Our help is in Yahweh’s name, who made heaven and earth.
Parallel Translations
-
Our help is in Yahweh’s name, who made heaven and earth.
-
Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
-
Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Psalms 124:8 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 121:2 My help comes from Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.
- Acts 4:24 When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
- Psalms 146:5-6 Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps truth forever;
- Jeremiah 32:17 “Ah Lord Yahweh! Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you.
- Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
- Psalms 134:3 May Yahweh bless you from Zion, even he who made heaven and earth.
- Psalms 115:15 Blessed are you by Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.
- Isaiah 37:16-20 “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, who is enthroned among the cherubim, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God. Truly, Yahweh, the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the countries and their land, and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, Yahweh our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are Yahweh, even you only.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 8. Our help is in the name of Jehovah.…
8. Our help is in the name of Jehovah. David here extends to the state of the Church in all ages that which the faithful had already experienced. As I interpret the verse, he not only gives thanks to God for one benefit, but affirms that the Church cannot continue safe except in so far as she is protected by the hand of God. His object is to animate the children of God with the assured hope, that their life is in perfect safety under the divine guardianship. The contrast between the help of God, and other resources in which the world vainly confides, as we have seen in Psalm 20:7,
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God,”
Read full note →
is to be noticed, that the faithful, purged from all false confidence, may betake themselves exclusively to his succor, and depending upon it, may fearlessly despise whatever Satan and the world may plot against them. The name of God is nothing else than God himself; yet it tacitly conveys a significant idea, implying that as he has disclosed to us his grace by his word, we have ready access to him, so that in seeking him we need not go to a distance, or follow long circuitous paths. Nor is it without cause that the Psalmist again honors God with the title of Creator. We know with what disquietude our minds are agitated till they have raised the power of God to its appropriate elevation, that, the whole world being put under, it alone may be pre-eminent; which cannot be the case unless we are persuaded that all things are subject to his will. He did not show once and in a moment his power in the creation of the world and then withdraw it, but he continually demonstrates it in the government of the world. Moreover, although all men freely and loudly confess that God is the Creator of heaven and of earth, so that even the most wicked are ashamed to withhold from him the honor of this title, yet no sooner does any terror present itself to us than we are convicted of unbelief in hardly setting any value whatever upon the help which he has to bestow.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 124:8 Our help [is] in the name of…
Psa 124:8 Our help [is] in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Ver. 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord, &c.] Experience should breed confidence, Rom 5:4-5 2Co 1:10 Psa 48:14 Gen 22:10-11, &c.; write up experiences therefore, oft rub them over, and then conclude as here, and as Php 1:6 2Ti 4:17-18.
Read full note →
Who hath made heaven and earth] God’s power is the prop of our faith, and pricks on to prayer; commit we ourselves to him as to a faithful Creator, 1Pe 4:19, of infinite might and mercy; and say, as those good souls, as Aben Ezra, Hitherto God hath helped us; he hath, and therefore he will, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 8. Our help is in the name of…
Verse 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord] בשום מימרא דיי beshum meywra depai, Chaldee, "In the name of the WORD of the LORD." So in the second verse, "Unless the WORD of the LORD had been our Helper:" the substantial WORD; not a word spoken, or a prophecy delivered, but the person who was afterwards termed Ὁ Λογος του Θεου, the WORD OF GOD. This deliverance of the Jews appears to me the most natural interpretation of this Psalm: and probably Mordecai was the author.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FOURTH PSALM
Read full note →
The people of God, newly escaped from some great danger, acknowledge it, and celebrate God as their Deliverer.
I. The psalmist begins abruptly, as is usual in pathetical expressions.
1. "If it had not been the Lord:" and so deeply was he affected with a sense of God's goodness, and the narrowness of the escape, that he repeats it: "Unless the Lord," c. Nothing else could have saved us.
2. "Now may Israel say" the whole body of the Jewish people may well acknowledge this.
3. "When men rose up:" when they were all leagued against us as one man to destroy us; and, humanly speaking, our escape was impossible.
II. This danger and escape the psalmist illustrates by two metaphors: -
1. The first is taken from beasts of prey: "They had swallowed us up quick." They would have rushed upon us, torn us in pieces, and swallowed us down, while life was quivering in our limbs.
This they would have done in their fury. The plot was laid with great circumspection and caution; but it would have been executed with a resistless fury.
2. The second similitude is taken from waters which had broken through dikes, and at once submerged the whole country: "The stream had gone over our soul;" the proud waters, resistless now the dikes were broken, would have gone over our soul - destroyed our life.
III. He next acknowledges the deliverance.
1. "We are not given a prey to their teeth."
2. It is the blessed God who has preserved us: "Blessed be God," c.
As this deliverance was beyond expectation, he illustrates it by another metaphor, a bird taken in, but escaping from, a snare.
1. We were in "the snare of the fowler."
2. But "our soul is escaped."
3. And the fowler disappointed of his prey. The disappointment of Haman was, in all its circumstances, one of the most mortifying that ever occurred to man.
IV. He concludes with a grateful acclamation. 1. "Our help is in the name of the Lord." In open assaults, and in insidious attacks, we have no helper but God and from him our deliverance must come.
2. This help is sufficient; for he made the heaven and earth; has both under his government; and can employ both in the support, or for the deliverance, of his followers.
Or, take the following as a plainer analysis: -
I. 1. The subtlety of the adversaries of the Church in laying snares to entrap it, as fowlers do birds, Ps 124:7.
2. Their cruelty in seeking to tear it to pieces, as some ravenous beasts of prey do; or, as mighty inundations that overthrow all in their way, Ps 124:3-6.
II. The cause of this subtlety and cruelty: wrath and displeasure, Ps 124:3.
III. The delivery of the Church from both, by the power and goodness of God, Ps 124:1-2; Ps 124:6-7.
IV. The duty performed for this deliverance; praises to God, Ps 124:6.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Our help is in the name of the Lord…
Our help is in the name of the Lord - In the Lord; in the great Yahweh. See Psa 121:2.
Who made heaven and earth - The great Creator; the true God. Our deliverances have led us up to him. They are such as can be ascribed to him alone. They could not have come from ourselves; from our fellow-men; from angels; from any or all created beings. Often in life, when delivered from danger, we may feel this; we always may feel this, and should feel this, when we think of the redemption of our souls. That is a work which we of ourselves could never have performed; which could not have been done for us by our fellow-men; which no angel could have accomplished; which all creation combined could not have worked out; which could have been effected by no one but by him who “made heaven and earth;” by him who created all things. See Col 1:13-17.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 8. Our help is in the… Lord—Thus the psalm…
8. Our help is in the… Lord—Thus the psalm closes with a repetition of the opening statement, not now with the “If not Jehovah was on our side,” but, “our help is in… Jehovah.” The lesson is complete. The creator of all worlds alone can redeem and protect his Church from all forms of assault in all the ages.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 8. Cp. Psa_121:2.
8. Cp. Psa_121:2.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (8) Who made.—See Note on Psa_121:2.
(8) Who made.—See Note on Psa_121:2.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Our help is in the Name of the Lord.…
Our help is in the Name of the Lord. "Our help is," and has always been, "in the Namei.e. in the manifested might the Lord." It is he that has been "on our side," that has "helped" us, saved us, and delivered us. Who made heaven and earth. (comp. Psa_121:2 Psa_134:3)
What God has done, God can do.
Read full note →
The stamp of "impossible" cannot rest upon anything if we are able to say concerning it, "It has been done." And that we are able to say concerning every kind of strain or calamity that "turns up" in a religious experience. "There is no temptation ever overtakes us but such as is common to man," and God has had to deal with just such things and even with just such things in relation to just such people before now.
I WHAT GOD HAS DONE.
1. Compassed all the features and forms of the commonplace of life. It is necessary to dwell on this, because of the frail human disposition to separate the thought of God from the little, and associate him only with the great. But life is in the main commonplace, ordinary, little. And we need to realize that God has had direct association with absolutely everything that can come into the commonplace of life. In dealing with the first race of men, it may reverently be observed that God had no experience of what men would be and do, to guide his ways with them. Experience was in the making. It is made now. Enough generations of men in diversified relations have passed to cover the whole circle of human possibilities. Man can only repeat himself; he never surprises God. And God has adjusted his gracious help and guidance to every kind of ordinary human circumstance and need. Therefore is the Bible given to us so largely in the biographical form. We are to trace the working of God in lives that are essentially like our own.
2. Efficiently adapted his grace to the unusual of life. There is perhaps, strictly speaking, no unusual in life. From the Divine point of view there are no exigencies, no surprises. "The thing which is hath already been." But for instructive purposes we may point out that the unusual, though it may not be in things, may be in the relation of things to persons. God has to deal with the disposition of each one, and with the effect of events on each disposition. But here again we may see that his experience of adjustments is so extensive that a new and bewildering set of complications for him is inconceivable.
II WHAT GOD CAN DO. Be to us the Help which he has always been to his people. Do for us what he has always done for his people. What has he done in our lives? That he can still do. What has he done in the lives of others? That he can do in our lives if need be. What has he done in the vicissitudes of the ages? That he can do for our age and for us. We are "not straitened in God," seeing that he can "supply all our need. R.T.
The help of the Divine Name.
It is important to keep in view the condition and anxieties of the returned exiles. The previous psalm brought before us their distresses through the irritating conduct of neighbor enemies, it presented to us their attitude while the trouble was or they were patiently waiting on God. This psalm is a joy-song, sung when they are safely through the time of strain. They joy in God who has so safely brought them through; and this leads to the expression of confidence in God concerning whatever may have to be in the future. As a rule, poetical figures avoid minute descriptions of trouble. They are satisfied with suggesting them. The figures of this psalm recall to mind the Egyptian deliverance. The exiles were fond of referring to it, and comparing their experience with it. Note
(1) a sudden and overwhelming peril;
(2) the figure of the swollen stream;
(3) the figure of the beast of prey;
(4) the figure of the spread snare.
Indicate what of the historical conditions of the exiles is suggested by these figures. The point of the psalm is given in the sentence, "The Lord was on our side." That alone could account to them for their enemies" failure, and their triumph. And that conviction fixes for them the resolve, that in the Name of Jehovah they will ever trust. Help in a name! Why not say, help in God? Explain that the Jews had a special name for God, of which they were profoundly jealous. And they were in a covenant which was sealed with that special name. In Scripture it is usual to find a person"s attributes or characteristics gathered up into and expressed by a name (see names of Adam"s sons, Jacob, etc.). Notice some of the names for God.
1. Greater; general relation to everything.
2. El Shaddai; the Almighty One.
3. Jehovah; the serf-existent One. He is; that is all you can say about him.
4. God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; known in actual daily relationships.
5. Jehovah Tsidkenu; the Lord our Righteousness, or the Ideal for us of moral perfection.
6. The Faithful Promiser; the trustworthy One, as proved by human experience. It is manifest what confidence of help we may have as we dwell on any of these names of God. Started on this line of thought, we inquire whether we should not show a fuller confidence in the help of God, who is revealed to us, in his Father-name, through the infinite winsomeness of the Divine Sonship of Jesus. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 8. Our help, our hope for the future,…
Ver. 8. Our help, our hope for the future, our ground of confidence in all trials present and to come.
Is in the name of the Lord. Jehovah's revealed character is our foundation of confidence, his person is our sure fountain of strength.
Read full note →
Who made heaven and earth. Our Creator is our preserver. He is immensely great in his creating work; he has not fashioned a few little things alone, but all heaven and the whole round earth are the works of his hands. When we worship the Creator let us increase our trust in our Comforter. Did he create all that we see, and can he not preserve us from evils which we cannot see Blessed be his name, he that has fashioned us will watch over us; yea, he has done so, and rendered us help in the moment of jeopardy. He is our help and our shield, even he alone. He will to the end break every snare. He made heaven for us, and he will keep us for heaven; he made the earth, and he will succour us ripen it until the hour cometh for our departure. Every work of his hand preaches to us the duty and the delight of reposing upon him only. All nature cries, "Trust ye in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength." "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
The following versification of the sense rather than the words of this psalm is presented to the reader with much diffidence:
Had not the Lord, my soul may cry,
Had not the Lord been on my bide;
Had he not brought deliverance nigh,
Then must my helpless soul have died.
Had not the Lord been on my side,
My soul had been by Satan slain;
And Tophet, opening large and wide,
Would not have gaped for me in vain.
Lo, floods of wrath, and floods of hell,
In fierce impetuous torrents roll;
Had not the Lord defended well,
The waters had o'erwhelm'd my soul.
As when the fowler's snare is broke,
The bird escapes on cheerful wings;
My soul, set free from Satan's yoke,
With joy bursts forth, and mounts, and sings.
She sings the Lord her Saviour's praise;
Sings forth his praise with joy and mirth;
To him her song in heaven she'll raise,
To him that made both heaven and earth.
Ver. 8. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He hath made the earth where the snare lies, so that he can rightfully destroy the snare as laid unlawfully in his domain; he hath made the heaven, the true sphere of the soaring wings of those souls which he has delivered, so that they may fly upwards from their late prison, rejoicing. He came down to earth himself, the Lord Jesus in whose name is our help, that lie might break the snare; be returned to heaven, that we might fly "as the doves to their windows" (Isa 60:8), following where lie showed the way. Richard Rolle, of Hampole (1340), in "Neale and Littledale."
Ver. 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord. The fairest fruits of our by past experience is to glorify God by confidence in him for time to come, as here. David Dickson.
Ver. 8. The Lord who made heaven and earth. As if the Psalmist had said, As long as I see heaven and earth I will never distrust. I hope in that God which made all these things out of nothing; and therefore as long as I see those two great standing monuments of his power before me, heaven and earth, I will never be discouraged. So the apostle: 1Pe 4:19, "Commit the keeping of your souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator." O Christian! remember when you trust God you trust an almighty Creator, who is able to help, let your case be never so desperate. God could create when he had nothing to work upon, which made one wonder; aud he could create when he had nothing to work with, which is another wonder. What is become of the tools wherewith he made the world? Where is the trowel wherewith he arched the heaven? and the spade wherewith he digged the sea? What had God to work upon, or work withal when he made the world? He made it out of nothing. Now you commit your souls to the same faithful Creator. Thomas Manton.
Ver. 8. The Romans in a great distress were put so hard to it, that they were fain to take the weapons out of the temples of their gods to fight with them; and so they overcame. And this ought to be the course of every good Christian, in times of public distress, to fly to the weapons of the church, prayers and tears. The Spartans' walls were their spears, the Christian's walls are his prayers. His help standeth in the name of the Lord who hath made both heaven and earth. Edmund Calamy.
Ver. 8. The French Protestants always begin their public worship with the last verse of this Psalm, and there is no thought more encouraging and comfortable. Job Orton, 1717-1783.
Ver. 8. Our help is in the name of the Lord, etc. These are the words of a triumphing and victorious faith, "Our help standeth in the name of the Lord, which made heaven and earth": as if he said, the Maker of heaven and earth is my God, and my helper. We see whither he flieth in his great distress. He despairs not, but cries unto the Lord, as one yet hoping assuredly to find relief and comfort. Rest thou also in this hope, and do as he did. David was not tempted to the end he Should despair; think not thou, therefore, that thy temptations are sent unto thee that thou shouldest be swallowed up with sorrow and desperation: if thou be brought down to the very gates of hell, believe that the Lord will surely raise thee up again. If so thou be bruised and broken, know it is the Lord that will help thee again. If thy heart be full of sorrow and heaviness, look for comfort from him, who said, that a troubled spirit is a sacrifice unto him: (Ps 51:17) Thus he setteth the eternal God, the Maker of heaven and earth, against all troubles and dangers, against the floods and overflowings of all temptations, and swalloweth up, as it were with one breath all the raging furies of the whole world, and of hell itself, even as a little drop of water is swallowed up by a mighty flaming fire: and what is the world with all its force and power, in respect of him that made heaven and earth! Thomas Stint.
Ver. 8. Our Creator, our Helper. Special comfort to be drawn from creation in this matter.
Ver. 8.
1. The Helper: "The Lord, who made heaven and earth, "who in his works has given ample proofs of what he can do.
2. The helped. "Our help" is,
(a) Promise in his name.
(b) Sought in his name: these make it ours. G.R.
Ver. 8.
1. We have help. As troubled sinners, as dull scholars, as trembling professors, as inexperienced travellers, as feeble workers.
2. We have help in God's name. In his perfections"They shall put my name upon the children of Israel." In his Gospel"A chosen vessel to bear my name." In his authority"In the name of Jesus Christ rise up, "etc.
3. Therefore we exert ourselves.
W.J.
WORKS ON THE 124th PSALM.
Comfortable sermons upon the 124 psalme. Being thankfull Remembrances for God's wonderfull deliverance of us from the late gunpowder treason. Preached before the Lady Elizabeth Her Grace, at Combe. By Daniel, Dike, Bachelor in Divinity... London; ...1635 also 1617. Quarto. Of no value whatever.
An Exposition on the 124, 125, 126. Psalmes called the Psalmes of Degrees, or The Churches Deliverance. Plainly set forth for the benefit of God's Church. By Thomas Stint.... London: 1621. 8vo. Excessively rare.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Our help is in the name of the Lord,…
Psa_124:8
Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.
Read full note →
The best helper
I. God is everywhere present. Sometimes those who would help us are afar off. Not so God; He is a very present help in trouble (Psa_46:1).
II. He has everything we want ready at command. Is it money, grace, friends, comfort, guidance, strength? He has of these things more than we can possibly need.
III. He is a very willing helper. He invites us to call upon Him in the day of trouble (Psa_50:15).
IV. He is a loving and tender helper. His kindness is often called lovingkindness (Deu_33:27).
V. He never fails to help his people.
VI. He is an everlasting helper (Psa_90:12). (R. Brewin.)
The Churchs confidence
The confidence here expressed by the Church is founded upon two things.
I. Past deliverance. Our help is in the name of the Lord. When placed in perilous circumstances, ones faith is much increased by thinking upon the times of old, and musing upon the years of the right hand of the Most High. We learn there that affliction is no strange thing, and that God can afford us all requisite aid. He has done so before, and He can do so again. As to Himself, He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. As to His agents, there is no diminution in their number, or decrease in their power.
II. The Divine omnipotence. He who defends the Church is the Creator of the universe. Yes! He who hung those stars in heaven, and filled their lamps with everlasting oil: He who made the earth, with its golden corn, and its purple grapes, and its dark olives. My Father made them all; and a single look at the green earth, and the swelling ocean, and the burning stars, is enough to rebuke our distrust, and to infuse a serene gladness into our troubled spirits. Would that we had more of this holy confidence; and how much of the peace and joy of heaven would be ours, even when travelling through the wilderness to the land that is afar off. (N. McMichael.)
.
Psa_125:1-5
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0
translationWords
heaven
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.