God’s Word for You
Psalm 124:6-8 Like sparrows escaping
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Sunday, February 8, 2026
6 Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
7 We have escaped like a bird from the fowler’s snare;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD,
who made heaven and earth.
The battle was over. The Philistines were dead or running (or staggering) back down to the coast from Gezer. The waves upon waves of the attack had not broken Israel’s army, but not because of David’s leadership. They had held on account of the power of the Lord God, who saved them.
David says that they were like birds, sparrows, in the fowler’s snare, but the snare was broken. Even if you don’t know about the big nets that were once used to catch dinner, it’s easy to understand how a hole in the net would be a happy discovery for the sparrow. Anachnu nimlatanu, David sings, “We have escaped!” This word, “escaped,” is sometimes translated “slipped away” (2 Samuel 4:6; Judges 3:26). After the King of Assyria was murdered by his own sons, they “slipped away” to the mountain region of Ararat in the far north. It’s the same word again (2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38). This word is also used in a theological sense in Proverbs 11:21, “The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will ‘go free.’” And it will be the same, the very same, as David and his mighty men slipping out of the trap of the Philistines. It was all God’s doing, and none of the credit belongs to man.
At the first synod of the church, Peter said, “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved” (Acts 15:11). And Paul makes the same confession of faith: “God has saved us and called us… not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace” (2 Timothy 1:9).
David ends the Psalm with one of the great statements of the Bible: “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.” God is the greatest help to man because he is the only source of every good thing that we receive. After all, he is the Maker.
When we need rain, it is God who gives rain (1 Kings 17:14).
It is God who makes the crops grow (Zechariah 10:1).
It is God who gives us light (Ezra 9:8).
It is God who gives children to parents (Genesis 4:25).
It is God who gives a spouse to the lonely (Genesis 2:18).
It is God who gives us useful work to do (Ecclesiastes 5:19).
It is God who gives spiritual gifts to his workers (1 Corinthians 12:10).
It is God who gives us rest (Deuteronomy 3:20).
It is God who has given us life (Job 33:4).
Every other gift we desire will come from God (Psalm 37:4).
Martin Luther was preaching about the Second Petition (“Thy kingdom come”) when he said: “Because he is God, he claims the honor of giving far more abundantly and liberally than anyone can comprehend—like an eternal, inexhaustible fountain which, the more it gushes forth and overflows, the more it continues to give. He desires of us nothing more ardently than that we ask many and great things of him; and on the contrary, he is angered if we do not ask and demand confidently” (Large Catechism).
Having been forgiven, all on account of Christ and not through any of our own doing, we stand before God as righteous and beloved children. Do not waste the opportunity to ask for anything that you need. Ask, ask boldly, and ask with confidence. Perhaps the sin of petty requests is something we all need help to overcome, but let’s join together and storm his throne, with confident demands and genuine requests, desires, petitions, intercessions, and pleas. Ask him to give you good things, and to embarrass his church with overflowing good things, like the success of the gospel, many many more souls to be reached, and the desire of God’s people to serve in the kingdom with sleeves rolled up and a song on their lips. For it is Christ who has saved us, and it is Christ who asks us to pray. So pray! And he will give nothing but good things. And praise him like sparrows dashing away through holes in the enemy’s net.
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Click for Something Extra: Psalm 1:6
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.