Psalms 124:4

124:1-5 God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his power may be seen the more in their deliverance. Happy the people whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Besides applying this to any particular deliverance wrought in our days and the ancient times, we should have in our thoughts the great work of redemption by Jesus Christ, by which believers were rescued from Satan.

Then the waters had overwhelmed us,.... People, comparable to waters for their multitude, Strength, force, and impetuosity; which bear down all before them, and against which there is no standing; which, like the waters of the flood, overflow and destroy all they pass over. These are the floods of ungodly men, which are very destructive and terrible; see Revelation 17:15 ; together with all those reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions, which come along with them; which the presence of God only can bear up his people under, and carry them through, Sol 8:7; the stream had gone over our soul; and so deprived them of life; the whole force of the enemy; which, like a stream, flows in with great strength and rapidity, when a breach is made and spreads itself, Arama interprets it of the stream of the Egyptians, and restrains it to them, their armies and forces; but it rather designs others, and the enemies of God's people in general, which threaten their ruin, even their very souls and lives: it may be applied to the stream of corruptions, the flood of temptation and flow of persecutions, such as the flood the dragon cast out of his mouth after the woman; which, were it not for divine grace and assistance, would destroy the saints, who have no might against this great force, 2 Chronicles 20:12.

Verse 4. - Then the waters had overwhelmed us . A sudden and startling change of metaphor. In the quick transition of Oriental thought, the fire becomes a flood - an irresistible torrent-stream , carrying all before it (comp. Psalm 18:4 ; Psalm 144:7 ). The stream had gone over our soul ; i . e . "had mounted up over our heads, and stifled our breath of life." Psalm 124:4

It is commonly rendered, "If it had not been Jahve who was for us." But, notwithstanding the subject that is placed first (cf. Genesis 23:13 ), the שׁ belongs to the לוּלי; since in the Aramaizing Hebrew (cf. on the other hand Genesis 31:42 ) לוּלי שׁ (cf. Arab. lawlâ an) signifies nisi (prop. nisi quod), as in the Aramaic (דּ) שׁ (לואי) לוי, o si (prop. o si quod). The אזי, peculiar to this Psalm in the Old Testament, instead of אז follows the model of the dialectic אדין, Arab. iḏan, Syr. hāden (הידין, הדין). In order to begin the apodosis of לוּלי (לוּלא) emphatically the older language makes use of the confirmatory כּי, Genesis 31:42 ; Genesis 43:10 ; here we have אזי (well rendered by the lxx ἄρα), as in Psalm 119:92 . The Lamed of היה לנו is raphe in both instances, according to the rule discussed above, p. 373. When men (אדם) rose up against Israel and their anger was kindled against them, they who were feeble in themselves over against the hostile world would have been swallowed up alive if they had not had Jahve for them, if they had not had Him on their side. This "swallowing up alive" is said elsewhere of Hades, which suddenly and forcibly snatches away its victims, Psalm 55:16 ; Proverbs 1:12 ; here, however, as Psalm 124:6 shows, it is said of the enemies, who are represented as wild beasts.

In Psalm 124:4 the hostile power which rolls over them is likened to an overflowing stream, as in Isaiah 8:7 ., the Assyrian. נחלה, a stream or river, is Milel; it is first of all accusative: towards the stream ( Numbers 34:5 ); then, however, it is also used as a nominative, like לילה, המּותה, and the like (cf. common Greek ἡ νύχθα, ἡ νεόντητα); so that תה- is related to ת- ( ה-) as נה-, מו- to ן- and ם- (Bttcher, 615). These latest Psalms are fond of such embellishments by means of adorned forms and Aramaic or Aramaizing words. זידונים is a word which is indeed not unhebraic in its formation, but is more indigenous to Chaldee; it is the Targum word for זדים in Psalm 86:14 ; Psalm 119:51 , Psalm 119:78 (also in Psalm 54:5 for זרים), although according to Levy the MSS do not present זידונין but זידנין. In the passage before us the Targum renders: the king who is like to the proud waters (למוי זידוניּא) of the sea (Antiochus Epiphanes? - a Scholium explains οἱ ὑπερήφανοι). With reference to עבר before a plural subject, vid., Ges. 147.

4. Much sated in itself is our soul with the scorning of the secure, the contempt of the proud. In itself, literally to or for itself, as in Ps. cxxii. 3. Secure (sinners), those at ease, indifferent to the sufferings of others, and without apprehension of their own. Compare Ps. Ixxiii. 12. PSALM CXXIV. 1. A Song of the Ascents. By David. If (it had] not (been) Jehovah who was for us — Oh let Israel say. This psalm consists of two parts, an acknowledgment of God as the deliverer of Israel, ver. 1-5, and a conse quent determination to trust in him exclusively for future favours, ver. 6—3. The verse before us propounds the theme of the whole composition, in a conditional and imperfect, but for that very reason a more striking form. It is tantamount to saying, what if the Lord had not been for us ? — leaving the answer to the imagination of the reader. For us, in our favour, on our side ; or to us, belonging to us, ours, which really includes the other. See above, on Ps. Ivi. 10 (9). Oh that in the last clause represents (NJ) the particle of entreaty. The common version (now) conveys the very different idea, at length, after all that we have suffered, let Israel so say. The mistake is rendered more natural or rather unavoidable, to mere English readers, by the seeming antithesis between the now of this verse and the tiien of ver. 3, 4, 5, of which there is not the slightest trace in the original.