Click on player below to hear a sample portion of this Psalm MP3:

The Psalm singing on this MP3 (digital download) covers Psalm 124(II):1-8, as sung to the tune Old 124th from the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter.

1    Now Israel

          may say, and that truly,

      If that the Lord

          had not our cause maintain'd;

2    If that the Lord

          had not our right sustain'd,

      When cruel men

          against us furiously

      Rose up in wrath,

          to make of us their prey;

3    Then certainly

          they had devour'd us all,

      And swallow'd quick,

          for ought that we could deem;

      Such was their rage,

          as we might well esteem.

4    And as fierce floods

          before them all things drown,

      So had they brought

          our soul to death quite down.

5    The raging streams,

          with their proud swelling waves,

      Had then our soul

          o'erwhelmed in the deep.

6    But bless'd be God,

          who doth us safely keep,

     And hath not giv'n

          us for a living prey

     Unto their teeth,

          and bloody cruelty.

7    Ev'n as a bird

          out of the fowler's snare

      Escapes away,

          so is our soul set free:

      Broke are their nets,

          and thus escaped we.

8    Therefore our help

          is in the Lord's great name,

      Who heav'n and earth

          by his great pow'r did frame.

John Brown of Haddington's notes on Psalm 124 follow:

This psalm is highly applicable to every remarkable deliverance which God works for his church, especially to the great redemption wrought for his people by Christ. In it, (1.) David magnifies the danger they were in, ver. 1-5. (2.) Ascribes the glory of their deliverance to God, ver. 1-2, 6-7. (3.) Improves the deliverance as an encouragement to trust in God, ver. 8.

Let me behold Jehovah as a present help in trouble. Let my waiting eyes be towards him, who, notwithstanding all the combined power and policy of hell and earth, is able and ready to pull my feet out of the net.

From: THE PSALMS OF DAVID IN METRE (The Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650) by the Westminster Assembly, Covenanted Church of Scotland General Assembly and Francis Rouse (1646-1650), With Notes Exhibiting the Connection, Explaining the Sense, and for Directing and Animating the Devotion On Each Psalm by John Brown Of Haddington (from the 1844 edition of this Psalter published by Robert Carter, New York).

This Psalm MP3 digital download comes from the album Scottish Metrical Psalms, Volume 3 available on CD or as an album MP3 digital download.