8/30/2023 0 Comments Psalm 124 sung responsively![]() ![]() When the Lord appears, the cruel throats cannot swallow, and the consuming fires cannot destroy. ![]() The cruel world would make a full end of the godly seed were it not that Jehovah bars the way. ![]() Sparks become flames, and the furnace is heated seven times hotter when God's elect are to be thrust into the blaze. Anger is never more fiery than when the people of God are its objects. Their wrath is like a fire which is kindled, and has taken such firm hold upon the fuel that there is no quenching it. The fury of the enemies of the church is raised to the highest pitch, nothing will content them but the total annihilation of God's chosen. "Then they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us." They were so eager for our destruction that they would have made only one morsel of us, and have swallowed us up alive and whole in a single instant. We set every other claimant on one side, and rejoice because the Lord was on our side. There is no doubt as to our deliverer, we cannot ascribe our salvation to any second cause, for it would not have been equal to the emergency nothing less than omnipotence and omniscience could have wrought our rescue. "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us." When all men combined, and the whole race of men seemed set upon stamping out the house of Israel, what must have happened if the covenant Lord had not interposed? When they stirred themselves, and combined to make an assault upon our quietude and safety, what should we have done in their rising if the Lord had not also risen? No one who could or would help was near, but the bare arm of the Lord sufficed to preserve his own against all the leagued hosts of adversaries. Are not all the materials of a song spread before us? Let us sing unto the Lord. Imagine what would have happened if the Lord had left us, and then see what has happened because he has been faithful to us. We are far too slow in declaring our gratitude, hence the exclamation which should be rendered, "O let Israel say." We murmur without being stirred up to it, but our thanksgiving needs a spur, and it is well when some warm-hearted friend bids us say what we feel. Let us with holy confidence exult in this joyful fact. The Lord was on our side, and Is still our defender, and will be so from henceforth, even for ever. Here are two "ifs," and yet there is no "if" in the matter. If Jehovah were not our protector where should we be? Nothing but his power and wisdom could have guarded us from the cunning and malice of our adversaries therefore, let all his people say so, and openly give him the honour of his preserving goodness. The glorious Lord became our ally he took our part, and entered into treaty with us. Had it not been Jehovah! He who was for us when men rose against us." "Had it not been Jehovah! He was for us, oh let Israel say! The many words in italics in our authorized version will show the reader that the translators did their best to patch up the passage, which, perhaps, had better have been left in its broken grandeur, and it would then have run thus:. By such a commencement attention was aroused as well as feeling expressed: and this is ever the way of poetic fire - to break forth in uncontrollable flame. "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say." The opening sentence is abrupt, and remains a fragment. The Treasury of David1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may Israel say:Ģ If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us:ģ Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:Ĥ Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:ĥ Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. ![]()
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