The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 124:1-8

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The believer's safeguard.

"If Jehovah had not been on our side," etc. The last psalm was the sigh of an exile in Babylon waiting upon God for deliverance. This psalm is the joyful acknowledgment that the deliverance has been accomplished. The next (125.) describes the safety of the exiles restored to their native land, and girt round by the protection of Jehovah.

I. GOD IS ON OUR SIDE WHEN HE SEEMS MOST AGAINST US. As he was on the side of the Israelites both in delivering them over to the Captivity and in breaking their bonds. Punishment and pardon have the same end in view—the redemption of the sinner.

II. GOD IS ON OUR SIDE WHEN MEN ARE MOST AGAINST US. When the angry and destructive passions of men most threaten to overwhelm us (Psalms 124:2-5). He takes our side always inwardly, if not always outwardly. God is always on the side of the weakest, to help them to become strong.

III. GOD HELPS US TO ESCAPE FROM THE SUBTLEST SNARES WHICH CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE WOVEN AROUND us—if we are the victims and not the constructors of those snares. God will have no deceit in saint or sinner.

IV. BUT THOUGH GOD IS THE CREATOR OF ALL THINGS, HE IS THE HELP, AND NOT THE SUBSTITUTE, OF MEN. (Psalms 124:8.) The psalmists and prophets saw the Divine side of the moral work done in the world, but saw the human side also.—S.

Psalms 123

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Psalms 125

Psalms 124 - psalms-124 - worlddic.com

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