Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 124:6
Blessed [be] the LORD, who hath not given us [as] a prey to their teeth.
6. a prey to their teeth ] For the figure cp. Psa 7:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
6 8. Thanksgiving and confidence for the future.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Blessed be the Lord – The Lord be praised; or, We have reason to praise the Lord because we have been delivered from these calamities.
Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth – The figure is here changed, though the same idea is retained. The imago is now that of destruction by wild beasts – a form of destruction not less fearful than that which comes from overflowing waters. Such changes of imagery constantly occur in the Book of Psalms, and in impassioned poetry everywhere. The mind is full of a subject; numerous illustrations occur in the rapidity of thought; and the mind seizes upon one and then upon another as best suited to express the emotions of the soul. The next verse furnishes another instance of this sudden transition.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 124:6-8
Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
Thanksgiving for deliverance
1. It is our duty after delivery from dangers to acknowledge not only Gods power for us, but His goodness also towards us, and to acknowledge Him the fountain of all blessedness upon that occasion (verse 6).
2. As the Churchs enemies are superior to her in worldly strength, so also in policy, craftiness, and worldly wit, as the fowler is craftier than the bird.
3. According as the danger is fearful, so is the delivery sweet and joyful (verse 7).
4. It is as easy for God to deliver His people out of their enemies hands, even when they have the godly in their power, as to break a net made of thread or yarn, wherewith birds are taken.
5. The fairest fruits of our by-past experience is to glorify God by confidence in Him for time to come.
6. Then is our confidence in God to be delivered from evil well bottomed, when we consider the Lords omnipotency manifested in the creation of the world, and held out by His Word unto us: for so much doth the psalmist teach, when he maketh mention of the name of the Lord, and the work of the Lord, in professing of his confidence. (D. Dickson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
A metaphor from wild beasts, which tear and devour their prey with their teeth.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6, 7. The figure is changed tothat of a rapacious wild beast (Ps3:7), and then of a fowler (Ps91:3), and complete escape is denoted by breaking the net.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Blessed [be] the Lord,…. Here begins the church’s thanksgiving for deliverance from all their enemies, their proud persecutors; and from all afflictions and troubles by them; which they could never have been delivered from, had not the Lord appeared for them; and therefore it is but just that he should have all the glory of it, and be blessed and praised on account thereof;
who hath not given us [as] a prey to their teeth; the teeth of wicked men are like spears and arrows, like swords and knives, to devour good men; their passions are strong, and their desires very vehement after their ruin; and, if suffered, the saints would fall an easy prey to them: but God will not give them up to them, either to Satan the devouring lion, or to any of his emissaries; nay, when they have seized them, and got them in their mouths, they shall be snatched from them, as the lamb out of the mouth of the lion and the bear by David; see
Ps 57:4 1Pe 5:8.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
After the fact of the divine succour has been expressed, in Psa 124:6 follows the thanksgiving for it, and in Psa 124:7 the joyful shout of the rescued one. In Psa 124:6 the enemies are conceived of as beasts of prey on account of their bloodthirstiness, just as the worldly empires are in the Book of Daniel; in Psa 124:7 as “fowlers” on account of their cunning. According to the punctuation it is not to be rendered: Our soul is like a bird that is escaped, in which case it would have been accented , but: our soul (subject with Rebia magnum) is as a bird ( as in Hos 11:11; Pro 23:32; Job 14:2, instead of the syntactically more usual ) escaped out of the snare of him who lays snares ( , elsewhere , , a fowler, Psa 91:3). (with a beside Rebia) is 3rd praet.: the snare was burst, and we – we became free. In Psa 124:8 (cf. Psa 121:2; Psa 134:3) the universal, and here pertinent thought, viz., the help of Israel is in the name of Jahve, the Creator of the world, i.e., in Him who is manifest as such and is continually verifying Himself, forms the epiphonematic close. Whether the power of the world seeks to make the church of Jahve like to itself or to annihilate it, it is not a disavowal of its God, but a faithful confession, stedfast even to death, that leads to its deliverance.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Security of God’s People. | |
6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Here the psalmist further magnifies the great deliverance God had lately wrought for them.
I. That their hearts might be the more enlarged in thankfulness to him (v. 6): Blessed be the Lord. God is the author of all our deliverances, and therefore he must have the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not return thanks to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him because we had such a narrow escape. We were delivered, 1. Like a lamb out of the very jaws of a beast of prey: God has not given us as a prey to their teeth, intimating that they had no power over God’s people but what was given them from above. They could not be a prey to their teeth unless God gave them up, and therefore they were rescued, because God would not suffer them to be ruined. 2. Like a bird, a little bird (the word signifies a sparrow), out of the snare of the fowler. The enemies are very subtle and spiteful; they lay snares for God’s people, to bring them into sin and trouble, and to hold them there. Sometimes they seem to have prevailed so far as to gain their point. God’s people are taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any weak and silly bird is; and then is God’s time to appear for their relief, when all other friends fail; then God breaks the snare, and turns the counsel of the enemies into foolishness: The snare is broken and so we are delivered. Isaac was saved when he lay ready to be sacrificed. Jehovah-jireh–in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
II. That their hearts, and the hearts of others, might be the more encouraged to trust in God in the like dangers (v. 8): Our help is in the name of the Lord. David had directed us (Ps. cxxi. 2) to depend upon God for help as to our personal concerns–My help is in the name of the Lord; here as to the concerns of the public–Our help is so. It is a comfort to all that lay the interests of God’s Israel near their hearts that Israel’s God is the same that made the world, and therefore will have a church in the world, and can secure that church in times of the greatest danger and distress. In him therefore let the church’s friends put their confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
6. Blessed be Jehovah! The Psalmist now exhorts the godly to a grateful acknowledgment of the divine goodness, and as it were puts words into their mouth. Here also he shows by another similitude, that it would have been all over with them had not God succoured them; affirming that they were delivered not otherwise than if some one had plucked the prey from the teeth of a wild and cruel beast. Of the same import is the third similitude, That they were on all sides entrapped and entangled in the snares of their enemies, even as little birds caught in the net he stretched under the hand of the fowler; and that when they were delivered, it was just as if one should set at liberty birds which had been taken. The amount is, that the people of God, feeble, without counsel, and destitute of aid, had not only to deal with blood-thirsty and furious beasts, but were also ensnared by bird-nets and stratagems, so that being greatly inferior to their enemies as well in policy as in open force, they were besieged by many deaths. From this it may be easily gathered that they were miraculously preserved.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Reader! shall we not join this song, and evermore take up the same confidence: “Blessed, forever blessed be God for Jesus Christ! And henceforth our help, and hope, and strength, shall only be in him. He that hath delivered, doth deliver, and in whom we trust he will yet deliver, ” 2Co 1:10 . Yes, blessed Jesus! henceforth may I find grace to leave all with thee. My soul, the church, every believer, all, all are and must be safe in thy eternal and almighty hands! Like the church of old, I will sing, and sing aloud, Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and song, he also is become my salvation, Isa 12:2 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 124:6 Blessed [be] the LORD, who hath not given us [as] a prey to their teeth.
Ver. 6. Blessed be the Lord, &c. ] Deo gratias, thanks be to God was much in Austin’s mouth, and should be so in ours, but especially upon some signal deliverance. How was God blessed at Berachah? 2Ch 20:26
As a prey to their teeth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 124:6-8
6Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.
7Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper;
The snare is broken and we have escaped.
8Our help is in the name of the Lord,
Who made heaven and earth.
Psa 124:6-8 YHWH is blessed (BDB 138, KB 159, Qal passive participle) for His deliverance of national Israel. The deliverance is characterized as
1. escape from a predatory animal (i.e., Psa 7:2)
2. escape from a bird hunter/trapper (cf. Psa 91:3; Psa 119:110; Pro 6:5)
Psa 124:7 b One wonders if this line of poetry is meant to convey the destruction of the invading army.
Psa 124:8 a The name stands for the person. See Special Topic: The Name of YHWH .
Psa 124:8 b This is a set phrase (cf. Psa 102:25; Psa 121:2; Psa 124:8; Psa 134:3; Psa 146:6) asserting the uniqueness of Israel’s God. See SPECIAL TOPIC: MONOTHEISM .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Psa 124:6-8
Psa 124:6-8
“Blessed be Jehovah,
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 Jehovah,
Who made heaven and earth.”
The terrible danger of the situation Israel survived was concentrated in that hostile Philistine army. They had come up “to seek David” (2Sa 5:17), for the purpose of killing him, exactly as they had destroyed Saul. Moreover they possessed at that time the `bridle’ of the city of Jerusalem. This meant they held the strategic advantage over the city. This is evident in the passage from 2Sa 8:1, which declares that “David smote the Philistines, subdued them, and took `the bridle of the mother city’ out of the hands of the Philistines.”
“Jehovah hath not given us … a prey to their teeth” (Psa 124:6). In the true Hebrew style, the metaphor changes again. This line compares the army of the enemy to a pack of wild beasts tearing their victims apart with their teeth.
“As a bird out of the snare of the fowlers” (Psa 124:7). Again, here is another metaphor. Israel is the helpless bird already captured in the snare (trap) of the fowlers; but, lo, and, behold, the snare breaks and Israel escapes! What a great miracle God wrought upon their behalf!
“Our help is in the name of Jehovah” (Psa 124:8). In both Old Testament and New Testament, much is made of “The Name” of God and of Jesus Christ, of which an apostle said, “Neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved” (Act 4:12).
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 124:6. Since God had extended such merciful protection for his own, this verse blesses or praises Him for it.
Psa 124:7. David used the occupation of a trapper for an illustration. A fowler is one who sets snares to catch fowl and other objects of prey. David’s soul (his present life) had escaped the trap through the watchfulness of the Lord.
Psa 124:8. The Psalmist drops his figures and uses literal terms. His reasoning is that deliverance had come from the One who was maker of heaven and earth.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
who hath not: Psa 17:9, Psa 118:13, Psa 145:5, Psa 145:6, Exo 15:9, Exo 15:10, Jdg 5:30, Jdg 5:31, 1Sa 26:20, Isa 10:14-19
Reciprocal: 1Sa 20:1 – fled 2Sa 18:28 – Blessed Job 29:17 – and plucked Psa 37:33 – will not Psa 41:11 – because Psa 119:110 – wicked Psa 129:4 – cut asunder Isa 49:24 – prey
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2. Praise for the Lord’s protection 124:6-8
David next praised Yahweh for not allowing Israel’s enemies to tear her to pieces as a vicious animal tears its prey. Israel had escaped as a bird that flies free when someone releases the trap that snared it. Israel’s helper was Yahweh, not any human deliverer (cf. Psa 121:8). He is the Maker of heaven and earth (cf. Psa 115:15; Psa 121:2), the strongest of all deliverers.
This psalm and Psalms 121 both commemorate God’s preservation of the Israelites. Psalms 121 is more personal and individualistic in its outlook, whereas this one is more national and corporate-perhaps a communal thanksgiving song. The preservation of God’s people is a fit subject for praise in both respects. Israel has suffered from anti-Semitism for centuries, yet God has faithfully preserved His chosen people to the present day.