"if the Lord had not been on our side when people attacked us, they would have swallowed us alive when their anger flared against us...Praise be to the Lord, who has not let us be torn by their teeth. We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare; the snare has been broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth."

Psalm 124:2

The previous psalm, Psalm 123, is a prayer uttered in the midst of hostility and the contempt of the world. Psalm 124 praises God for deliverance from enemies and declares that help comes from the Lord (v. 8). The first five verses of Psalm 124 contain two ‘if’ clauses (vv. 1, 2) and three ‘then’ clauses (vv. 3–5), which spell out that ‘if’ God had not been on their side, ‘then’ disaster would have happened to them.

The attack of the angry and destructive enemy is compared to a raging torrent that would engulf God’s people (vv. 2b–5). The ‘flood,’ ‘torrent,’ and ‘raging waters’ in the Old Testament often refer to the forces opposed to God and his faithful people. We can imagine that God’s people are facing a horrendous threat from their enemies. The metaphor of a bird escaping from a trap (v. 7) indicates that they have survived the crisis up to this point, which elicits communal praise to God and evokes faith in God’s deliverance in the future.

To affirm that God is ‘on our side’ (vv. 1, 2) and that ‘our help’ comes from the name of the Lord (v.8) is to admit our incapability in securing our own life and future. Only by this fundamental recognition and humility shall we be driven to seek the ultimate source of power—‘the Maker of heaven and earth’ (v.8).

Closing Prayer

No matter what calamity I face, Lord God, help me to trust in your faithfulness and in your power to provide everything I need (edited from Encounter with God).