Psalm 124 - Torrents

If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—

    let Israel now say—
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
    when people rose up against us,
then they would have swallowed us up alive,
    when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
    the torrent would have gone over us;
then over us would have gone
    the raging waters.
Blessed be the Lord,
    who has not given us
    as prey to their teeth!
We have escaped like a bird
    from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
    and we have escaped!
Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.
Psalm 124

The forces of creation—first held back, structured, separated by the Lord. Then, with a bite of the good fruit of the earth, the cosmos swung back into chaos, the Fall. The creation subjected to futility, the rising up of the waters and the torrents… The floods of curse and judgment.

We sometimes feel the wash of the torrents, the brokenness of the world as it sweeps over us, the recognizing of our finitude against the winds, the waves, the forces of times, the structures of government, whether it be in cancer, finances, the hard heart of a loved one, the millions starving, the results of hurricanes or explosions… The ramifications of a bite still echo in chaos that rocks our world.

The, the Lord and Maker of heaven and earth himself stepped down amidst the darkness and the floods of our broken world. Christ himself sung this with years of Israelite history behind him—years of being subjected to the forces of chaos, of other nations, of being the small people. They were the people preserved so that the seed of Abraham, the seed of Eve, would come and deliver. The people preserved through many torrents and floods of slavery, and then delivered through the Red Sea and formed into the chosen people. A people preserved despite ungodly kings, judgment, and exile to bring salvation to the earth (Gen. 12:1-3;Ex. 19:4-6; Isa. 49:6). Israel knew the waters of chaos that threatened to destroy them as individuals and as a people. Surely, if the Lord was not on their side….

And here is the Promised One, the True Israel singing this psalm to his Father as he walks the dusty roads towards Jerusalem in his pilgrimages. We see his Father’s care in Christ’s own life, as he walked through crowds and escaped stoning for his hour had not yet come… We see him facing the threats, rejection, and anger of others. Yes, he knows the gnashing of teeth against him, the snare of slander, the rising of people against him…. Yet, more than that, more, he is the only one among the people of God who can truly say the Lord was not on his side, for a moment the torrents of darkness and evil had their way. The flood of darkness swallowed the earth as Christ hung on the cross, and the Lord turned his face away. He was prey in the teeth of the Prince of the World. The Creator was subject to the creation’s forces of chaos.

But he rose again—the Light broke into the darkness, the Light rose again. He conquered the forces of evil and chaos. He, Creator, is Redeemer of creation, and the entire cosmos is under his loving sway.

We hear him now singing over us and quieting us with his love, his people—and he sings to us, “The Lord who did not spare his own Son, me, the Lord who is now on your side, to whom you are forever and inseparably reconciled, who generously gives you all things, let all the people say, the Lord is NOW on your side, in me, in Christ… When people rise up against you, what can man do to you? When their anger is kindled against you, what flood can sweep you away? What torrent can go over you? What raging waters can pass over you?  For nothing can separate you from my love. I know you hurt—with the aches of age, the pains of cancer, the uncertainties of the future, the anger of people, the flood of financial bills, the heartbreak of broken relationships, the crying out for unsaved loved ones—I know you know you feel the torrents. But let you say, the Lord is on my side. Because I did not escape, because I faced the torrents—because I conquered the torrents, the evil, the raging waters of chaos—and rose again, victorious, sovereign, I, the Creator, the Lord who can rebuke the wind and the waves—they will not touch you. I both know your pain as a human on the earth and conquered your pain as the Lord of heaven and earth. I am on your side; I am for you. I have moved all of heaven and earth to preserve a people, to bring my salvation to pass in my Son—how will I not care for you?” 

He, the maker of heaven and earth, has been intricately involved in every iota and each epoch to preserve a people, to bring forth his own Son at the right time in the created order, who rose again, and will bring all the created order under himself—the one who calms the winds and the waves, this is our God. This is our help.