Do you remember, as a kid, being on the playground or in the park with your friends and choosing up sides? I remember my friends and I on the baseball diamond, putting together our teams. The ‘captain’ (often self-appointed) would stepped in front of the line of eager athletes and begin his draft. Each of us would eagerly wait for our names to be called to see whose team you would be on. Without question, we all wanted to be on the winning side. A captain who knew what to do would chose the fastest, strongest, and smartest players to be ‘on his side’. I can even recall after a win saying, “If we didn’t have ____________ on our side, we would have lost.” It’s important to put strong people around you, but how much more important is it to have the right captain? Someone who knows how and what to do to win…
King David understood this principle and wrote about it in the 124th Psalm; “Had it not been the Lord who was on our side…” The next eight verses need to be remembered, reread and reviewed again and again in our lives.
vs 1-5 “Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, Let Israel now say,
Had it not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us,
Then they would have swallowed us alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
Then the waters would have engulfed us, the stream would have swept over our soul;
Then the raging waters would have swept over our soul.”
vs 6-8“Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us to be torn by their teeth.
Our soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the trapper; the snare is broken and we have escaped.
Our help is in the name of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.”
Debbie Dorman took this Psalm in 1998, added a musical score and, with the beauty of a melody, reminds us that God is our salvation.
“Had it not been the Lord who was on our side, had it not been the Lord who was on our side, the anger of the enemy would have swallowed us alive, Had it not been the Lord who was on our side. Blessed be the Lord who would not give us up; Blessed be the Lord for His unfailing love; the snare has been broken and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the Lord, blessed be the Lord.”