Psalms 124:2

If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: IF (IT HAD NOT BEEN) THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE. The repetition (cf. ) marks that the Lord's interposition had been more than once. WHEN MEN ROSE UP AGAINST US. However many and powerful be men, the believer, who has the Lord on his side, need not fear what man (a creature of earth) can do unto him ()....

2._But for Jehovah who was on our side. _It is not without cause that he twice repeats the same sentence. So long as we are in danger our fear is immoderate; but no sooner are we delivered than we lessen the greatness of our calamity, and Satan, deceiving us by this artifice, leads us to obscure the grace of God. Since then, after having been wonderfully preserved by the Lord, we for the most part devise all sorts of imaginary circumstances, in order to efface from our minds the remembrance of his grace, David, by introducing the people as struck with amazement, purposely dwells upon the amplification of the danger. In these words a bridle is put upon us, to keep us meditating upon our dangers, lest the sense of God’s grace should vanish from our minds. The common translation, _Had not the Lord been on our side, _does not sufficiently express David’s meaning; for he affirms that the deli...

1-5 God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his power may be seen the more in their deliverance. Happy the people whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Besides applying this to any particular deliverance wrought in our days and the ancient times, we should have in our thoughts the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ, by which believers were rescued from Satan....

IF IT HAD NOT BEEN THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE - Repeating the idea, since the mind was full of it, and carrying the thought forward. This is one of the instances of an ascent of thought in these psalms, from which it has been supposed that the title “Songs of Degrees” was given to this collection. See, however, Introduction to Psalms 120:1. WHEN MEN ROSE UP AGAINST US - When we were assailed by our enemies. On what occasion this occurred, it is now impossible to determine....

EXPOSITION "A FRESH, bright lyric" (Cheyne), composed of two stanzas—the first part (Psalms 124:1) recounting a danger and a deliverance; the second (Psalms 124:6), praising God for the latter. This is another of the psalms in this "Little Psalter," ascribed by its title to David. There is nothing in the style, or in the contents, that is inconsistent with the ascription. PSALMS 124:1 IF IT HAD NOT BEEN THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE, NOW MAY ISRAEL SAY; rather, _now let Israel say _(Kay, Cheyne, Revised Version). PSALMS 124:2

IF [IT HAD NOT BEEN] THE LORD WHO WAS ON OUR SIDE,.... This he repeats both for the confirmation of it, and to excite the attention of the Israelites to it; as well as to observe that it was not once only, but again and again, many times the Lord appeared to be on their side. The Targum renders it, "the Word of the Lord;'' the essential Word, the Son of God; and so in Psalms 123:1, in the king's Bible; WHEN MEN ROSE UP AGAINST US; wicked men; though no hard epithet is given in the text, however just. The enemies of God's people are only called "men" by them, to show their meekness and patience; it is in the singular number, "when man rose up"; hence Aroma interprets it of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and R. Obadiah of Haman: but it might be better interpreted of the man of sin, the man of the earth; who, at the head of his antichristian party, has rose

Psalms 124:1. _If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;_ There is a break here, the sentence is not finished, so finish it for yourselves. If the Lord had not been on your side, what then? You would have been condemned on account of sin. If the Lord had not been on your side as the Redeemer, you would have been left to perish through the natural depravity of your own heart. If he who is «mighty to save» had not been your Helper, just think, Christians, you who are today filled with joy, whose feet are treading Mount Tabor, think what you would have been if the Lord had not been on your side, and then praise and magnify that grace to which you owe so much. Psalms 124:2. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then

PSALM 120-134 The Psalms of Degrees Fifteen brief Psalms follow, called songs of degrees, or, ascents. They were in all probability used by Israel going up to Jerusalem three times a year to celebrate the feasts of the Lord--”Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, a testimony for Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the LORD.” They are indeed Psalms of “the goings-up” for we rise higher and higher as we read through them. Prophetically they give us again the steps from trial and suffering to the glorious consummation. As they are so simple in language and construction no lengthy annotations are needed. Psalms 120:1 begins with distress, picturing again the suffering of the righteous godly remnant. In Psalms 121:1 the Keeper of Israel, the Covenant Keeping God, is revealed

CXXIV. A SONG OF DELIVERANCE FROM FOREIGN FOES....

MEN. Hebrew. _'adam._ App-14. (Sing, refers to Sennacherib). THEY. The plural, referring to Sennacherib's hosts; likened to. stream and waters in verses: Psalms 124:4; Psalms 124:5. See note on Psalms 46:3....