Had it Not Been for The Lord

We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and we have escaped.

 - Psalm 124: 7

The Psalmist seems to be describing Christians in Iraq, in 2014. Imagine being a Christian community that has been in existence for 2,000 years. And then ultimately, in the upheavals of the early 21st Century, it becomes prey to a sweeping wave of ISIS invaders.

The vivid terminology of the passage is eerily appropriate today:

"Enemies rose up"

"Swallowed us up alive"

"Waters overwhelmed"

"Torrent gone over"

"Raging waters"

"Prey for their teeth"

Truly, these words are describing ISIS. David may have had an image of the year 2014, and multitudes of families (men, women and children) that looked like him, and his own, being hunted down like animals, disposed of as garbage, plowed into the ground as late-summer weeds.

But we escaped the snare. And what is this snare? How about our trust in others? Our naivete, our gullibility, our misplaced hope in things audacious? 

Snares are traps. And evil has always relied on traps to open pathways for them to devour God's good people.

But had it not been for the Lord . . .