Thou hast thrust hard at me that I might fall; but Jehovah helped me.
The psalm retells one rescue after another. This verse names the sharpest moment: a push meant to bring the singer down, and the Lord's help.
The verse is the middle step in a sequence. It moves from a crowd of enemies, to one adversary, to God Himself.
Verse 13, the enemy had thrust hard at them so that they might fall; Jehovah helped them... So we have the full character of trial, as we have seen it even in Job. First the instruments: men, even all nations. Next, the enemy working through them, acting on the spirit, thrusting hard at the soul. But behind it, and before it too, is God chastening, but not giving over. This is full of instruction for us. We pass through many circumstances where we meet all these elements.
Another writer lines up three lines from this psalm. He uses an older wording of verse 13, which reads it as words spoken to someone.
Put these three sentences together: "All nations surrounded me" (v. 10); "You thrust hard at me that I might fall" (v. 13); "The Lord has disciplined me severely" (v. 18). The first of these deals with what will be public. All men will know when all nations are fighting over Jerusalem. The next deals with what may not be so public. There is an adversary of a very special sort. His one object is to overthrow the people of God, just because they are the people through whom God will establish His purpose for the earth.
Commentators differ over who that "you" is. One writer names Satan, then allows a second reading.
Satan is that adversary, though perhaps we may take the "You" to mean the antichristian power he would use to crush them. And he would crush them, if the Lord did not help them and become their salvation, just as He did when He brought their forefathers out of Egypt.
Another reading takes the line as speech directed at a foe already beaten — the singer turns and speaks to the defeated attacker from safe ground.
The psalmist here speaks to the beaten enemy. "You thrust at me hard, to make me fall; but Jehovah helped me. Jehovah is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation." So singing and salvation are now heard in the tents of the righteous. As at the Red Sea, and even more wonderfully, Jehovah's right hand has done it all.
The chain of causes does not stop with the attacker. One writer follows it to the top.
The enemy had thrust hard at him to bring about his fall (v. 13). But the Lord has chastened him "severely" for his good. The enemy would oppose him to bring him into death; the LORD chastened him to save him from death... The devil is behind the outward enemies of God's people. But the Lord is behind the power of the devil, and there is no one behind the Lord.
The enemy's push had one aim: a fall. One writer shows what it actually produces.
The violence of the enemy in effect drives the godly into the refuge of the Lord's presence. Since this is so, the believer has reason to thank God for the oppression. So the help of the Lord is learned in real experience (v. 13). In fact, human weakness is in effect turned into strength, as Paul writes, "When I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor. 12:10). For the weakness that drives one into the Lord's presence becomes spiritual strength.
Read as prophecy, the verse belongs to Israel at a moment with no human way out.
The distress had been caused — or, if we take the psalm as prophecy, will be caused — by the nations that will gather against Jerusalem in the last days, as we read in Zechariah. To human eyes Israel's case will then be hopeless. It would be hopeless if Jehovah did not step in: "The Lord helped me." (v. 13.)
- Layer one — men. The nations surround, and everyone can see that trouble.
- Layer two — the adversary. Behind the crowd is one enemy, thrusting at the soul and aiming at a fall. This part of the trial stays hidden.
- Layer three — God. The same blows come as His chastening; the devil pushes toward death, the Lord chastens to save from it.
- The end of the chain. Satan stands behind the enemies, God stands behind Satan, and no one stands behind God.
- The outcome. The push that meant to topple you drives you into His presence. There weakness turns to strength, and helplessness turns into a song.
My strength and song is Jah, and he is become my salvation.
Verse 14 shouts praise right after a moment of near collapse: the enemy pushed hard, and the Lord held the psalmist up. Israel had sung these same words once before, at the Red Sea — so why does the line come back at every rescue?
One writer sees the same words fitting a new rescue of Israel, still ahead — one as complete as the first.
The point to observe is how beautifully these words fit Israel's new deliverance. That deliverance is as wonderful and complete as when their Redeemer God brought them out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. This Psalm is the voice of the remnant of Israel, brought through their final trials into blessing, looking back on their past circumstances and celebrating their deliverance... To human eyes, Israel's case will then be hopeless. It would be hopeless if Jehovah did not step in: "the Lord helped me" (v. 13). So the praise bursts out, just as it did long ago when they stood on the banks of the Red Sea.
The ESV prints the name here as "the LORD." The Hebrew word behind it is "Jah," and one writer sets that name apart from "Jehovah."
"Jehovah" is used for the name of God in relation with His people, while "Jah" appears to express His intrinsic being. The name is fitting on its own where it stands alone, as in Exodus 15:2, Exodus 17:16 and Psalm 118:14. Jah, then, is God in His absolute being, the Self-existent. Jehovah is God in His relative and continuous character, the God of the ages, especially in connection with the sons of Israel. He at last fulfils the promises He made to the fathers as God Almighty. So in Exodus 15:2, "Jah is my strength and song."
Strength, song and salvation are not three ways of saying one thing. Each has its own result in the verses that follow.
The devil, who drove the nations on, had thrust hard at him. But the Lord had stepped in to help him, and had become his "strength," his "song" and his "salvation" (vv. 13-14). The result follows: the "song" sounds in the dwelling of the righteous, the "strength" shows in the right hand of the Lord, and the "salvation" in deliverance from death (vv. 15-17).
The verb changes halfway through the line. The Lord is strength and song; He has become salvation. It points to something already done and now known in the soul. One writer says God teaches that knowledge by first showing His people their own weakness.
In delivering His people, the Lord proved His strength to them in a special way. All the wonders they had seen in Egypt had not taught them to sing, "The Lord is my strength." To sing this song, "the salvation of the Lord" must be known in the soul. But before showing Israel His strength, the Lord made their own weakness plain to them. No one really knows the power of God's salvation until he knows himself to be "without strength." God has His own way of teaching believers this necessary lesson.
The pressure of the enemy in verse 13, then, is not an interruption to the song but the road into it.
The violence of the enemy in effect drives the godly into the refuge of the Lord's presence. Since this is so, the believer has reason to thank God for the oppression... For the weakness that drives one into the Lord's presence becomes spiritual strength. "And He has become my salvation" (v. 14). The soul is lifted out of its bondage into the liberty of deliverance.
One writer traces what the Red Sea crossing pictures, and what it did to a nation of slaves.
The passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea is a figure of the death and resurrection of Christ for His people. The result is that the moment Israel got through the Red Sea they began to sing. While they were in Egypt there was no song. What were they doing? Sighing, crying, weeping, groaning — they were miserable slaves... But the moment they had gone through the Red Sea, by the path God had opened for them, what do I find? They begin to sing... And what is the burden of the song? "The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." It is what the Lord is, and what the Lord has done... They are saved, and they know they are saved.
- Pressure. Verse 13 sets up verse 14. The enemy's hard thrust drives the soul into the Lord's presence, and there weakness turns into strength.
- Person. "Jah" is God in His own absolute being, the Self-existent One. The strength named here is not a gift sent, but God Himself.
- Proof. "Has become my salvation" is past tense and personal. It belongs not to people hoping for rescue, but to people on the far shore who know they are saved.
- Praise. Song follows salvation, never comes first. Slaves sighed and groaned in Egypt; the singing began only once God had brought them out.
- Pattern. The Red Sea crossing pictures the death and resurrection of Christ. The same words fit every rescue God works for His people, from Israel's first deliverance to the one still ahead.