Home › Hymns › If God Had Not Been on Our Side
The Open Hymnal · No. 71 · Words: Martin Luther · Tune: Wär Gott nicht mit uns diese Zeit (1524)
If God Had Not Been on Our Side
Create PowerPoint slides from this hymn →A paraphrase of Psalm 124 written by Martin Luther in 1524, celebrating God's deliverance of His people from overwhelming enemies. The hymn uses vivid flood and bird-snare imagery drawn directly from the psalm to proclaim that God alone prevents the church's destruction.
Verse 1
If God had not been on our side And had not come to aid us,
The foes with all their pow'r and pride Would surely have dismayed us;
For we, His flock,
would have to fear The threat of men both far and near Who rise in might against us.
Verse 2
Their furious wrath, did God permit,
Would surely have consumed us And as a deep and yawning pit With life and limb entombed us.
Like men o'er whom dark waters roll Their wrath would have engulfed our soul And,
like a flood, o'erwhelmed us.
Verse 3
Blest be the Lord,
who foiled their threat That they could not devour us;
Our souls, like birds, escaped their net,
They could not overpow'r us.
The snare is broken we are free!
Our help is ever, Lord, in Thee,
Who madest earth and heaven.
Appears in these collections
If God Had Not Been on Our Side is in the public domain. Make a free PowerPoint, PDF, or image set for church projection with Song Slides — no signup.