Psalms 124:3

Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: THEN THEY HAD SWALLOWED US UP QUICK - i:e., alive, as in ; . They thought to swallow us up; but it is themselves who shall be swallowed up in their native earth: as Korah and his company were swallowed up alive (). David used a similar Hebrew term and thought in ; ....

When he says, (Psalms 124:3,) _They had swallowed us up alive, _(78) he not only expresses barbarous cruelty, but also disproportion of strength. He describes then in the first place how violent was the onset of the enemy, and secondly, how feeble and inadequate the Jews were to withstand them, since these cruel beasts had no need of swords for slaughter, but without a battle or an effort of strength, could easily devour that unwarlike and defenceless flock....

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....

THEN THEY HAD SWALLOWED US UP QUICK - There was no other help, and ruin - utter ruin - would have soon come upon us. The word quick here means alive; and the idea is derived from persons swallowed up in an earthquake, or by the opening of the earth, as in the case of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Numbers 16:32. Compare Psalms 106:17. The meaning here is, that they would have been destroyed as if they were swallowed up by the opening of the earth; that is, there would have been complete destruction. WHEN THEIR WRATH WAS KINDLED AGAINST US - Hebrew, In the kindling of their wrath against us. Wrath is often represented in the Scriptures as burning or heated - as that which consumes all before it....

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

THEN THEY HAD SWALLOWED US UP QUICK,.... Or "alive"; as the earth swallowed up Korah and his company; or as the fish swallowed up Jonah; or rather as ravenous beasts swallow their prey; to which the allusion is. The people of God are comparable to sheep and lambs, and such like innocent creatures: and the wicked to lions, tigers, wolves, bears, and such like beasts of prey that devour living creatures; WHEN THEIR WRATH WAS KINDLED AGAINST US; which is cruel and outrageous; there is no standing against it, nor before it; it is like a fierce flame of fire that burns furiously, and there is no stopping it; none but God can restrain it....

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....

QUICK. alive....