if the lord had not been on our side.
- Tammy Fager
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
Study Guide: Psalm 124
Some stories only make sense after you almost didn’t make it.
You know the kind. The diagnosis that could have ended everything. The relationship that almost wrecked you. The old pattern that nearly swallowed you again. Later people say, “Well, it all worked out.” But you remember how close it was. You remember the water rising. You remember thinking, If Somebody hadn’t stepped in…
That is how Psalm 124 starts. Not with a slogan. With an if.
SETTING THE SCENE:
Psalm 124 is the fifth of the fifteen Songs of Ascent (Psalms 120–134). The heading connects it with David. Pilgrims sang these songs on the way up to Jerusalem. The road was no postcard. It was heat, danger, enemies, exhaustion, and the constant question of whether you would actually arrive.
If we read these psalms as stages of a journey:
Psalm 120 said, Turn around. Leave the lying world.
Psalm 121 said, Look up. Your help comes from the Lord.
Psalm 122 said, You’re not walking this alone.
Psalm 123 said, Whose approval are you actually waiting on?
Psalm 124 now says, Let’s tell the truth about what would have happened if He hadn’t been on our side.
Eugene Peterson called this psalm “a song of hazard—and of help.” He said that among
the Songs of Ascents, this one “better than any other describes the hazardous work of all discipleship and declares the help that is always experienced at the hand of God.”
Following Jesus does not turn the road into a sidewalk. It teaches you who held you when the flood hit.
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READ PSALM 124
1. THE SONG STARTS WITH “IF”
If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
if the LORD had not been on our side
when people attacked us…
—Psalm 124:1–2 (NIV)
That if is not doubt. It is memory with the volume turned up. Martin Luther, the German pastor and Reformer who spent years preaching through the Psalms, noticed why David says the line twice.
While you’re in the danger, fear feels endless. After you’re out, it’s easy to tell yourself it wasn’t that bad. Psalm 124 will not let you minimize the rescue you have been through.
Eugene Peterson heard the same thing: one person announces the theme, and everyone joins in. “God’s help is not a private experience; it is a corporate reality.” This is a we song. “Let Israel say.”
Following Jesus is personal. This praise is meant to be spoken out loud with other travelers.
2. THE HAZARD WAS REAL
They would have swallowed us alive
when their anger flared against us;
the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
the raging waters would have swept us away.
—Psalm 124:3–5 (NIV)
Three pictures stack up fast: a beast swallowing prey, a flood over a soul, raging water with no shoreline.
Psalm 124 does not pretend discipleship is safe. Peterson’s point is pastoral and blunt: the Christian life is hazardous work. Enemies rise. Water rises. Snares snap shut.
If you have ever thought, “If God is on my side, why did it get this close?”—this psalm is not embarrassed by that question. It walks straight into it.
3. HELP IS NOT A SIDE NOTE
Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
—Psalm 124:6–7 (NIV)
The bird did not chew through the net. The snare broke.
That is the difference between self-rescue and salvation. You were in it. Then you weren’t—because He acted.
Peterson wrote, “It is the help we experience, not the hazards we risk, that shape our days.” The world rehearses the flood. Pilgrims learn to name the broken snare.
Help, in the Bible, is not God adding 10% to your effort. It is God carrying what you cannot carry alone.
4. THE SAME HELP PSALM 121 PROMISED
Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
—Psalm 124:8 (NIV)
Hear the echo?
Psalm 121:2 — “My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Psalm 124:8 — “Our help is in the name of the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121 is the promise on the way out the door. Psalm 124 is the testimony after the close call. Same Helper. Now it’s our help, not only my help.
The Name is not a lucky word. The Name is the Person who has shown Himself for us. Paul sings the New Testament version: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
5. JESUS IS THE LORD ON OUR SIDE
The deepest snare was not a bad week. It was sin and death.
We would have been swallowed alive. The torrent would have gone over our souls. Then Jesus walked into the flood, broke the snare, and came out the other side. The Maker of heaven and earth did not stay on the bank and shout advice. He put Himself on our side.
That is why Christians can tell the truth about how bad it was without collapsing. Peterson said it this way: Christians are not fussy moralists clucking over a world going to hell. They are people who praise the God who is on our side. Not pious pretenders. Robust witnesses to the God who is our help.
You don’t need everyone to understand why you still follow Him. You need to know who actually kept you from going under.
6. THIS IS A SONG FOR THE NEXT MILE, NOT ONLY THE LAST ONE
Psalm 124 looks backward so you can keep walking forward.
Tourists want the high points. Pilgrims sing on the hard miles: If the Lord had not been on our side… but He was. The snare is broken. We have escaped.
That memory becomes fuel. Not denial. Not spiritual amnesia. Honest gratitude that changes how you face the next rise in the road.
PSALM 120 → 121 → 122 → 123 → 124
Psalm 120: I’m headed the wrong direction. Turn around.
Psalm 121: I’ve started walking, but this road isn’t easy. God is watching over me.
Psalm 122: Wait—I’m not the only person out here. We’re walking together.
Psalm 123: Not everyone will understand. Whose approval matters?
Psalm 124: We almost didn’t make it. The Lord was on our side.
Following Jesus changes where we look. Then it changes what we remember when we look back.
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Why Context Changes Everything
If we skip the pilgrimage setting, Psalm 124 can shrink into a nice verse for a hard day: “Our help is in the name of the Lord.”
True. Incomplete.
Picture the original scene. People on the road. Dust. Hostility.
Memory of nations that should have erased them.
Memory of exile, ambush, hunger, mockery. They do not sing as people who barely had a scare. They sing as people who know they should have been gone.
Suddenly “if the Lord had not been on our side” is not poetry. It is the only honest sentence left.
And “let Israel say” means: don’t keep this rescue to yourself. The next traveler needs to hear it.
FOUR WAYS TO THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'VE LEARNED
1. LOOK BACK — What did I hear?
Read Psalm 124 again slowly. Where do you feel the “if”? Which image hits hardest—the swallowing beast, the flood, or the snare? How does singing this as a group of pilgrims change the way you hear verse 8?
2. LOOK IN — Is there something I need to leave?
Where have I been shrinking a rescue so I don’t have to give God the credit? Where have I been rehearsing the hazard more than the Help? Is there a close call I have never actually said out loud: “If the Lord had not been on my side…”?
3. LOOK AROUND — What lies am I hearing?
What does our culture say a “good life” should look like if God is really for us? How does Psalm 124 push back on the idea that following Jesus should feel safe, smooth, or privately managed?
4. LOOK AHEAD — What’s my next step?
Who needs to hear your “if the Lord had not…” story this week—not as drama, but as testimony? What would it look like to walk the next hard mile remembering the Help, not just bracing for the hazard?
Journey Group OR ME & 3 Small Group Discussion Starters:
If you're using this guide with your Journey Group, Me & 3 group, or a few friends, don't feel like you need to work through every question. Start with something that gets people talking and then let the conversation go deeper.
Start with something everyone can answer:
“Finish this sentence if you can: ‘If the Lord had not been on my side…’”
Don’t rush past this. Let people tell real stories.
Then follow it with:
“Why do you think we’re so quick to downplay how close it was after God brings us through?”
That naturally moves into pride, forgetfulness, fear of looking weak, or the lie that we mostly rescued ourselves.
Then bring Psalm 124 back in:
“Peterson said the help we experience—not the hazards we risk—shapes our days. Which one has been shaping our group lately, and how do we become people who say together, ‘Our help is in the name of the Lord’?”
Remember This
Following Jesus does not erase the hazard. it reveals the help!
You don't have to pretend the flood wasn't real. You do need to know who broke the snare.
FINAL THOUGHT
Psalm 120 said, “Turn around.”
Psalm 121 said, “God is watching over you.”
Psalm 122 said, “There are other people on the road.”
Psalm 123 said, “Look to the Lord, not the proud.”
Psalm 124 adds the sentence pilgrims keep needing:
If the Lord had not been on our side, we would not still be walking.
But He was.
The snare is broken.
We have escaped.
Now say it with the rest of the travelers—and keep climbing.
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There is something about stepping away from the "safe structures" of the city and into the stillness of the high desert that clears the noise and lets you hear God's voice.
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