3 Then they would have swallowed us up alive, When their wrath was kindled against us;
Let's swallow them up alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down into the pit.
He will send from heaven, and save me, He rebukes the one who is pursuing me. Selah. God will send out his loving kindness and his truth.
"Come," they say, "and let's destroy them as a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more."
and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men.
Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
Then was Nebuchadnezzar full of fury, and the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego: [therefore] he spoke, and commanded that they should heat the furnace seven times more than it was wont to be heated.
But if Yahweh make a new thing, and the ground open its mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertain to them, and they go down alive into Sheol; then you shall understand that these men have despised Yahweh. It happened, as he made an end of speaking all these words, that the ground split apart that was under them; and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who appertained to Korah, and all their goods. So they, and all that appertained to them, went down alive into Sheol: and the earth closed on them, and they perished from among the assembly. All Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of them; for they said, Lest the earth swallow us up.
Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.
> Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me. My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me.
When evil-doers came at me to eat up my flesh, Even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
Then were the king's scribes called in the first month, on the thirteenth day of it; and there was written according to all that Haman commanded to the king's satraps, and to the governors who were over every province, and to the princes of every people, to every province according to the writing of it, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and it was sealed with the king's ring. Letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even on the thirteenth [day] of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey.
But he scorned the thought of laying hands on Mordecai alone; for they had made known to him the people of Mordecai: therefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews who were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.
Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of a perverse rebellious woman, don't I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame, and to the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth, you shall not be established, nor your kingdom. Therefore now send and bring him to me, for he shall surely die. Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said to him, "Why should he be put to death? What has he done?" Saul cast his spear at him to strike him. By this Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 124
Commentary on Psalms 124 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 124
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.
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.
A song of degrees of David.
Psa 124:1-5
The people of God, being here called upon to praise God for their deliverance, are to take notice,
Psa 124:6-8
Here the psalmist further magnifies the great deliverance God had lately wrought for them.