The Songs Of Ascent – Part 6 – Psalm 124 – The Lord Is On Our Side For He Is Our Help Series

THE SONGS OF ASCENT – PART 6 – PSALM 124 – THE LORD IS ON OUR SIDE FOR HE IS OUR HELP

Psalm 124 - A Song of Ascents, of David

[A]. INTRODUCTION

We are moving steadily through the Psalms of Ascent and today we do Psalm 124. This collection of 15 beautiful Psalms was sung by the Hebrew pilgrims as they made their way in representative groups from over Israel to attend the Feasts of the Lord (three of them) in Jerusalem. It happened three times a year and the Feasts were as described in this verse – {{Deuteronomy 16:16 “Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.”}}

The Psalms (songs) intensified as they made their way up the ascents as Jerusalem is in a mountainous area and they sang them with great joy and expectation. The Psalms deal with different aspects of a believer’s life (the life of a Jewish man). Psalm 124 is one of three of these Psalms written by David. Let us carefully go through the verses.

[B]. KEPT AND DELIVERED BY THE LORD GOD

Psalm 124:1 “Had it not been the LORD who was on our side,” let Israel now say,

Psalm 124:2 “Had it not been the LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us,

Psalm 124:3 then they would have swallowed us alive when their anger was kindled against us.”}}

David knew conflict and deliverance. Repetition is used in verses 1 and 2 to acknowledge the Lord’s part in a deeper and meaningful way. The Lord is on their side. This is all about deliverance from enemies.

Israel is a curious nation in regard to enemies. Sometimes enemies attacked without provocation, inspired by the devil to try to destroy the nation. More often than not though, enemies were allowed to attack because of the sin of Israel.

If you recall the times of the judges, we have the recurring theme where an enemy invaded and caused hardship because of Israel’s sin. Then the people cried to the Lord for deliverance promising to serve the Lord. God raised up a judge who delivered the nation but after that the people reverted to their sin as bad as before. This happened over and over through the time of 13 judges over 400 years. Samuel was the last judge of Israel.

The Jews were promised by God blessing and cursing; blessing if they walked in God’s way and cursing if they did not. They were promised enemies would come if they sinned. Let us look into some of those verses. The following are all selected from Deuteronomy chapter 28. This first one is what happens when Israel walks righteously before the Lord -

{{Deuteronomy 28:7 “The LORD will cause your ENEMIES who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you seven ways.”}}

The following verses promise what happens when Israel turns to sin and departs from the Lord and will know then only the Lord’s cursing.

{{Deuteronomy 28:15 “It shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.”

Deuteronomy 28:20 “The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in all you undertake to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken Me.”

Deuteronomy 28:25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your ENEMIES. You shall go out one way against them, but you shall flee seven ways before them, and you shall be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.”}}

{{Deuteronomy 28:47-48 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your ENEMIES whom the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things, and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”}}

Those righteous Jews who trekked up to Jerusalem singing these songs, knew the truth of Deuteronomy chapter 28 and sang those songs with clear consciences. They knew what obedience was.

However Israel never learned. They never, ever learned. Even today they have not learned. Time after time they were ravaged by enemies and hostile nations; and for almost 2 500 years up until 1947 they have never owned their land, and even today it is only partly theirs, for God has promised them the land from the Nile River to the Euphrates.