Psalm 124, one of the psalms of ascents, is a communal thanksgiving song. The community gives thanks for the real and potential dangers from which God has delivered them.
The psalm begins by declaring that the community owes its continued existence to the fact that God has been with them. The covenant blessings include protection from enemies and dangers (Lev 26:3-13).
In a part of the world where destructive torrential rains can occur, they compare the attacks of enemies to the waters of a flood. God has saved them from drowning time and time again.
The psalm closes by praising and blessing God for this continuing deliverance. Verses 6-7 bring in a different metaphor, that of being rescued from the teeth of a wild animal or a snare that has been laid for them. God, who "made heaven and earth" (verse 8), is in control of his creation, and help comes through God's name---his covenant, his character, and all that he stands for.
The midrash on Psalm 124 looks at verse 1b ("let Israel now say"), and reflects on God's continued deliverance of the patriarch of the nation, Jacob himself. Jacob went through a period of twenty stressful years when he fled from Esau, suffered under Laban's deception, and then returned to face his brother. The midrash imagines him reciting the psalms of ascent (or even all of the psalms---based on Psalm 22:3) during this time. (The psalms were written after Jacob, as far as we know, but the point is that Jacob had a great deal for which to be thankful.)
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