A Song of degrees of David.
This psalm is highly applicable to every remarkable deliverance which God works for his church, especially to the great redemption wrought for his people by Christ. In it, (1.) David magnifies the danger they were in, ver. 1-5. (2.) Ascribes the glory of their deliverance to God, ver. 1-2, 6-7. (3.) Improves the deliverance as an encouragement to trust in God, ver. 8.
Let me behold Jehovah as a present help in trouble. Let my waiting eyes be towards him, who, notwithstanding all the combined power and policy of hell and earth, is able and ready to pull my feet out of the net.
First Version (C.M.)
1 Had not the Lord been on our side,
may Israel now say;
2 Had not the Lord been on our side,
when men rose us to slay;
3 They had us swallow'd quick, when as
their wrath 'gainst us did flame:
4 Waters had cover'd us, our soul
had sunk beneath the stream.
5 Then had the waters, swelling high,
over our soul made way.
6 Bless'd be the Lord, who to their teeth
us gave not for a prey.
7 Our soul's escaped, as a bird
out of the fowler's snare;
The snare asunder broken is,
and we escaped are.
8 Our sure and all-sufficient help
is in Jehovah's name;
His name who did the heav'n create,
and who the earth did frame.
Second Version (10.10.10.10.10.)
1 Now Israel
may say, and that truly,
If that the Lord
had not our cause maintain'd;
2 If that the Lord
had not our right sustain'd,
When cruel men
against us furiously
Rose up in wrath,
to make of us their prey;
3 Then certainly
they had devour'd us all,
And swallow'd quick,
for ought that we could deem;
Such was their rage,
as we might well esteem.
4 And as fierce floods
before them all things drown,
So had they brought
our soul to death quite down.
5 The raging streams,
with their proud swelling waves,
Had then our soul
o'erwhelmed in the deep.
6 But bless'd be God,
who doth us safely keep,
And hath not giv'n
us for a living prey
Unto their teeth,
and bloody cruelty.
7 Ev'n as a bird
out of the fowler's snare
Escapes away,
so is our soul set free:
Broke are their nets,
and thus escaped we.
8 Therefore our help
is in the Lord's great name,
Who heav'n and earth
by his great pow'r did frame.
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