All right, Psalm 124. We are working through the book of Psalms, all 150, and we're making good progress. We are in a Psalm, Psalm 124. And I titled the study today, Praise God That He Rescued You. If you're here today as a Christian, this will very specifically apply. to every one of us. So follow with me as I read God's word. Psalm 124, a song of a sense of David. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, let Israel now say, had it not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us, well, then they would have swallowed us alive when their anger was kindled against us. Then the waters would have engulfed us. The stream would have swept over our soul. Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trepper. The snare is broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord. who made heaven and earth. You see on your outline there a question for you to ponder this evening. Where would you be, if you thought about this lately, where would you be if God had not saved you? I mean, what would your life look like What kind of sins would you be indulging in? What kind of lifestyle would you be living? And the eternity that you would be facing? Oh, if God had not delivered us, where would we be? What if, as we're saying here tonight, that God, what if God left us on our hell bound race? Where would we be? If Christ had not redeemed us, if he had not come from heaven to die for us, if he had not been raised from the dead for our justification, if the spirit of God had not caused us to be born again, where would we be? Where would you be? We want to consider and pause and ponder and reflect and not forget that God is the one who delivered Israel nationally in our psalm. As a nation, he delivered them. But what God did for Israel nationally, I want you to know, this same God is at work in your life individually. The same God who can bring a great redemption to the nation of Israel, as we will see here in a little bit, is the same God of mercy and power and grace who does that work for me and you individually. Psalm 107 is a long historical psalm, kind of retracing the whole history of Israel and how they lived and how they sinned and how faithful God was. The very end of that psalm, verse 43, I love this verse, who is wise, let him give heed to these things and let him consider the loving kindnesses of the Lord. If you're wise, if you and I are wise at heart, we want to ponder the loving kindness of God. We want to ponder what God has done and how God has shown his love toward me and you. Hezekiah, after he was ill and then God had given him recovery in the book of Isaiah chapter 38, Isaiah wrote and he said this, it is the living who give thanks to you, O Lord, as I do today. And then Hezekiah said, and a father tells his sons about the faithfulness of God. I love that. Hezekiah is reflecting on the duty of a father to teach his children about how God is faithful, how God really is reliable, how the same God that I believed in and has been faithful to me is the same God that you, my children, can believe in, and He'll be faithful to you as well. The psalm tonight, Psalm 124, is a really brief little psalm, but it calls you and it calls me to praise. It calls us to consider God, to reflect upon God, and to adore God. Now, Psalm 124, we know from the title, is written by David. We don't know exactly when, I don't know the exact situation in David's life when this occurred, but this is put at this part in the book of Psalms, this one Psalm that David wrote, it's put here in the traveling hymn book of the pilgrims of Israel. because God rescues his people. And for that, we ought to thank him and we ought to praise him and we ought to reflect on our God. Now, one of the things that makes this short song so memorable is the many images and figures of speech and images that come out, many metaphors. Verse three, just look at it here with me. The metaphor of being swallowed up alive. In verse 3, there is a kindled anger that is talked about. In verses 4 and 5, there is the raging waters that drown. In verse 6, there is almost like a monster, a lion, a big animal's teeth that tears its prey. In verse 7, there is a bird caught in a snare. All these images are meant to put images in your mind. They're meant to put color to the psalm so that you and I remember. Now, the structure is actually really simple. Do you notice in verse one and two, it all begins with this little phrase, had it not been, had it not been, or other translations have if the Lord had not been on our side, if the Lord had not been on our side. And then verses three, four, and five all begin with the word then, then. then. If God didn't deliver me, then. If God wasn't my helper, then. If God wasn't for me, then. This is really a praise song because God has rescued you. Or maybe, maybe to put it in Pauline language and New Testament theology, if God is for us, who can be against us? So we want to praise the Lord that he rescued us tonight, and I want to give you two, and you see it in your notes, there are two personal considerations as we work through this brief psalm, hopefully to prepare us for prayer, hopefully to ignite your heart in worship so that you will reflect on, where would I be if God had not saved me? But blessed be the Lord that he has. and thank God that he has. So, here are the two considerations. Number one, reflection, and number two, reaffirmation. Let's begin with verses one to five. Reflection, what would my life be like without God? What would our lives be like without God? It's very personal, but it's corporate as well. Look at verse one. Had not The Lord been on our side, let Israel say. Had it not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us? You know, part of the benefit of church gathering with the believers. Part of the benefit of corporate worship and congregational praise is the unified togetherness in reflecting on past difficulties and how God has been exceedingly faithful. There are those in the room, you could testify of how God has been faithful to you. You could testify, here's where I've been, here's what I've done, here's what God delivered me, here's how he rescued me, he saved my life, he saved my soul. We could go on and on in sharing testimonies and having this unified togetherness in remembering past difficulties, but yet God is so faithful, so faithful. And that's part of the verses one and two. If God wasn't for us, that's kind of the Hebrew, literally, if God wasn't for us, if God wasn't for us, if God wasn't for, let Israel say, if God had not been for us, when men rose up against us, probably in battle, in war, well then, then he's gonna give all these scenarios Ponder that. What if God hadn't been on your side? I mean, where would we be? Isaiah the prophet said in chapter one, verse nine, unless the Lord of hosts had left a few survivors, we would have been like Sodom. We would have become like Gomorrah. Oh, if God had not intervened, we would have had no hope. Oh, if God had not been for us. And then, here's where we would have been. It's kind of like what Paul does in Ephesians chapter 2. Just listen to this, verse 11. Therefore, Paul says, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ. You were excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers to the covenants of promise. You had no hope, and you were without God in the world. I mean, just remember where you were. It's the only imperative command in all of Ephesians 1 to 3. Remember where you'd be if God had not saved you. Remember, remember where you'd be. Remember, reflect, consider, and look at our Psalm. What if God had not been for us? Verse three, well, then we would have been swallowed up alive. You ever feel like trials are like that in your life? You ever feel like opposition is like that? Difficulties are like that? Trials? I just feel like I'm just getting swallowed alive. I feel like I'm getting eaten alive. And yet Israel is recognizing if God had not been for me when men rose up in battle against us, then we would have been swallowed up alive. We would have been totally devoured. Or in verse four, Then, if God had not been for us, verse 4, well, then the waters would have engulfed us and the stream would have swept over our soul. I mean, I feel like my troubles are just like a flood, catastrophic flood of water, not just a river, but a life-threatening, catastrophic flood. Verse five even adds to that image. Then if God had not been for us, the raging waters would have swept over our soul. Whatever this was in David's life, guess what? Maybe you can relate to this. He thought, this is way more than we can handle. Way too big for me, way too big for us. Lord, without your help, I'm gonna be eaten alive. Without your help, I'm gonna drown. Without your help, I'm gonna be swept away. Can you relate to that? Anything in life where you can say, I can relate to that. I can relate to this reality. If God, you had not been for me on my side, where would I be? But this is not only external troubles. David had plenty of those in the kingdom. He had wars and foreign nations that came against him, battles and hatred and persecutions and blasphemies. David had all of that as the king. But part of what's such a benefit of congregational worship is that we testify to one another and we rejoice together that we have a God who really does care and he really does deliver and he really does help. not only externally, but what about eternally and spiritually? Oh, let's think about that. If God had not been for us spiritually, where would we be? Where would we be? On your notes there. It might be on the next page. I give you just sort of a litany of little check marks of where we would be according to the Bible. Where would we be? Where would we be if God had not been on our side and he had not been for us? Well, number one, we'd be blinded by sin. We would be enslaved to our sin. We would be alienated from God. We would be unable to approach God. We would be left loving the darkness. We would be under the divine curse. We would be foul and putrid and corrupt from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. We would be left without a mediator, without an advocate. We would be awaiting God's repayment and vengeance. We would be exposed to wrath divine. We would be headed for eternal lake of fire. Oh, Lord, if you had not been for us, spiritually, we would be utterly destroyed. And church family, What a great reminder and reflection for us tonight. What God did for the nation of Israel nationally, protecting them from defeat in verse two, when men, when enemies, when nations rose up against us, David wrote, Lord, if you had not been on our side, we would have perished. We would have perished. Without God, you and I though, are under sin, Romans 3, 9. Romans 3.13 tells us that without God, our mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. According to Romans 3.19, every mouth is shut and all the world is accountable to God. And Romans 6.23 reminds that the wages for all of our sins is eternal death. Here's where we would be. We would be hopeless, helpless, unable to come to God. We'd be lost. We'd be deceived. And every day that we would live without faith in God, we would be increasing our condemnation before God. Oh, if the Lord had not been on our side, if the Lord had not been for us, then surely we would have been destroyed. We would have been swallowed up, we would have been drowned, and we would have had the raging waters sweep over our soul. Ponder this evening the reflection, ponder the reflection on where you would be had God not saved you. But number two in your notes, the psalm continues in verses six through eight, and that's the reaffirmation. And this is the beauty of corporate worship. This is the beauty of preaching the whole counsel of God. What do we need to know? We reflect on where we would be, and then we reaffirm, we rely on our God. We stake our confidence in God. Where else will we go? He has the words of eternal life. Where else are we gonna go for counsel? Where else are we gonna go for help? Where else are we gonna go for security? Where else are we gonna go for hope? In Luke chapter one, blessed be the Lord who has accomplished redemption for us. Look at what the people of Israel say now in verse six. I love, it's almost like a shift. Oh, if God, you had not been for us, we would have drowned. We would have been destroyed. We would have been crushed. Verse six, but blessed be the Lord, meaning praise be to the Lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. Oh, there were enemies that wanted to attack David and the Israelite kingdom. Plenty of enemies, like monsters with their teeth, who wanted to tear God's people apart. But you know what? We have a far greater enemy than that. We have a lion-like enemy. The adversary of our souls, Satan himself, who rages and he roars. But praise God! Blessed be the Lord! God has delivered our soul from all spiritual harm. from spiritual wrath, from all spiritual adversaries, from the spiritual arch ruler, from God's own eternal judgment. What a God that He has delivered. Look at verse 6. Blessed be the Lord who has not given us to be torn by their teeth. What a graphic image in the Hebrew. Torn by teeth is an image of a prey caught in, like, a lion's mouth. And the lion is ready and powerful enough to devour. But God delivered. But God intervened. We reaffirm our deliverance is in the Lord. We reaffirm our salvation is in the Lord. Look at verse 7, he continues, our soul, I love the corporate, the plural there, our soul, there is a my, that's true, but the my is in the community of believers. God delivered me. But you know what, together as believers, we can say, our soul, verse seven, our soul has escaped like a bird out of the snare of the trapper. The snare is broken and we have escaped. What a prolonged image, what a prolonged metaphor here. It's of a bird that is caught in the snare of a trapper. So, think spiritually. Your soul and my soul has escaped bondage to our sin. And you know, we have an enemy who is cunning. We have an enemy who is crafty and he has many snares and he has many traps that try to assault us. And he doesn't just have an arrow shooting at us from the front. He's got arrows from behind and he's got arrows from above and on the side. And when you don't expect plenty of arrows and plenty of traps and plenty of snares to come our way. In your notes, I just give you three. I give you three. One of the ways that God has delivered his people that we must be on guard from is the snare of worldliness. Worldliness. It's when we focus on the things of the world, which means our sight is not on Christ, but it's consumed with the things of this world. And here's what's really dangerous about it. It's not always bad and sinful. It just preoccupies us. Now it can, we can feed on the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life that is sinful, but there's so many distractions in the world that can get our eyes off of Christ. We have to be on guard and the temptation the trap of worldliness. Number two, we also have to be on guard against the trap of selfishness. Selfishness. Selfishness is really just the enemy of all love. Because selfishness seeks to fulfill self, find ultimate happiness in self, doing what self wants, thinking about self, because self is the ultimate accountability, somebody might think. And what a trap that is. What a snare that is. How, like a bird, we can easily be trapped by something like that. We must guard from worldliness. We have to guard from selfishness. Third, we have to guard from unbelief, which usually shows itself in prayerlessness, and it shows itself in little trust in God. Or maybe it's this kind of mindset. I got this. I got this. I got this. I can do it. I can handle it. And yet, and yet the psalmist is saying, blessed be the Lord. He has not given us over. He has delivered us from the snare of the trapper. The snare is broken. We have escaped, not just an enemy who has come against us for battle, but a spiritual enemy who has raged against our soul. What a God, what a God who delivers from the bondage at the trap of sin. You know, God did this for Israel nationally, but here's the question. Are you sure tonight he's done this for you individually? Are you sure tonight that you can say the snare, the trap in my life is broken? Can you take verse seven and personalize it? That my soul, our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper. The snare is broken. We have escaped. Can you say that Satan's powers and traps and hold on me is broken? That's the declaration. of a true Christian. Satan has no power over me. Sin has no dominion over me because Jesus has broken that power. He has defeated that power. My Savior has bruised the head of the serpent. And you and I can say in verse seven, I have escaped. I am freed from sin's hold on me. I am not dead in my sin any longer, but I am alive in Christ. Verse 8 is such a hope-filled verse. Actually, this was the verse that John Calvin and many of the Reformers would read for their call to worship on the Lord's Day. It was the verse that the Huguenots, these were the French Protestants that then had to flee France because of persecution, they went to England. In the 1500s, the Huguenots read verse 8 as a call to worship when they would gather together. Look at verse 8. Our help, believers, our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Our help. He's our helper. He is a reliable helper and a faithful helper. He is an available helper. He's a personal helper. Think of it. When God made heaven, he had no tools. When God made earth, he had no materials that pre-existed to make it from. He had no instructions, no blueprint, no counselor to help him, no how-to YouTube tutorial. when he made everything in the skies and all the galaxies, everything in the earth and the seas and everything therein. God had no outside help. He didn't need it. And our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth. What is it in your life? that you feel like in verse three, four, and five, oh, I feel like I'm just gonna be swept away. Oh, I feel like I'm gonna be swallowed up alive. Oh, I feel like it's way too much for me to handle. Hear the biblical counsel from Thomas Manton. He said this, as long as I see two great monuments standing, heaven and earth, I have no need to be discouraged. The skies are there. Sun, moon, stars, they're there. Earth is there. God made it all. He holds it all together. If God has done that, I don't need to be discouraged. I don't need to fear. My God is our helper. And verse 8, if you look carefully, the believers say, our help is in the name. The word name is a huge Old Testament theme. It's a concept in the Old Testament Bible. It refers to the fullness of who God is. Like the Kirkland family legacy or something. All that you are, but think of God. the name of God and all that God is. Like David who came against Goliath, I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. Think about Solomon, who built a temple for the name of Yahweh, 1 Kings 5.5. Oh, I want the worth of God to be put on display. It's like Job, who even when he suffered, he said, blessed be the name of the Lord, the character of God. To be saved, Romans 10.13, you must call upon the Name, what does that mean? The fullness of who God is. We need to believe in the promises of Christ, all divinity, all the fullness of God. This is our help, our great God. Here's my question tonight for you and for me. Can you include yourself in that little phrase in verse eight? He's our help. Can you include yourself in that? Is he my help? Is he our help? Can you say that he is your rock and your refuge? Is he your redeemer? Is he your help? Is he your righteousness? This is the God of heaven. This is the God of earth. This is the God of mercy. This is the God who has given salvation. This is the God who delivers his people. What a great God. If God had not been for us, we would be swallowed up. We would be swallowed up in our sin. But praise God, there is a Redeemer. Praise God, there is an atoning Lamb. Praise God, there is a risen Redeemer. There is a true Helper, an all-sufficient Savior, and He is Jesus Christ. I want to close by asking you to turn with me to Romans 8. Romans 8. Let's end our time by meditating for a moment on Romans 8, verse 31 and following. Because Romans 8, as you're turning there, is all about deliverance from bondage. God delivers from the flesh in verses 1 to 17. He delivers from bodily suffering, the groans of our body, verses 18 to 27. But then he delivers you from sin and from falling away in Romans 8, verses 28 to 39. Look at verse 31. I love how Paul in Romans 8, verse 31, I love what he says here. What shall we say to all of these things? Meaning the work of salvation in verse 28 to 30. If God is for us, there's that phrase, had God not been for us, then we would have perished. But if God is for us, who can be against us? Think of that. If God is for you, what circumstance, what spiritual enemy could ever prevail against you? If God is for us, who could be against us? Verse 32, he who did not spare his own son, but God delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things. Oh, what a verse that we could ponder for eternity, that God has given you the son, the redeemer, the substitute to save your soul. And with him, he freely gives you all things because you're in Christ. 33, who's going to bring a charge? against God's elect. I mean, who's going to bring a valid charge against you before the throne of God? You're one of God's own children. God is the one who justifies, who is the one who condemns. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised. He is at the right hand of God who intercedes for us. Yeah, but I feel like it's too much to bear. I feel like I'm going to be eaten alive. I feel like I'm gonna drown. I feel like there's too much going on in life. I don't feel like I can handle it. Verse 35, who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, any distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. No, it is written, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We're considered a sheep to be slaughtered. I feel like I'm just a sheep led for the slaughter. No, 37, in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing. will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Our helper is in the name of the Lord. If God is for us, who can be against us? Praise God for the work of Christ. Lord, thank you so much for the time in your word, such a brief, time in the in the psalm reflecting on david and the nation of israel and how you delivered them but oh god how thankful we are that you give ultimate spiritual eternal deliverance in the lord jesus christ how we love him and worship him we're thankful that we can pray together in jesus name amen