The Lord Is On Our Side: A Song of Help
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What is the purpose of the Psalms of Ascent?
So what question should we always ask as we read these songs?
How does this song help prepare my heart for worship?
1 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,
1a- The Psalmist begins in the role of the leader of this song.
What thought does the Song leader begin with?
If it had not been the Lord who was on our side? Then what? If God had not been for us where would we be now?
What is the Psalmist trying to get the congregation to acknowledge in this song? We are in complete dependence upon the Lord!
1b- “Let Israel now say” What effect would this have on the song? How would these verse have been sung?
Example: This is the day, (echo) This is the day …
2a- If it had not been the Lord who was on our side… Who is singing this? The entire congregation.
What is significant about the congregation echoing what was sung in v. 1? The psalmist calls the people to join him in acknowledging the Lord’s saving presence.
2b. Added phrase: when people rose up against us. What does this poetic expression mean? Rise up against us?
8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Rise up against = beginning to attack.
If it had not been for the Lord who was on our side when our enemies began to attack us, what would have happened?
How do these verse teach us to think when we are faced with overwhelming trouble? We are totally dependent upon the Lord!
What are some forms of trouble that we as believers face today where maybe we don’t immediately jump to this conclusion: It it had not been the Lord who was on our side…
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
Notice the word “then.” What kind of sentence do we have? A conditional sentence. What are the two parts of a conditional sentence?
The IF - protasis
The THEN - apodosis
What was the IF part of this conditional sentence? vv. 1-2
1 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,
If God had not been on our side what would have happened? Well let me tell you!
Then…
The Psalmist uses several different vivid pictures to describe what life would have been like for the faithful if God had not been on there side.
What is the first vivid picture?
A ravenous beast, doing what? Swallowing them alive. Swallowing them whole. What kind of beast can swallow a person whole? Why is this expression so significant? What kind of defeat does this depict?
“Without God’s being for them the enemies would have completely destroyed them, as thoroughly as if something swallowed them whole.”—Allen P. Ross
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.
What is the second vivid picture the Psalmist uses? If God had not been on our side then…
Flood- what would the flood have done to them? Swept them away, and? Gone over us?
What is the difference?
What words does the Psalmist used for the waters? Flood, torrent, raging waters. What rhetorical device is he using? Intensification
5 The Lord spoke to me again:
6 “Because this people has refused the waters of Shiloah that flow gently, and rejoice over Rezin and the son of Remaliah,
7 therefore, behold, the Lord is bringing up against them the waters of the River, mighty and many, the king of Assyria and all his glory. And it will rise over all its channels and go over all its banks,
8 and it will sweep on into Judah, it will overflow and pass on, reaching even to the neck, and its outspread wings will fill the breadth of your land, O Immanuel.”
A Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 3 (90–150): Commentary B. Believers Acknowledge that They Are Totally Dependent on the Lord to Protect Them (3–5)
The language is reminiscent of Isaiah 8:5–12 in which the massive invasion by the Assyrians is described in terms of the Euphrates River overflowing its banks and flooding the whole land of Israel
As NT believers what situations in our lives can we point to and say the same thing? If God had not been for me I would have been swallowed whole, swept away by a flood, and drowned in the torrents and raging waters.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Do you remember what Paul said just a few verse earlier?
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
What does that sound like?
1 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,
Can you think of any other NT parallels?
Because the Lord is on our side, because the Lord is our help, how should we respond?
6 Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
6 Blessed be the Lord, who has not let us be ripped apart by their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
What is the vivid picture here? A bird in the snare/net/trap of the fowler/hunter. What is the situation of the bird at first? He is in the trap, he didn’t narrowly avoid the trap, or see if from a mile away and fly merely on his way. He was caught in the trap. Why is that significant?
Then what happens to the bird? The snare is broken, and we have escaped! Narrowly, barely, if God had not been there for us what surely would have happened?
Why does the Psalmist connect praise so closely with disaster?
“In the details of the conflict, in the minuteness of a personal history, the majestic greatness of God becomes revealed. Faith develops out of the most difficult aspects of our existence, not the easiest.” —Eugene Peterson
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
What is the significance of that last phrase? Who made heaven and earth?
1 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:
2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3 Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me.
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8 “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb,
9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band,
10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors,
11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?
12 “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place,
13 that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth, and the wicked be shaken out of it?
14 It is changed like clay under the seal, and its features stand out like a garment.
15 From the wicked their light is withheld, and their uplifted arm is broken.
16 “Have you entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17 Have the gates of death been revealed to you, or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18 Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth? Declare, if you know all this.
19 “Where is the way to the dwelling of light, and where is the place of darkness,
20 that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the paths to its home?
21 You know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23 which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?
24 What is the way to the place where the light is distributed, or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?
25 “Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt,
26 to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man,
27 to satisfy the waste and desolate land, and to make the ground sprout with grass?
28 “Has the rain a father, or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29 From whose womb did the ice come forth, and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?
30 The waters become hard like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.
31 “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season, or can you guide the Bear with its children?
33 Do you know the ordinances of the heavens? Can you establish their rule on the earth?
34 “Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you?
35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’?
36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?
37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens,
38 when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?
So how does this Psalm prepare our hearts to worship the Lord?
What is the main point of this psalm? If it had not been for the Lord who was on our side… But the Lord is on our side! Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
What happens to our worship when we confess this truth? Unless the Lord was for us, we would not survive! What happens to our praise when we confess this? It make our worship genuine and powerful!
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.