Psalm 124

Psa 124:1

SUPERSCRIPTION: "A SONG OF ASCENTS. OF DAVID": Or "degrees" (AV).

CONTEXT: (DAVID) Escape from the bird-catcher's snare: cp 1Sa 23:24-29; 24:14,15; 25:29.

Psa 124:3

(HEZEKIAH) The armies of Sennacherib were so large, and their advance so devastating, and their rounding up of captives so comprehensive, that it was as though the earth had opened up and swallowed its victims alive (Psa 56:1,2; 57:3). But just as with the intimidating band of Korah who rose up before Moses and Aaron (Num 16:2,3), the fate with which they threatened the righteous became their fate instead (vv 32,33).

Psa 124:4

FLOOD... TORRENT... RAGING WATERS: The advancing Assyrian army as a raging river, overflowing its banks (Isa 8:7,8).

Psa 124:7

(HEZEKIAH) This figure (also found in Psa 10:9; 91:3; Pro 6:5) stresses the relative weakness of Israel and the cunning of her enemy. But Israel's eyes are ever toward the Lord: He is the One who plucks her feet out of the net (cp Psa 25:15 with Psa 123:2).

Though this psalm may have been written by David, relating to his wilderness escapes from Saul, it is amazingly fitting to Hezekiah's circumstances. We see this especially in this verse, for which there is a striking parallel in Assyria's own archives. The cylinder, or prism, of Sennacherib (housed today in the British Museum) has the following statement: "Hezekiah himself like a caged bird, within Jerusalem, his royal city, I shut in."

It is to be expected that a boastful monarch would insist that only his successes be recorded; and so the prism has nothing to say of the mighty stroke against Sennacherib's confederacy, nor of his final retreat from Judah and Jerusalem. However, these setbacks for the northern colossus are substantiated from other secular histories. By God's hand, the "cage" was "opened" and the "bird" Hezekiah set free!

Psa 124:8

OUR HELP IS IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, THE MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH: The natural man, like Ahaz, looks inward for the cleverness to deliver himself from danger; and when this fails he looks outward to other men, other political combinations, stronger armaments and higher walls. The spiritual man, like Hezekiah, looks upward, to the God who created all things.