Psalm 124:4-5 NKJV

4 

Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have gone over our soul;

5 

Then the swollen waters
Would have gone over our soul.”

Overwhelming Waters: A Psalm of Deliverance

My Notes

Scripture

Psalm 124:4–5 (NKJV) “Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul; Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul.”

David continues his vivid imagery of danger by describing overwhelming waters—streams and floods threatening to engulf the very soul. This repetition emphasizes that the peril was not merely external or political, but spiritual and existential. Without the Lord’s intervention, Israel would have been swept away, consumed by the raging torrents of persecution, affliction, and malice.

The “waters” symbolize the destructive forces of ungodly men, whose pride and hostility rise like swollen waves of the sea. Their wrath is relentless, threatening to drown the faithful. Yet, God sets boundaries: “Thus far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!” (Job 38:11 NKJV). The Lord alone restrains the flood, preserving His people above the waters.

This passage reminds us that life often brings seasons when trials feel like floods—rising quickly, threatening to overwhelm us. Yet, the presence of God sustains us. As the Song of Solomon declares: “Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it” (Song of Solomon 8:7 NKJV). His covenant love keeps us secure even when the world’s enmity rages.

Let us pause and consider: if not for God’s preserving power, we would have been swept away. But His omnipotent grace has kept us in the flood, and yet above the flood. The more desperate the danger, the more glorious the Deliverer.

Meditation Questions

1. What “floods” of trial or opposition have threatened to overwhelm me? How did God preserve me?

2. How does remembering past seasons of peril strengthen my trust in God’s present protection?

3. In what ways do I see God setting boundaries against forces that seek to destroy me?

4. How can I cultivate gratitude for God’s preserving grace in times when I felt near ruin?

Key Takeaways

• The imagery of overwhelming waters highlights the severity of danger faced by God’s people.

• Without God’s intervention, destruction would have been certain; His grace alone preserves.

• The floods represent persecution, affliction, and malice, restrained only by God’s sovereign power.

• Repetition emphasizes that the danger touched the very soul, yet God delivered at the deepest level.

• Gratitude grows when we pause to remember what might have been, and what God has prevented.

Prayer

Abba, I thank You that when floods of trial and affliction rose against me, You kept me from being overwhelmed. Without Your preserving grace, I would have been swept away, but You set boundaries against the raging waters. Help me to trust Your strength when I feel surrounded, and to remember that Your love cannot be quenched by many waters. May I live in gratitude, declaring that You are my Deliverer and Preserver. I thank you for this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Cross References (NKJV)

• Job 38:11 – “‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’”

• Song of Solomon 8:7 – “Many waters cannot quench love, Nor can the floods drown it.”

• Revelation 17:15 – “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.”

• Psalm 69:1–2 – “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, Where there is no standing; I have come into deep waters, Where the floods overflow me.”

• Isaiah 43:2 – “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.”

• Psalm 124:4–5 – “Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul; Then the swollen waters Would have gone over our soul.”

Proverb for Today

He who has knowledge spares his words, And a man of understanding is of a calm spirit. Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. Proverbs 17:27-28 NKJV

Closing

And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: “We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned. Revelation 11:16-17 NKJV

Bill

Posted on 12/17/2025 by Bill Stephens

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Summary of Commentaries:

The commentaries on Psalm 124:4–5 portray overwhelming waters as symbols of persecution, affliction, and human malice threatening to consume God’s people. Spurgeon and Henry emphasize the peril of being swallowed alive or swept away, while Enduring Word notes water as a common biblical metaphor for destructive forces. Barnes and Gill highlight “proud waters” as raging passions or tyrants restrained only by God’s power. Together, they stress that without divine intervention, ruin was certain, but God’s preserving grace secured deliverance.

Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“Then the waters had overwhelmed us.” Rising irresistibly, like the Nile, the flood of opposition would soon have rolled over our heads. Across the mighty waste of waters, we should have cast an anxious eye, but looked in vain for escape. The motto of a royal house is, “Tossed about but not submerged.” We should have needed an epitaph rather than an epigram, for we should have been driven by the torrent and sunken, never to rise again.

“The stream had gone over our soul.” The rushing torrent would have drowned our soul, our hope, our life. The figures seem to be the steadily rising flood, and the hurriedly rushing stream. Who can stand against two such mighty powers? Everything is destroyed by these unconquerable forces, either by being submerged or swept away. When the world’s enmity obtains a vent, it both rises and rushes, it rages and rolls along, and spares nothing. In the great water floods of persecution and affliction, who can help but Jehovah? But for him, where would we be at this very hour? We have experienced seasons in which the combined forces of earth and hell must have made an end of us had not omnipotent grace interfered for our rescue.

“Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.” The figure represents the waves as proud, and so they seem to be when they overleap the bulwarks of a frail bark, and threaten every moment to sink her. The opposition of men is usually embittered by a haughty scorn which derides all our godly efforts as mere fanaticism or obstinate ignorance. In all the persecutions of the church, a cruel contempt has largely mingled with the oppression, and this is overpowering to the soul. Had not God been with us, our disdainful enemies would have made nothing of us and dashed over us as a mountain torrent sweeps down the side of a hill, driving everything before it. Not only would our goods and possessions have been carried off, but our soul, our courage, our hope would have been borne away by the impetuous assault, and buried beneath the insults of our antagonists. Let us pause here, and as we see what might have been, let us adore the guardian power which has kept us in the flood, and yet above the flood. In our hours of dire peril, we must have perished had not our Preserver prevailed for our safe keeping.

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Enduring Word

Then the waters would have overwhelmed us: David poetically described their potential ruin. The danger was like being swallowed alive by a giant beast, or like being drowned when waters overwhelmed. (Guzik)

i. “The metaphor of water as a destructive force is common in the Old Testament (cf. Psalm 18:16; 42:7; 69:1-2, 15; Isaiah 8:7-8; Lamentations 3:54) because of the destructive torrential rains known to that part of the world.” (VanGemeren)

Then the swollen waters: The idea here is of a rushing river, not the rising flood. In the poetic picture, they were in danger of being swept away by the torrent. (Guzik)

Gone over our soul: David again used repetition to emphasize the idea that the danger was not only political or economic; it had to do with the very soul, with life at the deepest levels. From these great dangers, God was their deliverer.

i. David poetically described many of the troubles that face our soul:

· Sometimes our troubles swallow and devour us.

· Sometimes our troubles overwhelm us like a flood.

· Sometimes our troubles sweep us away like a torrent.

(Guzik)

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Albert Barnes

Then the proud waters had gone over our soul – Over us. The word proud here is applied to the waters as if raging, swelling, rolling, tumultuous; as if they were self-confident, arrogant, haughty. Such raging billows, as they break and dash upon the shore, are a striking emblem of human passions, whether in an individual, or in a gathering of men, as an army, or a mob. Compare Psalms 65:7. This is again an amplification, or an ascent of thought. See the notes at Psalms 124:2. It is, however, nothing more than a poetical embellishment, adding intensity to the expression.

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John Gill

Then the waters had overwhelmed us,…. People, comparable to waters for their multitude, Strength, force, and impetuosity; which bear down all before them, and against which there is no standing; which, like the waters of the flood, overflow and destroy all they pass over. These are the floods of ungodly men, which are very destructive and terrible; see Revelation 17:15; together with all those reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions, which come along with them; which the presence of God only can bear up his people under, and carry them through, Song of Solomon 8:7;

the stream had gone over our soul; and so deprived them of life; the whole force of the enemy; which, like a stream, flows in with great strength and rapidity, when a breach is made and spreads itself, Arama interprets it of the stream of the Egyptians, and restrains it to them, their armies and forces; but it rather designs others, and the enemies of God’s people in general, which threaten their ruin, even their very souls and lives: it may be applied to the stream of corruptions, the flood of temptation and flow of persecutions, such as the flood the dragon cast out of his mouth after the woman; which, were it not for divine grace and assistance, would destroy the saints, who have no might against this great force, 2 Chronicles 20:12.

Then the proud waters had gone over our soul. The wicked, who, through their pride, persecute the poor saints: these proud tyrants and persecutors would prevail over them, to their ruin and destruction; who, for their number, force, and strength, and especially for their pride and haughtiness, are like to the strong, boisterous, and swelling waves of the sea, were they not stopped and bounded by him who has said, Thus far shall ye go, and no farther, Job 38:11.

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Matthew Henry

How far it went, and how fatal it would have been if it had gone a little further: “We should have been devoured as a lamb by a lion, not only slain, but swallowed up, so that there would have been no relics of us remaining, swallowed up with so much haste, ere we were aware, that we should have gone down alive to the pit. We should have been deluged as the low grounds by a land-flood or the sands by a high spring-tide.” This similitude he dwells upon, with the ascents which bespeak this a song of degrees, or risings, like the rest. The waters had overwhelmed us. What of us? Why the stream had gone over our souls, our lives, our comforts, all that is dear to us. What waters? Why the proud waters? God suffers the enemies of his people sometimes to prevail very far against them, that his own power may appear the more illustrious in their deliverance.

Of the malice of men, by which they were reduced to the very brink of ruin. Let Israel say that there was but a step between them and death: the more desperate the disease appears to have been, the more does the skill of the Physician appear in the cure.

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Miscellaneous Comments

“Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.” The same again, to note the greatness both of the danger and of the deliverance. And it may teach us not lightly to pass over God’s great blessings, but to make the most of them.

—John Trapp.

When winds and seas do rage,
     And threaten to undo? me,
Thou dost their wrath assuage,
     If I but call unto thee.

A mighty storm last night
     Did seek my soul to swallow;
But by the peep of light
     A gentle calm did follow.

What need I then despair
     Though ills stand round about me;
Since mischiefs neither dare
     To bark or bite without thee?

—Robert Herrick, 1591-1674.

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