This psalm never describes exactly what the danger was — no named enemy, no specific battle. It simply insists, four times over in different images, that whatever it was would have been fatal without one particular fact holding true.
A study in Psalm 124 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 9 min read
If It Had Not Been The LORD
“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us.”
Psalm 124:1-3
“Now may Israel say” frames this as something meant to actually be spoken aloud, a specific national testimony rather than a private thought — the whole psalm reads almost like a rehearsed public confession.
The Proud Waters Had Gone Over Our Soul
“Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul.”
Psalm 124:4-5
“Proud waters” is an unusual pairing, water given the specific character of arrogance — danger described not merely as overwhelming in scale, but as though it actively wanted to overwhelm, confident of its own success.
“Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.”
Psalm 124:6
The imagery shifts abruptly here, from drowning to being hunted — two entirely different kinds of danger, water and predator, both equally covered by the same single fact already stated in verse 1.
Escaped As A Bird Out Of The Snare
“Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.”
Psalm 124:7
“The snare is broken” matters more than simply saying the bird flew away — the actual mechanism of the trap is described as destroyed, not merely evaded this one time, unable to catch anything else afterward either.
“Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 124:8
The psalm’s final line supplies the actual reason drowning, hunting, and snaring could all be survived by the same single deliverance — the one who made heaven and earth in the first place has no real trouble outmatching any danger found within either.
