Psalm 124:7

Psalm 124 is one of the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120–134), a collection of fifteen psalms, each headed Shir Hama’alot in Hebrew, which pilgrims likely sang as they went up to Jerusalem for the yearly feasts. They speak of pilgrimage, of a people who share their troubles, and of dependence on God. Psalm 124 is a song of thanksgiving for the whole community. It comes right after Psalm 123, a humble plea for mercy, so the waiting of one psalm turns into the glad report of the next, and it is followed by Psalm 125, which speaks of the security of those who trust in the LORD.

The psalm opens, “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say” (Psalm 124:1–2), and goes on to say what would have followed. The enemies “had swallowed us up quick” (Psalm 124:3), and the waters “had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul” (Psalm 124:4). With verse 6 the people stop imagining the disaster and start blessing the God who prevented it. The destruction they pictured never came, because the LORD was with them and acted for them.

The event behind the psalm goes unnamed, and that lets it fit many moments in Israel’s history. A small nation surrounded by larger and hostile powers, Israel faced threats to its very existence again and again, from Egypt in the days of the Exodus, through the times of the judges and the kings, to the years after the exile, when the returning people rebuilt Jerusalem among unfriendly neighbours. Each time, they knew their survival as the LORD’s own doing, and that memory ran deep in the nation. The pilgrim roads to Jerusalem were often dangerous too, so the journey itself was an act of trust in God’s keeping.

“Blessed” is bârak, from a root meaning to kneel. When people bless God, they adore and praise him and acknowledge him as the source of every blessing. Here the word declares that the LORD deserves praise for this rescue. It comes at once and from the heart, before the escape is even described, and it gives the credit to him alone, apart from any strength, wisdom or cleverness of their own.

“Prey” is ṭereph, something torn, the food a wild beast tears. “Teeth” is shên, the ordinary word for a tooth. Together they picture the enemy as a beast whose jaws are closing on its victim to rip it apart. In ancient war a defeated people could be slaughtered, enslaved or wiped out, and the psalm says their enemies meant to devour Israel completely. The danger was annihilation, far worse than defeat.

The words “hath not given us” (literally, has not given us over) show that the outcome was in the LORD’s hands. The enemies had teeth, and he decided whether his people would be given to them. That is his rule over all things, even over the plans of those who wish his people harm, for “The LORD reigneth” (Psalm 93:1). It is also his loyalty to the covenant he made with Israel. Paul asks the question this verse answers: “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). David says the same: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19).

Fowling was a common way to catch birds in Israel, with hidden nets, traps and lures, mostly for food. A bird caught in one is taken by surprise, cornered and helpless, and it can do nothing to free itself. Its life depends on a power outside it. The fowlers in this verse are cunning, ruthless enemies who planned the ruin of God’s people.

“Snare” is pach, a word for a thin sheet of metal and also for a spring net or trap. Scripture often uses it for the hidden plots that enemies lay for the righteous, as in the promise “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler” (Psalm 91:3). Isaiah describes a people “robbed and spoiled”, “all of them snared in holes” (Isaiah 42:22). Proverbs uses the picture for moral danger, describing the young man who follows the adulteress “as a bird hasteth to the snare” (Proverbs 7:23), and Paul writes of people who “recover themselves out of the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:26).

“Our soul” is nephesh, which means a breathing creature, life, soul, self or person. Here it is the whole life of the community, and of each person in it. Their very existence was at risk, and it has been kept.

“Escaped” is mâlaṭ, which Strong’s traces to a root meaning to be smooth, so to slip away as if by slipperiness, and which in its causative form means to let escape, deliver or rescue. The verb comes twice, at the start of the verse and again in “and we are escaped”, and the repetition makes the freedom sure and complete. The bird is the one who escapes, and the psalm has already said whose doing it was: the LORD refused to give his people to the teeth, and verse 8 names him as their help.

Verse 8 gathers the whole psalm into one confession. “Help” is ʻêzer, aid, from a root meaning to aid. In this psalm the help is the rescue just described, given when the people could do nothing for themselves. They place their help in the LORD entirely, apart from their own strength, armies, alliances or ingenuity.

“Name” is shêm. In Scripture a name stands for the person who bears it: their character, reputation, authority and presence. To find help in the name of the LORD is to rely on who God is, as he has made himself known, with his faithfulness, holiness, power and promises. Solomon writes, “The name of the LORD is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe” (Proverbs 18:10), and another psalm calls God “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

“LORD” in capitals stands for Yᵉhôvâh, God’s personal covenant name, made known to Moses at the burning bush, where God said, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). The name speaks of God who exists of himself, who is eternal, and who keeps faith with his people. So Israel’s help rests on the unchanging God who bound himself to them in a gracious covenant.

The New Testament shows the fullest rescue in Jesus Christ. Sin, death and the devil are the deadliest teeth and the strongest snare, and apart from Christ we are their prey. Jesus, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), met them at the cross and rose again. He spoiled the principalities and powers and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). Through his death he set free those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Hebrews 2:14–15). The devil still walks about like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), yet Christ says of his sheep, “they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand” (John 10:28), and in all these things “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (Romans 8:37).

His resurrection declares that the snare is broken and we are escaped. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). Those who are in Christ are free from condemnation (Romans 8:1–2), and God has delivered them from the power of darkness into the kingdom of his Son (Colossians 1:13–14).

Verse 8 points to him as well. The name Jesus (Yeshua) means “the LORD saves”, and the angel gave it because “he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The Son is also the Maker of heaven and earth: “All things were made by him” (John 1:3), and “by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible” (Colossians 1:16). So the help the psalm finds in the Creator’s name is found in Jesus, for “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). In his name we may “come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

These verses teach us to look back and give thanks. Israel remembered the teeth and the snare so that they could bless the LORD for keeping them from both, and you can do the same with the dangers God has carried you through, the ones you saw and the ones hidden from you. Remembering what he has done gives you good ground for trusting him with what lies ahead, because the God who kept his people from the teeth then is the same God now. When a new trouble comes, the psalm’s last line is ready to be said: “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” Every trouble is smaller than the one who made heaven and earth, and he is the one we call on.