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1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. 6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. 7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped. 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
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[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:1-3
"If the Lord Himself had not been in us, now may Israel say" [Psalm 124:1]...When? "When men rose up against us" [Psalm 124:2]. Marvel not: they have been subdued: for they were men; but the Lord was in us, man was not in us: for men rose up against us. Nevertheless men would crush other men, unless in those men who could not be crushed, there were not man, but the Lord. For what could men do to you, while you rejoiced, and sang, and securely held everlasting bliss? What could men do to you when they rose against you, if the Lord had not been on your side? What could they do? "Perchance they had swallowed us up quick" [Psalm 124:3]. "Swallowed us up:" they would not first have slain us, and so have swallowed us up. O inhuman, O cruel men! The Church swallows not thus. To Peter it was said, " Kill and eat:" [Acts 10:13] not, Swallow quick. Because no man enters into the body of the Church, save he be slain first. What he was dies, that he may be what he was not. Otherwise, he who is not slain, and is not eaten by the Church, may be in the visible number of the people: but he cannot be in the number of the people which is known to God, whereof the Apostle says, "The Lord knows who are His," [2 Timothy 2:19] save he be eaten; and eaten he cannot be, save he first be slain. The Pagan comes, still in him idolatry lives; he must be grafted among the members of Christ: that he may be engrafted, he must needs be eaten; but he cannot be eaten by the Church, save first he be slain. Let him renounce the world, then is he slain; let him believe in God, then is he eaten...But they in whom the Lord is, are slain and die not. But they who consent and live, are swallowed quick, when swallowed up they die. But they who have suffered, and have not yielded to tribulations, rejoice and say, "If the Lord had not been in us," etc.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:1-3
The holy martyrs, you see, did not rely on themselves but asked for relief from Christ. That is why they were also victorious. Listen to the voices of those who do not rely on themselves; it is the voice of the holy martyrs: “Unless the Lord were among us, let Israel now say; unless the Lord were among us when people rose up against us, they would perhaps have swallowed us alive.” The martyrs say, “Unless the Lord were among us,” unless he had helped us, unless he had strengthened our hearts with faith, unless he had endowed us with patience, unless he had provided us with power as we fought, “they would perhaps have swallowed us alive.”

Source: SERMON 335F.2
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:4-5
..."When their fury was enraged upon us." They are now in anger, they now openly rage: "perchance the water had drowned us" [Psalm 124:4]. By water he means ungodly nations: and we shall see what sort of water in the following verses. Whoever had consented unto them, water would have overwhelmed him. For he would die by the death of the Egyptians, he would not pass through after the example of the Israelites. For you know, brethren, that the people of Israel passed through the water, by which the Egyptians were overwhelmed. [Exodus 14:22-29] But what sort of water is this? It is a torrent, it flows with violence, but it will pass by...Hence He, our Head, first drinks, of whom it is said in the Psalms, "He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall He lift up His head." For our Head is already exalted, because He drank of the torrent by the way; for our Lord has suffered. If therefore our Head has been already raised up, why does the body fear the torrent? Without doubt, because the Head has been raised, the body also will say hereafter, "Our soul has passed over the torrent. Perhaps our soul has passed over the water without substance" [Psalm 124:5]. Behold, what sort of water he was speaking of, "The water perchance had overwhelmed us." But what means, "without substance"?

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 373] Athanasius of Alexandria on Psalms 124:5-7
What then is our duty, my brothers, for the sake of these things, but to praise and give thanks to God, the king of all? And let us first exclaim in the words of the psalms, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us over as a prey to their teeth.” Let us keep the feast in that way that he has dedicated for us unto salvation—the holy day Easter—so that we may celebrate the feast which is in heaven with the angels. Thus anciently, the people of the Jews, when they came out of affliction into a state of ease, kept the feast, singing a song of praise for their victory. So also the people in the time of Esther, because they were delivered from the edict of death, kept a feast to the Lord, considering it a feast, returning thanks to the Lord and praising him for having changed their condition. Therefore let us, performing our vows to the Lord and confessing our sins, keep the feast to the Lord, in conversation, moral conduct and manner of life; praising our Lord, who has chastened us a little but has not utterly failed or forsaken us or altogether kept silence from us. For if, having brought us out of the deceitful and famous Egypt of the opponents of Christ, he has caused us to pass through many trials and afflictions, as it were in the wilderness, to his holy church, so that from hence, according to custom, we can send to you, as well as receive letters from you; on this account especially I both give thanks to God myself and exhort you to thank him with me and on my behalf, this being the apostolic custom, which these opponents of Christ, and the schismatics, wished to put an end to and to break off. The Lord did not permit it but both renewed and preserved that which was ordained by him through the apostle, so that we may keep the feast together, and together keep holy day, according to the tradition and commandment of the fathers.

Source: Letter 10.11
[AD 397] Ambrose of Milan on Psalms 124:5-7
It is the same with David. Where the soul is supported with spiritual wings, he has chosen to describe the soul as a bird, as he has said in one place, “My soul has escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers”; and again, In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to the mountain.” Thus the soul has its wings by which it can raise itself free from the earth. But this movement of the wings is not of something constructed of feathers but a continuing series of good works, like those of the Lord of whom it is well said, “And in the shadow of your wings I shall take refuge.” In the first place, the hands of our Lord fixed on the cross were extended like something in flight, and, second, the actions of God are like a refreshing shadow of eternal salvation that can regulate the conflagration raging in our world.

Source: Concerning Virginity 18
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:5-7
We have sung a psalm: “Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us as a quarry to their teeth.” A proper expression of gratitude for the gifts of God. “Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us as a quarry to their teeth.” It is certainly the voice of gratitude, and a very fitting gratitude. And when can human gratitude ever match such divine gifts? When the blessed martyr shed his sacred blood in this place, I do not know whether there was as big a crowd here of people raging against him, as there is now a multitude of people praising him. I repeat—I am delighted, after all, to see in the house of the Lord the people converging so religiously on this place and to compare times with times—which is why I say again and repeat, and so far as I can I devoutly commend to your consideration; when the blessed martyr shed his blood in this place, I do not know whether there was such a big crowd here raging against him as there now is a multitude of people praising him.But even if there was, “blessed is the Lord, who has not given us as a quarry to their teeth.” When they killed, they imagined they had conquered; they were being conquered by the people who were dying, and they rejoiced. If they were being conquered, they were naturally raging. So the raging crowd has departed, and the praising multitude has taken its place. Let them say, let them say, the praising multitude, “Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us as a quarry to their teeth.” Whose teeth? The teeth of the enemies, the teeth of the godless, the teeth of those persecuting Jerusalem, the teeth of Babylon, the teeth of the enemy city, the teeth of the crowd gone stark, staring mad in their villainy, the teeth of a crowd persecuting the Lord, forsaking the Creator, turning to the creature, worshiping things made by hand, ignoring the one by whom they were made. “Blessed is the Lord, who has not given us as a quarry to their teeth.”

Source: SERMON 313B.1
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:5
In the first place, what means, "Perchance our soul has passed over"? [Psalm 124:5]. Understand however the meaning to be this: "Do you think our soul has passed over?" and why do they say, "Do you think"? Because the greatness of the danger makes it hardly credible that he has escaped. They have endured a great death: they have been in great dangers; they have been so much oppressed, that they almost gave consent while alive, and were all but swallowed up alive: now therefore that they have escaped, now that they are secure, but still remember the danger, the great danger, say, "Do you think our soul has passed over the water without substance?"

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:6
Let them escape the water without substance, and say, "Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us over for a prey unto their teeth" [Psalm 124:6]. For the hunters were following, and had placed a bait in their trap. What bait? The sweetness of this life, so that each man for the sake of the sweetness of this life may thrust his head into iniquity, and be caught in the trap. Not they, in whom the Lord was, they who say, "If the Lord Himself had not been in us;" they have not been taken in the trap. Let the Lord be in you, and you will not be taken in the trap.

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:7
"Our soul is escaped, even as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers" [Psalm 124:7]. Because the Lord was in the soul itself, therefore has that soul escaped, even as a bird out of the snare of the fowler. Why like a bird? Because it had fallen heedlessly, like a bird; and it could say afterwards, God will forgive me. Unstable bird, rather set your feet firm upon the rock: go not into the trap. You will be taken, consumed, crushed. Let the Lord be in you, and He will deliver you from greater threats, from the snare of the fowlers. As if you were to see a bird about to fall into a snare, you make a greater noise that it may fly away from the net; so also, when perhaps some even of the Martyrs were stretching out their neck after the enjoyment of this life, the Lord, who was in them, made the noise of hell, and the bird was delivered from the snare of the fowlers. The snare was the sweetness of this life: they were not entangled in the snare, and were slain; by their slaughter the net was broken; no longer did the sweetness of this life remain, that they might again be entangled by it, but it was crushed. Was the bird also crushed? Far be it! For it was not in the snare: "The snare is broken, and we are delivered."

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:8
..."Our help stands in the Name of the Lord, who has made heaven and earth" [Psalm 124:8]. For if this were not our help, the snare would not indeed remain for ever; but when the bird was once taken, it would be crushed. For this life will pass away; and they who shall have been taken in by its pleasures, and through these pleasures have offended God, will pass away with this life. For the snare will be broken; be ye assured of this: all the sweetness of this present life will no longer exist, when the lot assigned to it has been fulfilled; but we must not be enthralled by it, so that when the net is broken, you may then rejoice and say, "The snare is broken, and we are delivered." But lest you think that you can do this of your own strength, consider whose work your deliverance is (for if you are proud, you fall into the snare), and say, "Our help stands in the Name of the Lord, who has made heaven and earth."...

Source: Exposition on Psalm 124
[AD 430] Augustine of Hippo on Psalms 124:8
So this heaven and earth is called the world. In saying “Do not love the world,” he is not disparaging that world; whoever disparages that world, after all, is disparaging the maker of the world. Listen to the world mentioned twice in one place in different senses: it was said of the Lord Christ, “He was in this world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.” The world was made through him: “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” The world was made through him: “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains; from where will help come to me? My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” This world was made by God, and the world did not know him. Which world did not know him? The lover of the world, the lover of the work, the scorner of the workman.

Source: SERMON 313A.2