Psalms 124
Big idea: A survivor's psalm, and it works by imagining the alternative. If it had not been Yahweh — and then three pictures of what would have happened: swallowed alive, drowned in a flood, eaten. The turn comes with the bird. Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. The trap did not open. It broke, which is a different claim entirely.
Psalm 124 escapes a snare. Psalm 125 says the escape was never in doubt.
124:1–8 — The snare is broken, and we have escaped
A national thanksgiving that works by describing what did NOT happen. Two conditional verses, and then three pictures of the disaster avoided: being swallowed alive, drowned in a flood, caught in a fowler's trap. The rescue is never narrated. What is narrated is the alternative, in detail, so that the escape can be felt rather than reported.
1 A Song of Ascents. By David. If it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, let Israel now say, 2 if it had not been Yahweh who was on our side, when men rose up against us, 3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us, 4 then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul. 5 Then the proud waters would have gone over our soul. 6 Blessed be Yahweh, who has not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul has escaped like a bird out of the fowler’s snare. The snare is broken, and we have escaped. 8 Our help is in Yahweh’s name, who made heaven and earth.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).