Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr Linda Stargel, Academic Dean and Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Biblical Language, for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Psalm 124
A pilgrimage song/song of ascents. Of David.
1If it had not been YHWH who was there for us,
let Israel say,
2if it had not been YHWH who was there for us,
when people rose up against us,
3then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us,
4then the water would have swept over us,
a torrent would have gone over us,
5then over us would have gone
the rising waters.
6 Blessed be YHWH,
who did not make us a prey to their teeth.
7 Our life (our soul) has escaped like a bird
out of the snare of the fowlers.
The snare broke,
and we, we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the Name of YHWH,
the creator of heaven and earth.
Devotional
What would have happened, if God had not been for us? Israel is encouraged to join in this refrain. What would have happened, if God had not been for us, when people came against us?
The “what ifs” were real threats—things that could have happened but never did.
The crisis had been real. The psalm’s images of a watery chaos surely reminded Israel of the time they stood on the midst of the Red Sea and the Egyptian army pursued them. Israel could have been swallowed up, swept away, when the waters rolled back. And the common images of devouring beasts and cunning hunters would have called to their mind many other crisis moments: When the Philistines came against David. When the Assyrian Empire came again King Hezekiah and all Judah. When they could have been completely destroyed.
The psalmist remembers the crisis from the vantage point of one who had been rescued. From this perspective, the psalmist can see that God had been present with Israel even before the assault began. And when Israel was caught in a trap, the psalmist recalls how God had set them free.
The psalmist persuades Israel to bless God’s name, and to confess that the Creator is also their Helper and Deliverer. As a result, the Psalm both begins and ends with testimonies of unshakeable faith in a God who is for them!
While the specific foes alluded to in Psalm 124 are never identified, this is not by accident.
The psalm is intended to be reused by God’s people over and over. Perhaps we are not looking back from the perspective of rescue but, instead, find ourselves today trapped in the midst of an assault. The psalm reminds us that God, by his nature, stands at the side of those who are distressed and powerless. God takes his stand on the side of the faithful before the assault begins. God is for us, even when others come against us! “The pilgrimage of our lives requires just such actions from God on our behalf” (Nancy Declaissé-Walford, Psalms NICOT, 931). God will not fail! This is our Psalm! Our song! We sing it and declare our trust as we labour on in our journey.
Prayer
You who created the heavens and the earth, You who were for us before they came against us, God, we praise you! You are our Help and our Deliverer!
Shalom,
Linda M. Stargel (Academic Dean, Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Biblical Language)