In Psalm 124:1 (NLT), David asks, “What if the Lord had not been on our side?” He then continues on in the Psalm listing what would happen if God was not on his side. He talks about how he would not have been protected against his enemies. He would have been swept away and killed by the raging waters (of the enemy).
Fortunately, God IS on his side, so instead of facing fear and death, he can stand there and proclaim, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not give us as prey to their teeth!”
As you probably know, Psalms is essentially a collection of worshipful prayers and songs to God. It seems a little strange to go hypothetical in Psalms, but ultimately, thinking this way is helpful. It helps you see just how bad things could be if God was not on our side! It also helps us not take for granted the amazing work that God has done in saving us!
Maybe you need spend the first few minutes of your prayer time today thinking through the same thing David thought about. What if God was not on your side? What if you had never put your faith in him? What if he had not saved you? Where would you be? Or perhaps even more scary, where would you end up?
Hopefully, thinking about God’s salvation in this way will prompt you to more gratitude. After all, at the very end of the Psalm, David proclaims in verse 8, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.”
Let me ask you: Do you recognize that as well? Do you realize just how far God has taken you?
Years ago, Stephen Curtis Chapman wrote a song titled, “Remember your chains.” The idea of the song is to remember the chains that you were in before Christ, so that you can be grateful for all that he has saved you from. I encourage you to do that today. Take a few moments to remember your past chains. But then remember that God has taken you to freedom. Because now, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)