Psalm 124

There have been all kinds of trends within the Christian music of the last 40 years, some considerably more favorable than others. I think that the best thing to come out of the praise and worship music of the last 20-25 years is a propensity among songwriters for adapting scriptural passages directly into lyrics with no or at least very little change. My experience has been that contemporary writers have done this really more than the writers of gospel songs of the previous 100-150 years did, and I truly appreciate it.

Even in just my morning reading of selected psalms, I came across the source for material for 3 or 4 different contemporary songs we sing regularly.

One of those was Psalm 124, which was adapted by Debbie Dorman into the song "Had It Not Been the Lord".

Her adaptation:

Had it not been the LORD who was on our side,

The anger of the enemy would have swallowed us alive.

Blessed be the LORD who would not give us up,

Blessed be the LORD for his unfailing love,

The snare is broken and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the LORD,

Blessed be the LORD.

And here's the NIV of the actual psalm:

¹ If the LORD had not been on our side—
let Israel say—
² if the LORD had not been on our side
when people attacked us,
³ they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger flared against us;
⁴ the flood would have engulfed us,
the torrent would have swept over us,
⁵ the raging waters
would have swept us away.

⁶ Praise be to the LORD,
who has not let us be torn by their teeth.
⁷ We have escaped like a bird
from the fowler’s snare;
the snare has been broken,
and we have escaped.
⁸ Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe this song has become very meaningful in my church family, and it's a beautiful adaptation. But this morning I couldn't help be struck by the one major change Mrs. Dorman made. "Praise be to the LORD who has not let us be torn by their teeth," became "Blessed be the LORD who would not give us up."

Yes, I believe making that change definitely made for a much more singable song. Don't you think?