Bulletin Articles
“"We Have Escaped!"”
Categories: Iron sharpens ironA Song of Ascents. Of David.
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 124)
The book of Psalms isn’t the longest in the Bible by word count—that title goes to Jeremiah, and Genesis comes in second (at least, in Hebrew). Psalms takes third place, by a substantial margin, but that’s still pretty high on the list. Additionally, it has by far the most chapters, at 150. Second-place Isaiah has only 66! Although Psalm 119 is the longest single chapter in the Bible by a long shot, on average the psalms are each quite short, well below the length of chapters in the other books. You’d think this would make them easier to digest, and to a certain extent that’s true; but the sheer number of them leads to our eyes glazing over around Psalm 11 or so, and after that they all start to blend together into a meaningless beige in our minds. As a result, only a relative handful of them have attracted widespread attention among Christians. But each one is a gem, in its own way. This psalm, known by the extraordinarily memorable and evocative title Psalm 124, is one of these hidden gems.
It’s nestled among a collection that are all labeled, “a song of ascents.” We can only suppose this refers to the ascent toward Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. Many of these psalms contain themes obviously appropriate for such journeys, undertaken especially for the annual feasts prescribed in the Law of Moses. This one recalls some some previous instance in which “people rose up against” Israel (v2), in “anger” (v3). The psalmist says that, if not for God’s intervention, his people’s enemies would have overwhelmed them like a “flood,” a “torrent,” and “raging waters” (vv4-5).
Yet, they were not swallowed up! The details of this example of salvation are not shared here; but it’s certainly consistent with many instances in which Israel seemed to be facing utter defeat, or even extermination, only to be spared against all earthly odds. The same superscript that labels this poem “a song of ascents” also attributes it to David, and it’s a good idea to take those attributions seriously, since Jesus and the Apostles certainly did (e.g. Mt 22.43, Ac 1.16-20, Ro 4.6-7); yet there is also some question as to the meaning of the preposition “of” in these attributions! Could it sometimes mean about David, or in the style of David, or something along those lines? This is a particularly worthwhile question in the case of Psalm 124, because the psalmist shifts from one metaphor—rising floodwaters—to another that is quite different!
Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!
(Psalm 124.6-7)
Suddenly the enemy is a carnivorous predator, or even a human trapper of birds, who not only threatens to cage God’s people, but has actually succeeded! While this, again, could describe any number of occasions on which Israel faced a mortal threat, it’s also strikingly similar to the way Assyrian King Sennacherib described his siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC:
As for Hezekiah the Jew, who did not submit to my yoke, 46 of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small cities in their neighborhood…I besieged and took. …Himself, like a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem his royal city. Earthworks I threw up against him…
(Daniel David Luckenbill, The Annals of Sennacherib, University of Chicago Press, 1924, pp32-33)
When this happened, Hezekiah and the people penned up in the city despaired. But Isaiah the prophet sent word to him,
“Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”
(2 Kings 19.6-7)
The besieged Jews awoke one morning to find that a staggering 185,000 Assyrian soldiers had been killed by “the angel of the Lord” in the night (v35). Sennacherib and the rest left. Only yesterday the snare had been wrapped so tightly that all hope of rescue was cut off. Now the threat had vanished.
It’s possible that Psalm 124 is about an entirely different occasion; it’s possible the Israelites never even heard Sennacherib’s “caged bird” quip. Regardless, God’s salvation often appears in exactly this form. His people are the victims of forces far beyond their power to resist, let alone defeat. Even so,
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
(Psalm 124.8)
Whatever entangles you, begins to devour you, or threatens to drown you, is no challenge at all, for him! Put your trust in him, surrender to his will, and let him rescue you from the snares of sin and death.
Jeremy Nettles
