_The church blesseth God for a miraculous deliverance._
A Song of degrees of David.
If _it had not been_ the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say;
If _it had not been_ the LORD who was on our side when men rose up
against us;
Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled
against us:
Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul:
Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.
Blessed _be_ the LORD, who hath not given us _as_ a prey to their
teeth.
Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the
snare is broken, and we are escaped.
Our help _is_ in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
The Psalmist, in this Psalm, gives thanks unto God for defending his
little helpless flock, here in the midst of the kingdom of the devil,
struggling against all temptations, against tyrants, and against
bloodthirsting hypocrites; and for delivering them from the snares of
virulent calumniators; the number of whom is so great, that compared
with the little flock of God, they are like a sweeping torrent, or a
mighty deluge, to one solitary rivulet.
Though, however, their teeth were of iron; that is, though their power
were infinitely greater than it is, and though their snares (that is,
their cunning devices,) were infinitely more crafty than they are; yet
“Greater is he that is in us, than he that is in the world;” he breaks
and destroys their teeth, he defeateth their snares, and wonderfully
delivers his people, as we have seen it in our own times, on many and
great occasions.