Psalm 124

Psalm 124 (The Message)

 1-5 If God hadn't been for us —all together now, Israel, sing out!— 

   If God hadn't been for us 

      when everyone went against us, 

   We would have been swallowed alive 

      by their violent anger, 

   Swept away by the flood of rage, 

      drowned in the torrent; 

   We would have lost our lives 

      in the wild, raging water. 

 6 Oh, blessed be God! 

      He didn't go off and leave us. 

   He didn't abandon us defenseless, 

      helpless as a rabbit in a pack of snarling dogs. 

 7 We've flown free from their fangs, 

      free of their traps, free as a bird. 

   Their grip is broken; 

      we're free as a bird in flight. 

 8 God's strong name is our help, 

      the same God who made heaven and earth.

Psalm 124 is today’s response to the Old Testament reading for today, which is Exodus 1:8-2:10. 

More than four hundred years have passed (Exodus 12:40), Joseph is long dead and forgotten in Egypt and the Israelites have been taken into slavery. Alarmed by the growing population of these outsiders, a cruel pharaoh commands that newborn Hebrew males be thrown into the Nile River to drown. In the Sunday School story that will be read this morning, one little boy is saved, adopted by pharaoh’s daughter, and destiny is set, God’s plan of salvation goes forward. The baby is given the Egyptian name Moses and raised, with what might be called bitter irony, or poetic justice, and even a hint of Jewish humor, in pharaoh’s own household. Through this one Moses, a Prince of Egypt according to the DreamWorks award winning 1998 animated film, God saves the children of Israel from bondage in Egypt. 

The psalm responds victoriously to the story.

As chanted in church today, Psalm 124 will be from The Book of Common Prayer. The Message version above is delightful, but the psalms are the hymns of Israel, for singing; while TM version is a charming narrative poetry vignette. It is not set for group chanting or singing, though a minstrel might tell it round a campfire. 

Here’s what will be sung and said and read and heard in church this morning. It should bring to mind the story of Moses. Moses and the Bullrushes. Moses and the Red Sea. Moses and Pharaoh. Moses and the Lord. 

	124  Nisi quia Dominus
1	If the LORD had not been on our side, *     let Israel now say;
2	If the LORD had not been on our side, *     when enemies rose up against us;
3	Then would they have swallowed us up alive* in their fierce anger toward us;
4	Then would the waters have overwhelmed us* and the torrent gone over us;
5	Then would the raging waters *     have gone right over us.
6	Blessed be the LORD! *     he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.
7	We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; *     the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8	Our help is in the Name of the LORD, *     the maker of heaven and earth.

Sunday: the Lord’s Day. 

Right shoe first and praise Him with a psalm.

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