Psalms 124: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

A short song of thanks for national rescue. Israel is called to say out loud that if the LORD had not been on their side when people attacked, they would have been swallowed alive and swept away like a flood. Instead they escaped like a bird slipping out of a broken trap, and the psalm ends by naming the LORD, the Maker of the heavens and the earth, as their help.

Claim by Claim

1. 124:1
   • This psalm is a song of ascents.
   • This psalm is attributed to David.
   • The condition is stated: if the LORD had not been on our side.
   • Israel is called on to say this now.
2. 124:2
   • The condition is repeated: if the LORD had not been on our side.
   • Men rose up against us.
3. 124:3
   • Then they would have swallowed us up alive.
   • Their anger was kindled against us.
4. 124:4
   • Then the waters would have swept over us.
   • The torrent would have gone over our soul.
5. 124:5
   • Then the raging waters would have gone over our soul.
6. 124:6
   • Blessed be the LORD.
   • The LORD has not given us as prey to their teeth.
7. 124:7
   • Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the trap of the fowlers.
   • The trap is broken.
   • We have escaped.
8. 124:8
   • Our help is in the name of the LORD.
   • The LORD made heaven and earth.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

124:1

"LORD" in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters (YHWH) that Jewish readers did not pronounce aloud; where the text says "Lord" in ordinary letters, a different word meaning "master" is being used. "Israel" here means the nation as a whole, speaking as one voice, the line invites the assembled congregation to repeat the words that follow, so the psalm was probably sung antiphonally, a leader calling and the people answering.

124:2

"On our side" means God was helping them, like a friend who stands with you.

124:3

"Swallowed us alive" is a single vivid Hebrew image with two everyday sources: a beast gulping down prey whole, and the ground opening to take people down still living. The point is not being killed first and consumed after, but disappearing entirely and at once.

124:4

The King James "the stream had gone over our soul" uses "soul" for the Hebrew *nephesh*, which means a person's life or self, sometimes the throat or neck, not an immaterial part separate from the body. "Gone over our soul" is closer to "risen over our neck," i.e. in over our heads. The flood picture was concrete for the first hearers: watercourses in that country lie dry most of the year and fill without warning after rain, sweeping away anything in the channel.

124:5

"The proud waters" does not mean arrogant. In 1611 "proud" could describe water that is swollen, surging and high, a raging torrent, not a haughty one.

124:6

"Blessed be the LORD" does not mean the speaker confers a benefit on God. When people bless God the word means to praise or thank him; when God blesses people it means he gives them good. The same Hebrew verb runs both directions.

124:7

A fowler trapped birds for food and for sale, using a net staked flat on the ground and sprung shut, or a snare of cord. The bird has no way out on its own: the escape in this verse happens because the net itself tears, not because the bird is strong.

124:8

"In the name of the LORD" is a Hebrew way of saying "in the LORD himself", a person's name stood for their identity, character and authority, so calling on the name is calling on the one who bears it, not using a formula of words.