Word Live: God Takes Our Side
If disaster strikes, whom do you ask for practical help? And how?
Bible passage
Psalm 124
A song of ascents. Of David.
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.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Israel was never a big country. Mostly, through Old and New Testament times, God’s people saw themselves as vulnerable to – if not actually oppressed by – greater powers. They were like a fragile bird (v 7). Jews through the centuries must easily have identified with this image.
The same worldly weakness has not always been true of Christians. Of course, our faith has passed through times of persecution. It still does. For some believers today, this psalm may have urgent resonance. Meanwhile, many of us live in societies where the church has often joined hands with those in power and prospered in terms of status and material life. Has this been good for our faith? Is it as easy to grasp the centrality of faith when, individually, we have sound bank balances, insurance policies and governments that invest millions in our security?
It is thought that this psalm (as mentioned in an earlier series) may have been sung as God’s people processed up to the Temple. David, the psalmist, feels intense gratitude. He urges all the people to declare the need for God’s help in positive acts of thanksgiving. He knew that, if not supported by the Lord, his people would be overwhelmed.
Author
Mike Hawthorne
Respond
The clutter of our material wellbeing is temporary. It may be swept aside by the forces revealed in this psalm. Ask God to confirm this to your heart. Thank him that he will be on your side should it happen.
Deeper Bible study
… for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.’1
Some people are particularly prone to this, but I think all of us sometimes suffer from the ‘what if’ syndrome: we worry about what if this or that (and it can be pretty much anything) will happen. How will it affect us, or how will we cope if and when it does? It is sometimes a crushing feeling. David is as realistic as Isaiah about the circumstances we are all likely to face. It will be ‘when’ rather than ‘if’; people will attack us, floods will come, whether real or metaphorical. Humanly speaking, this is a prospect that is fearful: no wonder we worry. However, there is another big ‘if’ – or rather an ‘if not’ – that we need to consider. I still remember a series of short devotions given in college chapel many years ago when I was a student. They were entitled ‘Unfulfilled Conditions’ and one of them was based on this psalm.
If God were not going to be there for us, on or at our side, then if or when the worst does happen we will be swallowed alive, we will drown, we will give up (vs 3–5): our reaction, the spirit of fear will overtake us and we will be destroyed. However, ‘Praise be to the Lord’ (v 6), this condition is not fulfilled, because God is there for us, always. That is a promise! We will face difficulties, but with God’s help we will not be destroyed. Of course, Hebrews 11 reminds us that although sometimes people are delivered because of their faith, at other times they suffer terrible things and physically die, because of their faith. The bad things don’t always go away, but the power of fear and worry can be broken! As verse 8 says, ‘Our help is in the name of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.’
Take time this week to search through the Scriptures for other unfulfilled conditions and for places where the promise of God’s constant presence is reinforced.2
12 Tim 1:7, ESV 2 Eg Ps 23:6; Matt 28:20
Author
Mary Evans
