Had It Not Been for the Lord
Do you ever pause and think, where would I be without God? The Psalmist David wonders about this in Psalm 124, the fifth Song of Ascent.
Psalm 123-125
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Do you ever pause and think, where would I be without God?
The Psalmist David wonders about this in Psalm 124, the fifth Song of Ascent. It “contains words of trust and praise sung by pilgrim worshippers who have entered the city gates of Jerusalem for a festal celebration—Passover, the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles.”[1] Verses 1-5 say,
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 then they would have swallowed us alive
in their burning anger against us.
4 Then the water would have engulfed us;
the torrent would have swept over us;
5 the raging water would have swept over us.
It’s a communal song intended as a collective act of worship. “The psalmist likely reflects back on the exodus from Egypt, where God saved his people from the waters of the Red Sea (vv. 3–5), and he sees in this a basis for continued trust in this same saving and merciful God. As their past help has been from the Lord, so their present and future hope is in this true God.”[2]
