Psalm 124: If the LORD Had Not Been on Our Side

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: then the proud waters had gone over our soul."

"Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth."

Step parallelism

"If it had not been the LORD who was on our side" is said twice; "then… then… then" repeats three times; "the snare… the snare is broken." Each line picks up a word from the line before, the stepwise style that some think gave the Ascents their name. The images move from being swallowed alive (Sheol) to flash floods to a trapped bird.

In worship

"Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth" (v. 8; Vulgate "Adjutorium nostrum in nomine Domini") opened the prayers at the foot of the altar in the Latin Mass and is still used in blessings. Calvin's Geneva liturgy began Sunday worship with this verse. The Hebrew heading is "A Song of degrees of David"; the library's Vulgate has only "Canticum graduum," without David's name. Psalms 120–134 each carry the heading "A Song of degrees" (shir ha-ma'alot, "song of the ascents"; Vulgate "Canticum graduum"). Proposals for the meaning: songs for pilgrims going up to Jerusalem; songs sung on the fifteen steps between the temple courts (the Mishnah, Middot 2:5 and Sukkah 5:4, mentions fifteen steps on which the Levites sang); songs of the return from Babylon (Ezra 7:9 calls it "the going up"); or a poetic style in which a word is picked up and repeated, step by step. The first is most widely held; none is certain.