If It Had Not Been

Psalm 124

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
    let Israel now say—
² if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
    when people rose up against us,
³ then they would have swallowed us up alive,
    when their anger was kindled against us;
⁴ then the flood would have swept us away,
    the torrent would have gone over us;
⁵ then over us would have gone
    the raging waters.

⁶ Blessed be the Lord,
    who has not given us
    as prey to their teeth!
⁷ We have escaped like a bird
    from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
    and we have escaped!

⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

For some reading this, at the moment things feel pretty fragile.  Perhaps you… 

• …don’t have sufficient health insurance and are slightly alarmed at a new tingle in your abdomen.  
• … increasingly notice that your kids have such-and-such disturbing tendency that likely is taking them to a bad spot. 
• …are watching price increases while your income doesn’t.  
• … when driving over rough patches are being sent distress groans from the car undercarriage.    

True, you’re here, alive…but just.  Last month you’ve barely paid the necessary bills.  The mechanic has told you to start looking for another vehicle.  The future looks…{ahem}…murky.  

Or, the tenuousness is felt in those you’re trying to help, in whom you’ve heavily invested – you’re watching in dismay as they head the wrong direction.   They’re making a habit of digging in when corrected, and their foolishness has them running out of options.  They’ve taken on another addiction.  You’ve used up all your best phrases in giving them counsel.  You’ve prayed with them, for them… and after all only more decline.  

Two messages for you: 1) The history of God’s people has instances of…perhaps is even characterized by…them barely making it.  Often, instead of striding, we hobble down paths of righteousness; 2) Yet we are (true, often, barely) making it… because of the Lord’s help!  So, now Now NOW is the time to bless the Lord, to acknowledge his help and rescues.  

Surprising but true: that God has helped sometimes has to be pointed out …because the dominant impression is that I’ve somehow just managed to squeak by and bought myself a little more time.   And yet, Let Israel say, If the Lord had not been on our side…

The people of God are told to bless the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth who has helped them.  That help, though, has included some extracting from the middle of impossible situations.  He’s allowed moments or intervals when the enemies are close enough for us to take in the rage/disdain in their eyes.  God allows us to enter arenas where we are obviously outmuscled, outmatched.  

Yes, God brings his chosen into scenes where their senses are overloaded with danger signals:   all around the sight of wave and foam, what fills their ears is the sound of raging waters, the torrent is in fact tossing them along.  Real danger and you really see it!  

Behold this very common thing: God has not kept his people from trouble; he’s delivered them out of trouble.  

And delivered only at the last second.  They were ensnared, the game was up, they felt the heat of the roaring fire they’d soon be roasted over…and at the 11^th hour somehow…SOMEHOW… the snare breaks, and they escape.   

Church, do not be ashamed at the fact that the atmosphere of life under God is often fraught with real brushes with real dangers.  Do not be frustrated that the feel of God’s rescues is often not triumphal but ‘whoa, that was close.’  

After all and through whatever surprising, strange means, God will be known as a God of salvation.