A WARRIOR’S SONG
PSALM 124
1. Last Week Ps. 123 – Servant’s Song
a. Our Traveler continues on to Jerusalem
b. True Worship is always opposed b y satan.
c. Ever noticed that when you decide to live for God – all hell breaks lose!?!
2. Regardless of historical setting – first vs.
a. depicts warriors returning from battle diff
b. left under air of defeat – outmanned, outgunned
i. determined to go down swinging
ii. sense of resignation to unavoidable beating
3. Something Happened - instead of tears/rejoicing
1. DELIGHT EXPRESSED Vs. 1A
A. Exultation – shouted fragment
1. Words were at a minimum but emotions high
2. God showed up – ‘you should a been there!!!!’
B. Explanation
1. YHWH
a. Deuteronomy 33:26 (KJV)
There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rides upon the heaven in your help, and in his excellence on the sky.
Deuteronomy 33:29 (KJV)
Happy are you, O Israel: who is like unto you, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of your help, and who is the sword of your excellency!
2. One word - yis-raw-ale’
a. saw-raw’ – prevailing power of a king
b. el – God sized power
c. is-rah-ale’
C. Exhortation – urge to action
1. say – declare; publish; boast
2. DANGER EXPOSED Vs. 1C
A. Majority in Opposition
1. Seeking the Lord
2. Serving the Lord
3. Sharing the Lord
B. Work of Opposition
By bodily persecution and murder (very common today).
By vain philosophy -evolution, feminism, mysticism,
By enticement (corruption, idolatry, materialism)
3. DISTRESS EXPERIENCED 2-5
A. Hellishness
1. Like a monster who swallowed them whole;
2. No reasoning with;
B. Helplessness
1. like walking in a desert gorge & hearing the
rush of water; rock on each side un-scaleable
2. no way could out run; death was inevitable.
C. Hopelessness
1. ‘gone over our soul’ – love of life gone
2. desire to die & end it all – anything better than this
4. DELIVERANCE EXCLAIMED V. 6a – 8
A. Capture
1. like a bird caught in a trap beating its wings
a. harder it flies weaker it gets; soon dead at bottom
B. Escape
1. not through an open door – “the snare is broken”
C. H. Spurgeon
I have heard of a sailor who had been in prison, that, after his release, he had money in his pocket, and going over London Bridge he saw a man selling birds—thrushes, larks, and so on. “What do you want for the lot?” said Jack. I forget how much it was, but Jack found the money; and as soon as the birds were his he opened the door and let them all fly away. The man called out, “Whatever did you buy those birds for, and then let them all fly away?” “Oh,” said the sailor, “if you had been in prison, as I have, you would be sure to set everything free you could get a-hold of.”
C. Security V. 8
Jeremiah 32:17 (KJV)
17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, You have made the heaven and the earth by Your great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for You
Jeremiah 51:15 (KJV)
15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by his understanding.
Psalms 146:5-6 (KJV)
5 Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God: 6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keeps truth for ever: