If the Lord Had Not Been on Our Side

If the Lord Had Not Been on Our Side

Twelfth after Trinity

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who art always more ready to hear than we to pray, and art wont to give more than either we desire or deserve; Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy; forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things which we are not worthy to ask, but through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord. Amen.

Psalter: 124 (BCP, p.433)

1. If the LORD himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say; if the LORD himself had not been on our side, when men rose up against us;

2 They had swallowed us up alive; when they were so wrathfully displeased at us.

3 Yea, the waters had drowned us, and the stream had gone over our soul.

4 The deep waters of the proud had gone even over our soul.

5 But praised be the LORD, who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth.

6 Our soul is escaped even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we are delivered.

7 Our help standeth in the Name of the LORD, who hath made heaven and earth.

We were driving back to seminary from Arkansas. It was getting toward dusk; I was driving too fast; and suddenly we came upon a tractor towing a farm trailer. There was a car approaching in the other lane, so I could not go around the tractor. I did the only thing I could which was to hit the brakes fast and hard. We went into a spin, and when we finally came out of it, we were safe. What was the explanation?  The only explanation, given by us or others, was that the Lord was with us and spared us.

In Psalm 134 David gives thanks for a remarkable deliverance. Eventually the Psalm was incorporated into a group of 15 that were sung by pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals. We, too, can sing it, as we make our way to the Lord’s Table.

1. Pictures of Desperation

What was David’s situation? He was faced with evil men full of hate and wrath who wanted to destroy him, his people, and his kingdom. They were too much for David. He could not see any way out, any way to be delivered.

He describes the situation with pictures.

• His enemies were like a vicious animal that would swallow him and his defenders alive. There is a video on YouTube from India. It shows a python lying in the road in obvious distress. What had happened was that he had swallowed not one but two goats. A man took mercy on him and shook the goats out. David felt that his enemies were about to swallow him alive.
• His enemies were like deep and raging waters that would drown him. On December 26, 2004, a Tsunami struck along the coasts of the Indian Ocean, killing 230,000. It’s hard to imagine the panic people must have felt as they saw the giant waves approaching and were helpless to escape. David felt his enemies were waters threatening to drown him.
• His enemies were like a wild animal who would tear and chew its prey, leading to a slow but violent death, the kind of death inflicted by a lion or alligator. David felt he and his people were at the mercy of enemies who would tear them apart and devour them.
• His enemies were like fowlers and he like a bird trapped in their snare. When a bird is caught in the fowler’s snare there is no escape, only the certainty that the fowler will come, take the the bird and kill it. David felt that he was trapped by his enemy with no escape possible.
• What was this historical circumstance that lies behind these pictures of desperation. They are recorded in 2 Samuel 517-25. After the Philistines defeated Saul’s army and Saul died at his own hand the kingdom was weak. There was civil war, and David’s reign was limited to Judah for 7 ½ years. But eventually David took Jerusalem, made it his capital, and consolidated his rule over all of Israel. The kingdom God stronger. This threatened the Philistines. They invaded Judah, and David went out to meet them, occupying a fortress. But his military position was very bad, and defeat seemed certain.
• What are circumstances that have threatened to overwhelm and overcome you? Perhaps it was a physical condition. You felt for sure that your symptoms indicated a fatal disease. You didn’t see how there was any other possibility. But the condition proved benign. Or it was a life reversal. You were betrayed by friends and abandoned by family. You didn’t think you could survive it. But you came through. Critical events when we are not in control makes us desperate.
• It is surely appropriate that we feel some desperation when we think about our country and culture which seems to be becoming hostile to Christian faith and practice. Recently, VP Biden, a Roman Catholic officiated at the wedding of two White House male staffers. It was a though he intentionally thumbed his nose not only at his own church but at all of historic Christianity. Not long ago Christian colleges in California when a bill introduced by a homosexual legislator was withdrawn that would have greatly restricted their religious freedom. We as Christians have cause to feel as though we are in David’s fortress under attack by the Philistines who threaten to overwhelm.

2. Divine Deliverance

But David was not destroyed.

• Why? The Lord was with him and on his side. David asked the Lord if he should attack, and the Lord said yes. So David attacked and the Philistines were routed. They are so panicked that they left behind the images of their gods. David’s men burned them. It was a total reversal of fortunes. There is no explanation for what happened but that the Lord was with David and gave him the victory.
• Is the Lord with us? Is he on our side? That phrase has often been used in politics. The religious right in its heyday came came close to claiming, “The Lord is on our side and the side of our political views and initiatives. Even nations have claimed God for their side. Both Germany and Great Britain went to war in WW I believing the Lord was on their side, and they they were fighting for God’s cause. But it is a mistake to identify our political or national cause with God. This is a misunderstanding of what it means for the Lord to be on our side.
• But the Lord is with his people.

What then shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ who died, yea rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.” (Romans 8:31-37)

• God is with you. He will never leave nor forsake you. He will fight for you and bring you to victory either now in this life, or a last by delivering you through death and bringing you to his eternal kingdom. Jesus will reign till all his enemies are defeated. And he promises that all his people will share in his eternal victory over sin, Satan, suffering, death, and hell.

3. David’s Confession

When it was all over, David confessed his confidence.

• “Our help is in the name of the Lord who made heaven and earth.”  The place of David’s confidence is where our must be as well. Our confidence is not in politicians. Nor in the power of organizations. Nor in the influence of Christian leaders. It is in name of the Lord.
• The name of the Lord stands for the Lord and all that he is - all that he has declared and revealed himself to be. He is the Lord who made the heavens and earth. By the word of his power he brought into existence all things that exist. In Genesis 1 Moses points to and describes the creation of first one thing and then of another. The pagans claimed that their gods had created this or that. But Moses says, “Look at whatever you want in all of creation, and it is Israel’s God, the Lord, who made all things. There is no other Creator.
• The writer of Hebrews assures us:

For He (the Lord) hath said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee”;  so that we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” Hebrew 13:5,6).

When we come to the Lord’s Table, we confess, “If the Lord had not been on our side...Our help is in the name of the Lord.

• Our sins would have condemned us. We could not atone for our sins. We could not remove their guilt. We could not by willpower free ourselves from their power.
• But God intervened in Christ. At what seemed the hour of his total defeat, God was at work in all his power to deliver us from the condemning power of sin.
• We take the bread into our hands; we take the cup to our lips, and we confess, “If the Lord had not been on our side, we would have been destroyed. But he was with us, and saved us. Our help is in the Lord, the Creator of all things, and his power, now and always.