| Psalm 124 | |
|---|---|
| "If it had not been the LORD who was on our side" | |
| Song of Ascents | |
 Psalm 124 in the Erfurt Enchiridion | |
| Other name |
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| Related | |
| Language | Hebrew (original) |
| Psalm 124 | |
|---|---|
| Book | Book of Psalms |
| Hebrew Bible part | Ketuvim |
| Order in the Hebrew part | 1 |
| Category | Sifrei Emet |
| Christian Bible part | Old Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 19 |
Psalm 124 is the 124th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in the English of the King James Version: "If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say". The Book of Psalms is part of the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament. In the slightly different numbering system used in the Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 123. In Latin it is known as "Nisi quia Dominus".[1] It is one of fifteen psalms that begin with the words "A song of ascents" (Shir Hama'alot). Using "conventional metaphors",[2] it recalls the dangers faced by Israel from which the nation has been rescued.
The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran and Anglican liturgies as well as Protestant psalmody. Marc-Antoine Charpentier set the psalm in the 1690s as Nisi quia Dominus erat, H. 217, for soloists, chorus and continuo, and it was paraphrased in two psalm songs by Protestant Reformers which were set as chorale cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach.
- ^ Parallel Latin/English Psalter / Psalmus 123 (124) medievalist.net
- ^ Jerusalem Bible (1966), Footnote a at Psalm 124