We’ve entered the test, but it has only gotten harder — not easier on this journey.
The image here and the words inspiring my painting come from Psalm 124. Imagine the scene “when men attacked us”, “would have swallowed us alive”, “anger raged”, “overwhelmed”, “as prey to their teeth”, “current”, “snare”. Though these words are 3000 years old, we can supply our own ready images from the nightly news. As Solomon said, ‘there is nothing new under the baking sun’.
But, take heart time-traveler, for true to form and following the rhythm established in this 15-piece masterwork, this Psalm is a pivot. It’s the Reliance Psalm right in place between Distress and Resolve. The trouble is present here, it’s new and it is intense, but the reliance spoken of is also new and real while coming from of old. This pivot is a mid-triplet turning point midst the three Psalms that 124 sits within. We’ve already seen the journeyer is in Distress in 123. The Resolve will follow in Psalm 125. But in between is the crucial Pivot which announces this turning point.
Knowing how important the Pivot point is in my journey, your journey, and in any substantive move forward, I looked to see what could possibly be indicated as exemplary pivoting when the writer is so embattled. I was focusing on, even painting the trauma and could not see the point. But the writer’s Pivot is hidden in plain view in his very 1st words. It is almost too simple to appreciate. He tells the tale of trauma, but he announces the Victor in his first breath. “If the Lord had not been…” then later “the Lord deserves praise” and lastly “Our deliverer is the Lord!”
I thought of when I took a really hard test in college, then walked glumly into the building where the scores were posted. If my test score had been poor, I would have stayed quiet, but when I saw a victory, everybody had to hear about it whether they cared or not! Such the same here: “escaped” “help” “had it not been”!
David the warrior King of Israel, is the one who wrote these words in Psalm 124. Scholars who have looked at the history of the writings about the Hebrew Kings, and the transcriptions after the exile, suggest with good evidence that the entire 5th Book of the Psalms (107-150) was compiled as a final last volume into the Psalter, after the Hebrews had returned from Babylon. In other words, David, who penned this Psalm 500 years before, provides by his example the timeless pivot into the TESTING triplet in this compilation of Ascents. David knew by much personal experience what it was to turn his mind and his heart after God. And here, as in his storied life, he turns his heart to the Victor even in the trenches.
We’ve all had tests; especially so do God-followers who are traveling uphill against the current of culture in every age. But when God is seen, named and relied upon midst the struggle, the test-taker announces where any victory comes from.
A song of ascents; by David.
124 “If the Lord had not been on our side”—
let Israel say this.—
2 if the Lord had not been on our side,
when men attacked us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive,
when their anger raged against us.
4 The water would have overpowered us;
the current would have overwhelmed us.
5 The raging water
would have overwhelmed us.
6 The Lord deserves praise,
for he did not hand us over as prey to their teeth.
7 We escaped with our lives, like a bird from a hunter’s snare.
The snare broke, and we escaped.
8 Our deliverer is the Lord,
the Creator of heaven and earth.