been extinct long ago. When you think of the sieges, the massacres, the pogroms, the gas chambers, the ovens, the bombs, it is a miracle they have survived. But survive they didand that for one compelling reasonthe LORD was on their side. Unfortunately the nation has not always been willing to acknowledge that fact. Too often they have chalked up their victories to their own cleverness and power. But there have always been those godly Jews who realized that apart from the Lord, they would have been exterminated. 124:2-5 The psalmist thinks of times when enemies rose up against Israel in overwhelming numbers and with superior armaments. Food supplies dwindled to precarious levels. Medical supplies were gone. Communications were cut off. Necessities had to be improvised out of whatever was available. They were completely surrounded. Their enemies were threatening to drive them into the sea. The outlook was grim. 124:6, 7 Like ferocious beasts, the foe was about to swallow them alive. Or to change the figure, they were about to be engulfed in a great tidal wave of Gentile military might. But then the unexpected happened. The LORD caused the enemy to quarrel among themselves over strategy. Or to get faulty intelligence reports concerning the Jews. Or to panic over the death of a leader. Or to agree to a cease-fire when victory was in their clutch. On the other hand, the Lord may have led the Jews to unexpected food reserves. Or to hidden caches of weapons. Or He may have brought outside help from the most unlikely source. In either case, the converging of circumstances was so marvelous that it could only be brought about by the hand of God. Those who have spiritual intelligence give all the glory to the Lord for their mysterious, miraculous deliverance. The carnivorous Gentile beasts have not succeeded in devouring little Israel. God’s people have escaped from the trap that was set for them by Gentile summitry. The snare has been broken, the ring of steel surrounding the Jews has been snapped, and once again they have escaped. 124:8 Their humble and grateful confession is this: Our help is in the name of the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.However, Israel has no monopoly on the God of miracles. The church can appropriate the words of this Psalm in celebrating God’s nick-of-time deliverances. And individual believers know that if the Lord had not been on their side, they would have been completely subdued by the world, the flesh and the devil.