Psalm 124:1-2 (KJV)

What does this mean?

This is one of the songs pilgrims sang as they traveled up to Jerusalem, and it looks back at a time when enemies rose up against Israel. The psalm asks a simple question: what would have happened if the Lord had not been on our side? The question itself is the point — it makes the singers remember that their survival was God's doing, not their own.

What does this teach us?

Some rescues are only visible in hindsight. The psalm does not celebrate a victory Israel won by strength; it celebrates the fact that God was on their side when they could not save themselves, and that made all the difference.

How can we apply this?

Look back over your own life for a moment when things could have gone badly and did not — the accident that missed, the door that closed, the help that arrived. Thank God for being on your side in that moment, even if you only see it now.

Related KJV passages

• “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

  Psalm 27:1

• “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?”

  Romans 8:31

• “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

  Psalm 46:1