Sermon Central
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He Is On My Side
Contributed by David Dunn on Feb 16, 2026 (message contributor)
Summary: Looking back on life’s dangers and deliverances, we confess that our survival, freedom, and future all rest in the Lord alone.
There are some songs you only sing when you are on the road.
Not when you are sitting comfortably at home.
Not when life is smooth and predictable.
Not when everything is quiet and under control.
There are some songs that only come out when your feet are dusty,when your shoulders are tired, when the road has been longer than you expected.
Psalm 124 is one of those songs.
It belongs to a group of psalms called the Songs of Ascent—from Psalm 120 to Psalm 134. These were the songs the people of Israel sang as they made their way up to Jerusalem for the great feasts.
That journey was not a small one. Some of them were shepherds who had spent long nights out in the fields, listening to the restless sounds of the dark.
Some were farmers who had wrestled with stubborn soil that did not always want to yield its harvest.
Some were merchants who had counted coins by candlelight, wondering if there would be enough for their families.
They came from different homes.
Different villages.
Different stories.
Some had known abundance.
Some had known loss.
Some came with laughter.
Some came with quiet sorrow tucked into their hearts.
But at certain times of the year, they all began walking in the same direction.
Toward Jerusalem.
Toward the temple.
Toward the place where they would worship the Lord together.
As they walked, they sang.
When the road grew steep, someone would begin Psalm 121:
“I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.”
The others would join in.
Voices rising over the hills.
Feet moving in rhythm with the words.
But somewhere along the journey, another voice would begin Psalm 124.
Psalm 124 is not a gentle song.
It is not about green pastures.
It is not about still waters.
It is not about the beauty of Jerusalem.
It is about what almost happened.
It speaks of enemies rising up.
Of waters threatening to swallow them alive.
Of traps and snares and narrow escapes.
That raises a quiet question.
Why sing a song like that on the way to worship?
Why remember the dangers, the fears, the near disasters—when you are on your way to the house of the Lord?
Wouldn’t it be nicer to sing only about the good times?
The blessings?
The victories?
The peaceful seasons?
The pilgrims understood something we often forget.
A story that only remembers the good parts… is not the whole story.
If you only remember the easy seasons, you may start to believe you made it there on your own.
That is a dangerous illusion.
The deeper truth of the Christian life is this:
We are not here because we were strong.
We are here because we were helped.
We are not here because we always made the right decisions.
We are here because God was merciful when we made the wrong ones.
We are not here because the road was smooth.
We are here because the Lord walked it with us.
Psalm 124 is the song of people who know that.
It is the song of people who can look back over their lives and say:
“If the Lord had not been on our side…
we would not be here.”
So, before we rush into the future…
before we talk about plans and resolutions and new beginnings…
Psalm 124 invites us to do something much simpler.
It invites us to look back.
Then, to look up.
To remember the waters that almost swept us away.
To remember the traps that almost held us fast.
To remember the nights when we thought we would not make it.
Then to say, with quiet gratitude and rising confidence:
The Lord was there.
The Lord was faithful.
The Lord brought us through.
The question before us this morning is a simple one:
Where did your help really come from?
Even more important than that—
Where will your help come from now?
---000--- PART 1
“If the Lord Had Not Been on Our Side”
(Psalm 124:1–5)
Psalm 124 begins with a sentence that feels almost unfinished.
“If the Lord had not been on our side…”
It is as if the psalmist starts a thought and then pauses.
“If the Lord had not been on our side…”
What would have happened?
Then the people are invited to respond: “Let Israel now say…”
In other words, this is not a private meditation.
This is a shared memory.
This is a whole people looking back over their history together and saying: “If the Lord had not been on our side…
we would not be here.”
And then the psalm begins to fill in the picture.
“When people rose up against us, they would have swallowed us alive… when their anger was kindled against us.”
