Praise be to the Lord,
     who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
  We have escaped like a bird
     from the fowler’s snare;
 the snare has been broken,
     and we have escaped.
  Our help is in the name of the Lord,
     the Maker of heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:6-8)

What kind of help has our Lord given us? He gives us two kinds of help in this passage.

First, God freed us from the fowler’s snare. This snare stands for being trapped by sin and death. We need help!

Jesus is our rescuer. Once and for all, Jesus sets us free from the snare of sin and death when we repent and believe in him for salvation.

Second, the Psalmist also gives praise to the Lord that he “has not let us be torn by their teeth.”  Here, the “they” is enemies who attack.  This can refer to actual human enemies, to demonic forces, and to the junky things that happen to us just because we live in a fallen world.

Does this mean that God protects us from all tearing in this life? No. But no matter how much things do get rotten in our present life, our hope cannot be torn away from us. We keep our hope that our final destiny is with the Lord. We remain in union with Christ.

Here the apostle Paul is in great difficulty but not torn:

 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. (2 Corinthians 4:7-9) 

Paul compares our bodies to jars of clay. That sure highlights our weakness, contrasting our tiny power with God’s mighty power. When calamitous stuff seems overwhelming, God is constant. That’s the full meaning of our help being in the name of the Lord.  We’d be in despair if it all depended on what we can do—but what a relief that our powerful God gives us the hope we need to persevere!

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