A Word about Our Help from Psalm 124

Today I want to share a word about Our Help as I comment on Psalm 124:

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 our enemies attacked 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.

A HAND UP:

Sometimes people just need a little help. As I read the 124th Psalm, I was reminded of  the testimony of a young lady who was a client of a food bank operated by the ministry which I serve as director.

This young lady was a single mother who was unemployed and receiving what we used to call "food stamps" to help feed her children. One day she was blessed to be hired at a local pharmacy. She had a full-time job, but her starting pay was not very high, and yet she was glad to have the work. Then she learned that she was earning too much money to receive the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program funds. And, you guessed it, her take home pay was not sufficient to pay her rent, utilities, and also buy groceries.

Fortunately for her, someone mentioned the food bank our ministry operates, and with the support she received there, she was able to keep working and not return to SNAP. She needed a hand-up, not a handout and I am grateful to God that we were able to assist her.

HELPLESS, HAPLESS, AND HOPELESS:

While this young lady only needed a little assistance, the Psalmist saw a different reality in the life of Biblical Israel. Instead of a simple hand-up, he clearly saw that without God’s intervention, Israel would have been utterly defeated. He described their potential fate without God in stark terms: swallowed-up; overwhelmed; swept away; ensnared; prey for vicious animals. Without God, Israel was hapless, helpless, and hopeless. The Psalmist wanted Israel to remember from whence their help came. 

One of the most besetting of Israel’s besetting sins was that they continually forgot that God won all of their battles for them. God chose them to be His people, He saved them from famine, He delivered them from slavery in Egypt, He parted the waters, He defeated kings, He laid waste to Jericho, and He gave them the Promised Land. Without God they wouldn’t have even been a people, or at best, they would have been an enslaved and impoverished one. They owed absolutely everything to God, and His actions on their behalf. He was their help, and even more than their help, He was the very essence of their existence.

The Psalmist knew the history of his people, Israel. He knew how they forgot their deliverance from Egypt when they complained about the mana which God freely provided to them. He knew about their rebellious fear at Kadesh-Barnea when they reneged on entering the Promised Land because the inhabitants of the land were so powerful, forgetting that their God had destroyed the armies of Egypt which was the Superpower nation of their day. He knew that they forgot that God had conquered Jericho as they went out in overconfidence and exceeded their orders by attacking Ai and how the result was that they suffered a bloody defeat. He knew that they had not driven the Canaanites out of the land as God had instructed and empowered them to do and he knew about the cycle of sin, oppression, and deliverance that resulted. He knew how this had consumed them and their relationship to God before they demanded a king of their own, just like all the other nations of the world. 

The Psalmist knew how much Israel needed God, and he knew how they often forgot about their reliance on Him, time and time again. And, he wanted his people to remember their God, because He was their Help and without Him they’d be utterly and totally lost.

OUR HELP:

If the Psalmist could have looked forward to today, he would have seen how the church has developed a poor memory also. It is easy for us to criticize Biblical Israel for their poor memory and their failed walk with God, but we, too, forget what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” 

If it were not for the Blood of Jesus and the filling of the Holy Spirit, we would be just like Old Testament Israel and the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Zealots of the Gospels. The members of the 21st Century church must humble themselves and realize, literally, that “there but by the grace of God go I.”

Like Biblical Israel, we too, would suffer a horrendous fate without the help of Our God. We too would be swallowed-up; overwhelmed; swept away; ensnared; prey for vicious animals. Without God, we, like Israel, would be hapless, helpless, and hopeless. 

We, too, need to remember from whence our help comes and when we do, we should rejoice with Paul that, “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

CONCLUSION:

We, like Biblical Israel, need to remember who is Our Help! We need to remember what He has done, and continues to do, for us! Finally, we need to live in grateful obedience to the God who is Our Help!

I am so glad that God is on our side! The question is, are we on His?

Every blessing, 

Dr. Otis Corbitt