Psalm 124 (Lectionary Translation)

1 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
let Israel now say;

2 If the Lord had not been on our side, *
when enemies rose up against us;

3 Then would they have swallowed us up alive *
in their fierce anger toward us;

4 Then would the waters have overwhelmed us *
and the torrent gone over us;

5 Then would the raging waters *
have gone right over us.

6 Blessed be the Lord! *
he has not given us over to be a prey for their teeth.

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

8 Our help is in the Name of the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.

PSALM 124

Rendered from the Hebrew by Henry Ralph Carse

“Away We Soar!”

1 A Song of Goodnesses – For the Beloved.

What if it had never been,
this Becoming of Love within us?
Let’s just say we would have wrestled with God forever.

2 What if this Becoming of Love had never been?
Would our earthling souls have ever been awakened?

3 Wouldn’t our life have swallowed us whole?
- rage eating us alive,
4 - tsunami of hate drowning our hearts,
5 - dark river of fear flooding our throats,
- insolence cresting and crushing us!

6 Bless you, Ever-Becoming-Love!
Without you, we would have been
just a gift of toothy prey for deathly jaws.

7 But now, our soul flies free,
like a bird from the snare;
the snare is broken - away we soar!

8 O you, our dear Helper -
unspoken, un-named!
Forge the earth, vault the sky -
and be never tamed!

NOTES TO THE RENDERING OF PSALM 124

1 “A Song of Goodnesses…” - The first verse opens with a familiar superscription – shir hama’alot le-david – historically associated with the “going up” (ma’aleh) of pilgrims to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The same word – ma’alot – means “virtues” or “good things.” This is both a pilgrim song and a love song (“David” and “Beloved” are the same word).

“What if…” - The Hebrew lulei is the negative of lu – “if.” There is a hopeful sense to lu (“O that!... would that!…”) going beyond a simple conditional. So, the negative lulei also has a plaintive sense of potential loss: “What if this (good thing) had never happened…?” Thus, instead of the traditional “If it had not been for…,” I can render here “What if this… had never been?” The “what if…” is intensified by repetition in verse 2.

“Becoming of Love…” – The divine Name (YHWH) may be rendered in the context of the scriptural content. “Ever-Becoming” can be a good rendering in general since YHWH is a verbal ongoing form: “constantly-coming-into-being.” In this specific poem, with focus on divine love, “Becoming of Love” seems appropriate. In my opinion, any rendering is usually better than “the LORD” – which is not a verbal form and is often at odds with the context.

“…we would have wrestled with God…” – This gloss renders the scriptural background of the tribal name Yisra’el (Israel) – which means, “The One Who Wrestles with God” (see Genesis 32:28). Of course, all forms of “God” in Hebrew (‘elohim, ‘el, ‘eloha) derive from the root meaning Force/Power. I choose to leave the derivative term “God” in this case, only because it is our concept of God as an absolute, immutable and intractable Force that is brought into question by the vulnerability of Love.

2 “… our earthling souls…” – I render bekum ‘aleinu ‘adam – not as a confrontation with “men” (i.e. evil people external to ourselves) but as a witness to the “arising/awakening” (kum) within us or upon us (‘aleinu) of our essential human spirit. ‘Adam of course also means “earthling” (‘adam is “humanity,” ‘adamah is “earth”).

3 “…our life…” – Most translations assume that chayim here is adverbial and means “alive” - a plausible rendering (so I keep it in “rage eating us alive”). However, in the context of the inner understanding of how sacred Love saves the flawed humanity of each of us, “our life” is also fitting. Our own traumatized life overwhelms us, and it is also this “inner life of ours” that is really threatened by the spiritual dangers about to be enumerated (rage, hate, fear, insolence).

Vs. 4 – vs. 5 - “… tsunami… river…cresting…” – Conventional translations put the focus on an external attacker or attackers, while my rendering turns the images inward. The dangers to be navigated in this watery extended metaphor include powerful emotions/instincts that can sweep us away from the harbor of love… The last word of verse 5 (zeidonim) might best be understood as “insolence that leads to the loss of humility,” and without humility we cannot respond to love.

6 “Bless you…” – I keep the traditional formula of blessing since it expresses the ecstatic joy of the poet delivered from terrible danger.

“… just a gift of toothy prey…” – The Hebrew has (literally): “not given… as prey… (in)to their teeth.” My rendering plays with all of these ideas. I add “jaws” for a little cinematic oomph.

Verse 7 – “…like a bird from the snare…” - This is one of the best-loved images in the Psalms; the poetic repetition in the Hebrew is hard to match for resonance. I have done my best, with “soul flies” echoed in “we soar” – and with the repeated word “snare” lingering (empty) in the center of the scene.

Verse 8 – In this last verse, to sum up, I gloss several themes in my rendering: the divine Name (shem YHWH) – which is ineffable, and therefore “unspoken” and “untamed;” the divine assistance given to us (‘ezreinu) – reading “our dear Helper;” and the divine making of heaven and earth, using the verbs “forge” and “vault” to add active color to the verb ‘oseh (“make”). The “Becoming of Love” is also the immanent ever-evolving freedom of the universe(s) around and within us.