Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 124:1 - 124:8

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Spurgeon Verse Expositions - Psalms 124:1 - 124:8


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Psa_124:1. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;

There is a break here, the sentence is not finished, so finish it for yourselves. If the Lord had not been on your side, what then? You would have been condemned on account of sin. If the Lord had not been on your side as the Redeemer, you would have been left to perish through the natural depravity of your own heart. If he who is “mighty to save” had not been your Helper, just think, Christians, you who are today filled with joy, whose feet are treading Mount Tabor, think what you would have been if the Lord had not been on your side, and then praise and magnify that grace to which you owe so much.

Psa_124:2-3. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:

The word “quick” here means “living.” Before we were dead, they would have swallowed us up, for the anger of men against God’s people is always exceedingly great. They called the Master of the house “Beelzebub”, so they are not likely to be very warmly affected towards his disciples. Suppose that we had been given up to the devices of wicked men, where should we have been? My brethren, a man may live so circumspectly that, outwardly, he may be without fault; yet he may wake up, come morning, and find his character blasted, and it may remain so for years, for the tongue of slander is full of all manner of villainy; and, often, the more pure the alabaster of a man’s character may be, the more black are the filthy spots which the world makes upon it. Be not too much cast down, O ye children of the living God, when ye are dishonoured among men, for so was it with the Lord God himself, who was slandered in the garden of Eden! Expect not, therefore, that you will escape the serpent’s venom.

Psa_124:4-5. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

Here, in this life, we may have troubles, not only from our own evil hearts, but also from Satan and from the world. Truly, if it had not been for the Lord, the proud waters had gone right over our souls. It is a wonder that we are alive, brethren; we can sing with Watts, —

Our life contains a thousand strings,

And dies if one be gone

Strange that a harp of thousand strings

Should keep in tune so long!”

But it is a ten thousand times greater miracle that we are spiritually alive when there are so many in this world seeking to destroy us. This is a marvel of marvels; and the whole world itself contains no greater wonders than are to be found in that one little world of Mansoul.

Psa_124:6. Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

We were almost in their teeth, like David’s lamb; but David’s Son plucked us out of the jaws of the lion, and out of the paws of the bear. Now the psalmist uses another figure. First he spoke of the proud waters, then of the wild beasts, and now he mentions the fowlers.

Psa_124:7-8. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth. What a blessed conclusion is it to our experience when we can sing of what the Lord has done, and so are encouraged by the all of what he will yet do! Let us write this text upon our banners, and lift them up in the face of every adversary, “Our help is in the name of the Lord.” As John Wesley said, “The best of all is, God is with us,” that is the best of all to the Christian, so good an “all” that he is blessed with that even if he hath nothing besides.

This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 123, 124, 125.



Psa_124:1-3. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, —

That is, alive, —

Psa_124:3. When their wrath was kindled against us:

If it had not been God who had engaged to take care of his people, they would all have perished, but that God must be Jehovah. I wish that our translators had not been carried away by the superstition of the Jews, and that they had used the word “Jehovah” where it is employed in the original. This verse and the previous one would have read, “If it had not been Jehovah who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up alive,” as some beasts, and birds, and fishes swallow their prey and as some men would do with us if they could, that is, swallow us up alive, making a short and speedy end of us, not waiting to tear us in pieces, but swallowing us whole and alive.

Psa_124:4-5. Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

The figure is varied. We are first likened to the lamb that is liable to be swallowed by the lion, and next we are compared to one who is in danger of being carried away by a devouring flood, which shows no pity to any, but sweeps everything before it down to destruction.

Psa_124:6. Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.

Neither to Satan and his legions, nor to wicked men, has God delivered us. We are not to be their prey, for God claims us as his own.

Psa_124:7. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.

What a joyous song that is for the escaped soul to sing! Whenever a Christian man has fallen into difficulties through not walking uprightly when he has gone astray from the right path, and has been caught in the fowler’s net, and is in such trouble that he does not know what to do, —when God comes, and cuts the net, perhaps with the sharp knife of affliction, and the imprisoned soul again finds freedom from worldly associations, and happy liberty in the service of God, I do not know a sweeter song than this that he and others of God’s rescued birds can sing as they mount up into the clear light of God’s countenance, “Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.”

Psa_124:8. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

This is a good lesson for us to learn from the past experience of the Lord’s people. God and God alone did deliver his servants in the past and herein is our confidence for the present and the future; — our help is in the name —the revealed and manifested character — of Jehovah, the Creator of heaven and earth.

This exposition consisted of readings from PSALMS 123, 124, and 125.