Psalms

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PSALM 124^*

God, the Rescuer of the People

1A song of ascents. Of David.

Had not the LORD been with us,

let Israel say,^a

2Had not the LORD been with us,

when people rose against us,

3Then they would have swallowed us alive,^b

for their fury blazed against us.

4Then the waters would have engulfed us,

the torrent overwhelmed us;^c

5then seething water would have drowned us.

6Blessed is the LORD, who did not leave us

to be torn by their teeth.

7We escaped with our lives like a bird

from the fowler’s snare;

the snare was broken,

and we escaped.

8^*Our help is in the name of the LORD,

the maker of heaven and earth.^d

* [Psalm 124] A thanksgiving which teaches that Israel’s very existence is owed to God who rescues them. In the first part Israel’s enemies are compared to the mythic sea dragon (Ps 124:2b–3a; cf. Jer 51:34) and Flood (Ps 124:3b–5; cf. Is 51:9–10). The Psalm heightens the malice of human enemies by linking them to the primordial enemies of God’s creation. Israel is a bird freed from the trapper’s snare (Ps 124:6–8)—freed originally from Pharaoh and now from the current danger.

* [124:8] Our help is in the name: for the idiom, see Ex 18:4.

a. [124:1] Ps 129:1.

b. [124:3] Prv 1:12.

c. [124:4] Ps 18:5; 69:2.

d. [124:8] Ps 121:2; 146:6.