The Song of the Lord’s servant for deliverance vouchsafed at every step of the way 

In 1582, the Rev. J. Durie was released from his prison in Scotland, and two hundred friends met him. They grew to two thousand, and they marched down Edinburgh High Street singing this psalm in four parts. Also, v. 8 was always used to open French Protestant worship. This is a song of miraculous deliverance. The Psalmist cites three analogies to describe this rescue. There are the overwhelming water, the teeth of the enemy, and the trap of the hunter. Whether this tells of the deliverance of God’s people through the Red Sea from the Egyptians, is undecided, but it is certainly a song to be sung when salvation occurs at any time for His people. There is the positive confession, that unless God had acted then all would have been lost, for He, and He only is our help. Retrospective realisation should engender this joyful admission.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: –

Psalm 124 (I)

¹Had not the LORD been on our side,
May Israel now say;
²Had not the LORD been on our side,
When men rose us to slay;

³They had us swallow’d quick, when as
Their wrath ‘gainst us did flame:
⁴Waters had cover’d us, our soul
Had sunk beneath the stream.

⁵Then had the waters, swelling high,
Over our soul made way.
⁶Bless’d be the LORD, who to their teeth
Us gave not for a prey.

⁷Our soul’s escaped, as a bird
Out of the fowler’s snare;
The snare asunder broken is,
And we escaped are.

⁸Our sure and all-sufficient help
Is in JEHOVAH’s name;
His name who did the heav’n create,
And who the earth did frame.