서론
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简体中文
英文原文
David penned this psalm (we suppose) upon occasion of some great deliverance which God wrought for him and his people from some very threatening danger, which was likely to have involved them all in ruin, whether by foreign invasion, or intestine insurrection, is not certain; whatever it was he seems to have been himself much affected, and very desirous to affect others, with the goodness of God, in making a way for them to escape. To him he is careful to give all the glory, and takes none to himself as conquerors usually do. I. He here magnifies the greatness of the danger they were in, and of the ruin they were at the brink of, Ps 124:1-5. II. He gives God the glory of their escape, Ps 124:6,7,124:1,2. III. He takes encouragement thence to trust in God, Ps 124:8. In singing this psalm, besides the application of it to any particular deliverance wrought for us and our people, in our days and the days of our fathers, we may have in our thoughts the great work of our redemption by Jesus Christ, by which we were rescued from the powers of darkness.
1-5
The Security of God's People
简体中文
神百姓的稳妥
大卫上行之诗。
¹ 若不是耶和华帮助我们，若不是耶和华帮助我们，愿以色列人说；
² 若不是耶和华帮助我们，当人起来攻击我们，
³ 那时波涛必漫过我们，河水必淹没我们；
⁴ 那时狂傲的水必漫过我们，狂傲的水必淹没我们，
⁵ 狂傲的水必漫过我们。
神的百姓在此受感来为他们的拯救赞美神，并要留意，
一、人的恶意——这恶意曾把他们推到毁灭的边缘。愿以色列人说：他们与死亡之间只差一步。病势越显得绝望，医治时医生的技艺就越显得高超。请观察，1. 威胁的危险来自何方：「人起来攻击我们」——与我们同类的受造之物，却一心要毁灭我们。「人对人如同狼。」红色的龙、吼叫的狮子要吞灭我们，这并不稀奇；但人竟然渴慕人血——押沙龙竟然渴慕自己父亲的血——一个妇人竟然喝醉了圣徒的血——这倒是我们与约翰一同可以大大希奇的事。从人那里我们本可期待人道，然而有些人的「怜悯也是残忍」。但这些人是怎么了？「他们的怒气向我们发作」（诗124:3）；他们为这样那样的事发怒，于是除了那些招致他们不悦之人的灭亡，便别无所足。怒气残忍，愤恨如狂。他们的怒气发作如同烈火，要将我们吞灭。他们骄傲——「恶人骄横，逼迫穷人」。他们胆大妄为——「他们起来攻击我们」，起来叛乱，决意要活活将我们「吞下」。2. 这险情到了何等地步，若再进一步就必致命：「我们必被吞吃，如同羊羔被狮子吞吃，不仅被杀，更是被『吞下』，连我们的残骸也不存留；被吞下得如此急促，在我们尚未觉察之际，我们便活活地下到坑中。我们必被淹没，如同低洼地被山洪淹没，或沙滩被大涨潮淹没。」他用这一比喻反复铺陈，其中递进的层次使本篇如同其余上行之诗一样，是一首「上升」之诗。「狂傲的水必漫过我们。」漫过我们什么？「河水必漫过我们的性命」，我们的生命、我们的安慰，并一切我们所宝贵的。是什么水？「狂傲的水」。神有时容许他百姓的仇敌大大地胜过他们，好叫他自己拯救的大能在他们身上显得更加辉煌。
二、神的恩惠——他们借此从毁灭的边缘被救拔出来：「耶和华在我们一边」；「若不是他如此，我们早已灭亡了。」1.「神在我们一边；他站在我们这边，认领我们的事业，为我们显现。他是帮助我们的，是随时的帮助，是在我们一边、近在咫尺的帮助。他与我们同在，不仅为我们，更在我们中间，作我们全军最高的统帅。」2. 这位神就是耶和华；重点正在于此。「若不是耶和华自己——那位具有无限大能与完全的神——承担了我们的拯救，我们的仇敌早就把我们压倒了。」因此，以耶和华为神的百姓，便是有福的——他是全足的神。愿以色列如此说，归荣耀给他，并定意永不离开他。
英文原文
The Security of God's People
A song of degrees of David.
¹ If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
² If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us:
³ Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us:
⁴ Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
⁵ Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
The people of God, being here called upon to praise God for their deliverance, are to take notice,
I. Of the malice of men, by which they were reduced to the very brink of ruin. Let Israel say that there was but a step between them and death: the more desperate the disease appears to have been the more does the skill of the Physician appear in the cure. Observe, 1. Whence the threatening danger came: Men rose up against us, creatures of our own kind, and yet bent upon our ruin. Homo homini lupus—Man is a wolf to man. No marvel that the red dragon, the roaring lion, should seek to swallow us up; but that men should thirst after the blood of men, Absalom after the blood of his own father, that a woman should be drunk with the blood of saints, is what, with St. John, we may wonder at with great admiration. From men we may expect humanity, yet there are those whose tender mercies are cruel. But what was the matter with these men? Why their wrath was kindled against us (Ps 124:3); something or other they were angry at, and then no less would serve than the destruction of those they had conceived a displeasure against. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous. Their wrath was kindled as fire ready to consume us. They were proud; and the wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. They were daring in their attempt; they rose up against us, rose in rebellion, with a resolution to swallow us up alive. 2. How far it went, and how fatal it would have been if it had gone a little further: "We should have been devoured as a lamb by a lion, not only slain, but swallowed up, so that there would have been no relics of us remaining, swallowed up with so much haste, ere we were aware, that we should have gone down alive to the pit. We should have been deluged as the low grounds by a land-flood or the sands by a high spring-tide." This similitude he dwells upon, with the ascents which bespeak this a song of degrees, or risings, like the rest. The waters had overwhelmed us. What of us? Why the stream had gone over our souls, our lives, our comforts, all that is dear to us. What waters? Why the proud waters. God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his own power may appear the more illustrious in their deliverance.
II. Of the goodness of God, by which they were rescued from the very brink of ruin: "The Lord was on our side; and, if he had not been so, we should have been undone." 1. "God was on our side; he took our part, espoused our cause, and appeared for us. He was our helper, and a very present help, a help on our side, nigh at hand. He was with us, not only for us, but among us, and commander-in-chief of our forces." 2. That God was Jehovah; there the emphasis lies. "If it had not been Jehovah himself, a God of infinite power and perfection, that had undertaken our deliverance, our enemies would have overpowered us." Happy the people, therefore, whose God is Jehovah, a God all-sufficient. Let Israel say this, to his honour, and resolve never to forsake him.
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The Security of God's People
简体中文
神百姓的稳妥
⁶ 耶和华是应当称颂的，他没有把我们当作食饵交给他们吞吃。 ⁷ 我们好像雀鸟从捕鸟人的网罗里逃脱；网罗破裂，我们逃脱了。 ⁸ 我们得帮助，是在乎倚靠造天地之耶和华的名。
在此诗人进一步称颂神近来为他们所行的大拯救。
一、好叫他们的心更加宽广地向神感恩（诗124:6）：「耶和华是应当称颂的。」神是我们一切拯救的创始者，所以他必在其中得着荣耀。我们若不向他献上感谢，便是夺了他所当得的。我们也更加有义务赞美他，因为我们曾如此险些遭害。我们得拯救，1. 如同羊羔从野兽的牙口中救出：神「没有把我们当作食饵交给他们吞吃」，这暗示他们对神百姓所有的权柄都是从上头赐给他们的。除非神把他们交出来，他们不能成为他们牙齿下的食饵；所以他们得蒙拯救，是因为神不容他们被毁灭。2. 如同「雀鸟」——一只小鸟（这字意为麻雀）——「从捕鸟人的网罗里逃脱」。仇敌极其诡诈、极其恶毒；他们为神的百姓设下网罗，要使他们陷入罪与患难中，并在其中困住他们。有时他们似乎已得逞到得其所愿的地步。神的百姓被网罗捉住，无力自救，如同任何软弱愚拙的鸟一样；「那时」正是神为他们显现拯救之时，当一切别的帮助都失败之时；那时神使网罗破裂，又使仇敌的计谋变为愚拙：「网罗破裂，我们逃脱了。」以撒在将被献为祭之时得蒙拯救。「耶和华以勒——在耶和华的山上必有预备」。
二、好叫他们的心、并别人的心在类似的危险中更受鼓励来信靠神（诗124:8）：「我们得帮助，是在乎倚靠造天地之耶和华的名。」大卫曾指引我们（诗121:2）为个人的事倚靠神得帮助——「我的帮助从造天地的耶和华而来」；此处是关乎公众的事——我们的帮助也是如此。凡将神以色列的利益贴近心怀的人，都得着安慰，因为以色列的神就是创造世界的那位，他因此必在世界中有教会，并能在最大的危险与困苦中保护那教会。所以教会的友人当在他里面存信心，便不至蒙羞。
英文原文
The Security of God's People
⁶ Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
⁷ Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Here the psalmist further magnifies the great deliverance God had lately wrought for them.
I. That their hearts might be the more enlarged in thankfulness to him (Ps 124:6): Blessed be the Lord. God is the author of all our deliverances, and therefore he must have the glory of them. We rob him of his due if we do not return thanks to him. And we are the more obliged to praise him because we had such a narrow escape. We were delivered, 1. Like a lamb out of the very jaws of a beast of prey: God has not given us as a prey to their teeth, intimating that they had no power over God's people but what was given them from above. They could not be a prey to their teeth unless God gave them up, and therefore they were rescued, because God would not suffer them to be ruined. 2. Like a bird, a little bird (the word signifies a sparrow), out of the snare of the fowler. The enemies are very subtle and spiteful; they lay snares for God's people, to bring them into sin and trouble, and to hold them there. Sometimes they seem to have prevailed so far as to gain their point. God's people are taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any weak and silly bird is; and then is God's time to appear for their relief, when all other friends fail; then God breaks the snare, and turns the counsel of the enemies into foolishness: The snare is broken and so we are delivered. Isaac was saved when he lay ready to be sacrificed. Jehovah-jireh—in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.
II. That their hearts, and the hearts of others, might be the more encouraged to trust in God in the like dangers (Ps 124:8): Our help is in the name of the Lord. David had directed us (Ps 121:2) to depend upon God for help as to our personal concerns—My help is in the name of the Lord; here as to the concerns of the public—Our help is so. It is a comfort to all that lay the interests of God's Israel near their hearts that Israel's God is the same that made the world, and therefore will have a church in the world, and can secure that church in times of the greatest danger and distress. In him therefore let the church's friends put their confidence, and they shall not be put to confusion.
据推测本篇是大卫因神为他与他百姓,从某个极威吓的危险——那危险或将他们尽都卷入灭亡,究竟为外敌入侵或内乱,则不能定——所行的某次大解救而作;无论为何,他似乎自己深受感动,极愿使他人也受感于神为他们开逃生之道的良善。他小心将一切荣耀归给他,不取一分归己——如征服者通常所行。本篇结构如下:一、他在此称颂他们所处危险之大、所临灭亡之险之近(诗124:1-5);二、他将他们得以逃脱的荣耀归给神(诗124:6,7;124:1,2);三、他由此受勉信靠神(诗124:8)。我们唱这首诗时,除了将其应用于我们与我们百姓、在我们日子与我们列祖日子所得任何特别的解救,还可在我们心中思想我们借耶稣基督所得那大救赎之工——借此我们得救脱离黑暗的权势。