Psalms 124:6

“Blessed [be] the Lord, etc.] Here begins the church’s thanksgiving for deliverance from all their enemies, their proud persecutors; and from all afflictions and troubles by them; which they could never have been delivered from, had not the Lord appeared for them; and therefore it is but just that he should have all the glory of it, and be blessed and praised on account thereof; who hath not given us [as] a prey to their teeth; the teeth of wicked men are like spears and arrows, like swords and knives, to devour good men; their passions are strong, and their desires very vehement after their ruin; and, if suffered, the saints would fall an easy prey to them: but God will not give them up to…”

“Blessed be the Lord - The Lord be praised; or, We have reason to praise the Lord because we have been delivered from these calamities. Who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth - The figure is here changed, though the same idea is retained. The imago is now that of destruction by wild beasts - a form of destruction not less fearful than that which comes from overflowing waters. Such changes of imagery constantly occur in the Book of Psalms, and in impassioned poetry everywhere. The mind is full of a subject; numerous illustrations occur in the rapidity of thought; and the mind seizes upon one and then upon another as best suited to express the emotions of the soul. The next verse…”

“124:6-8 The enemies of God’s people, like lions or bears who tear their prey with their teeth (see 57:4; Prov 28:15), had their mouths shut by the Lord (Dan 6:22).”

“who hath not: Psa 17:9, Psa 118:13, Psa 145:5, Psa 145:6; Exo 15:9, Exo 15:10; Jdg 5:30, Jdg 5:31; Sa1 26:20; Isa 10:14-19 Psalms 124:7”

“After the fact of the divine succour has been expressed, in Psa 124:6 follows the thanksgiving for it, and in Psa 124:7 the joyful shout of the rescued one. In Psa 124:6 the enemies are conceived of as beasts of prey on account of their bloodthirstiness, just as the worldly empires are in the Book of Daniel; in Psa 124:7 as "fowlers" on account of their cunning. According to the punctuation it is not to be rendered: Our soul is like a bird that is escaped, in which case it would have been accented בפשׁנו כצפור, but: our soul (subject with Rebia magnum) is as a bird (כּצפור as in Hos 11:11; Pro 23:32; Job 14:2, instead of the syntactically more usual כּצּפור) escaped out of the snare of him…”