For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Psa 124

1 If the Lord had not been on our side –
    let Israel say –
2 if the Lord had not been on our side
    when people attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
    when their anger flared against us;
4 the flood would have engulfed us,
    the torrent would have swept over us,
5 the raging waters
    would have swept us away.

6 Praise be to the Lord,
    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird
    from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
    and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

A. Find Out

1. What possibility does the psalmist consider? v.1,2
2. What might have happened? v.3
3. How does he picture that? v.4,5
4. Why does he praise the Lord? v.6
5. How does he picture what happened? v.7
6. So what does he conclude? v.8

B. Think:

1. What ‘difficulty’ does this psalm speak of?
2. What was the potential of that?
3. Yet what happened.

C. Comment:

                Our continuing existence is sometimes a marvel, for in life on this world we have an enemy who either comes directly against us or sends others against us. In this psalm the pilgrim acknowledges the cause of their ongoing existence as a people – in the face of the enemies that come against them – is the Lord.

                The psalmist starts by recognising the wonder that the Lord was on their side (v.1,2a) and so when men have come and attacked them 9v.2b) the potential for disaster was immense. Men had attacked them (v.2b) – the testimony of the Old Testament is full of such times – and had allowed their anger (v.3a) against the people of God to rise up in war, and because Israel were such a small nation, the potential for just being swallowed up (v.3b) or swept away like a piece of debris by a flood (v.4,5), was immense.

                But the truth is that the Lord had saved them and so he praises the Lord (v.6) because the Lord has not allowed Israel to be torn apart (v.6) but when great armies came (implied) they escaped like a bird escaping from snares (v.7). This psalm recognises that that has happened because the Lord is their help (v.8) and the Lord is mighty and great, because He is the Creator, the make of all things and (implied) He is the one who has come to their aid time and time again.    

D. Application:

1. The children of God are in God’s hand.
2. In God’s hand is total security.