The Triumphant Refrain Text: Psalm 118:10-14
Introduction: The Christian's Default Posture
We live in an age that has taught Christians to be timid. We are surrounded, and the prevailing wisdom, even within the church, is to keep our heads down, manage a respectable retreat, and hope the world forgets about us. We are told that the culture war is lost, that our enemies are too numerous, their institutions too powerful, and their animosity too great. They swarm us like bees, and many Christians have already concluded that the hive is mightier than the Church. This is a damnable lie, born of unbelief and a profound ignorance of the God we serve.
The Christian's default posture is not one of cowering defensiveness but of triumphant confidence. The world is not our home, it is true, but it is our Father's world, and we are here on His business. And His business is conquest. Not with carnal weapons, but with spiritual ones, mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds. Psalm 118 is a psalm of victory. It is a processional hymn, likely sung as the king and the people of Israel approached the Temple to give thanks for a great deliverance. It is robust, it is confident, and it is unapologetically confrontational.
The section before us today is the very heart of that confident confrontation. It is a testimony from a man who has known the overwhelming pressure of being surrounded by implacable foes. He has felt the violent shove meant to destroy him. And yet, he does not sing of his fear, his anxiety, or his clever retreat. He sings of a great cutting off, a decisive victory won not by his own strength, but in the authority of the name of Yahweh. This is not a psalm for the faint of heart. It is a battle cry for the church militant, a song to be sung when the enemy has you surrounded, which is to say, it is a song for our time.
The Text
All nations surrounded me; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me, indeed, they surrounded me; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
They surrounded me like bees; They were extinguished as a fire of thorns; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off.
You pushed me down violently to make me fall, But Yahweh helped me.
Yah is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.
(Psalm 118:10-14 LSB)
Surrounded, Yet Triumphant (vv. 10-12)
The psalmist begins by stating the tactical situation. It is dire. He is surrounded. But his response is not tactical; it is theological.
"All nations surrounded me; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me, indeed, they surrounded me; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me like bees; They were extinguished as a fire of thorns; In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off." (Psalm 118:10-12)
Notice the structure. It is a threefold problem and a threefold solution. The repetition is not for lack of anything else to say. It is for emphasis, like hammer blows. First, "All nations surrounded me." This is the big picture, the geopolitical reality. He is isolated and outnumbered on a grand scale. Then, it becomes more intense: "They surrounded me, indeed, they surrounded me." This is the claustrophobic experience of that reality. The enemy is not just on the horizon; they are pressing in from every side. The threat is immediate and suffocating. Finally, he gives us an image: "They surrounded me like bees." This is a picture of a swarming, agitated, irrational, and painful assault. Anyone who has disturbed a hornet's nest understands the panic this image is meant to evoke. It is a chaotic, overwhelming attack.
This is a perfect picture of the Christian's experience in a hostile world. We are surrounded by nations that rage against the Lord and His Anointed. We are pressed in on every side by a culture that despises our convictions. And we are often swarmed by a thousand stinging annoyances, accusations, and temptations. The world, the flesh, and the devil coordinate their assault, and it can feel utterly overwhelming.
But look at the refrain, repeated three times with the certainty of a covenant promise. "In the name of Yahweh I will surely cut them off." He does not say, "I hope to survive." He does not say, "I will try to negotiate a truce." He says he will cut them off. The Hebrew word here means to mow down, to destroy. This is offensive warfare. And what is the weapon? What is the basis for this audacious confidence? It is "the name of Yahweh."
To act in someone's name is to act with their authority and power. When a police officer says, "Stop, in the name of the law," he is not speaking on his own authority. He is backed by the entire government. To fight in the name of Yahweh is to fight with the delegated authority of the Creator of the heavens and the earth. It is to recognize that the battle is not yours, but the Lord's. Our authority does not come from our numbers, our political influence, or our cultural savvy. It comes from the name of the Triune God. And in that name, we are commanded to be confident. We are not fighting for victory; we are fighting from victory.
And notice the end of verse 12. The swarming bees, so terrifying in the moment, "were extinguished as a fire of thorns." A fire of thorns burns hot, it crackles and spits and makes a great show, but it is over in a flash. It is all noise and no substance. This is the biblical assessment of the world's rage against God. It is loud, it is intimidating, but it is temporary and ultimately impotent. Before the power of Yahweh, the great conflagration of rebellion is nothing more than a flash in the pan.
The Personal Attack and the Divine Help (v. 13)
The psalmist then shifts from the corporate threat of the nations to a singular, personal enemy.
"You pushed me down violently to make me fall, But Yahweh helped me." (Psalm 118:13 LSB)
Here the psalmist addresses his enemy directly. "You pushed me." This could refer to a particular king, or it could be a personification of the enemy forces, or even a direct address to the spiritual power behind them all, the devil. The attack was personal, it was violent, and it had a clear intent: "to make me fall." The goal of our enemy is not just to bother us, but to make us stumble, to make us fall away from our trust in God, to bring us to ruin.
The Christian life is full of these violent shoves. A sudden tragedy, a vicious slander, a deep betrayal, a relentless temptation. The enemy comes at us with a hard push, intending to knock us off our feet and into the mud of despair or sin. The verse is stark in its simplicity. The enemy's action: "You pushed me." The result: "to make me fall."
But the sentence does not end there. The "but" that follows is the great turning point of the Christian life. "But Yahweh helped me." The enemy's push was met by the Lord's upholding hand. The verb "helped" is simple, but it contains everything. God did not just shout encouragement from the sidelines. He intervened. He supplied the necessary grace, the required strength, the timely deliverance. When the enemy pushed, Yahweh upheld. This is the testimony of every saint who has ever persevered through trial. We do not stand because we are strong; we stand because when we were falling, the Lord helped us.
The Source of It All (v. 14)
This personal experience of deliverance leads the psalmist to his ultimate conclusion, a creedal confession that is echoed from the shores of the Red Sea.
"Yah is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation." (Psalm 118:14 LSB)
This is a direct quotation from the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:2, sung after the deliverance from Egypt and the destruction of Pharaoh's army. By quoting this, the psalmist is placing his personal deliverance into the grand story of God's covenant redemption. His personal battle with the nations is a microcosm of God's great war against all the powers that set themselves against His people.
Notice the three-fold description of God. First, He is "my strength." God does not simply give us strength as though it were a commodity He dispenses. He Himself is our strength. We are strong only when we are utterly dependent on Him. Our weakness is the prerequisite for knowing His strength. When we are at the end of our own resources, we are just getting to the beginning of His.
Second, He is "my song." This is a profound statement. God is not just the one about whom we sing; He is the song itself. He is the substance of our joy, the reason for our praise. A Christian who has no song is a Christian who has forgotten his God. In the midst of the battle, surrounded by bees, pushed to the point of falling, the believer has a song to sing. Why? Because our joy is not based on our circumstances, but on our God. He is the melody that cuts through the noise of battle.
Finally, "He has become my salvation." Salvation is not an abstract concept or a future hope alone. It is a person. Yahweh Himself is our salvation. The name Jesus, Yeshua, means "Yahweh is salvation." This verse is profoundly christological. When the psalmist says Yahweh has become his salvation, he is testifying to a historical, concrete act of deliverance that points forward to the ultimate act of deliverance in the cross and resurrection. Christ has become our salvation. It is a finished work. He did not just provide a way of salvation; He is the Way. He did not just tell us the truth about salvation; He is the Truth. He did not just offer us the possibility of life; He is the Life.
Conclusion: Cut Them Off
So what do we do with a psalm like this? We are to take it up and sing it. We are to believe it. We are to live it out. When the nations of our day surround us with their godless ideologies, their sexual chaos, and their totalitarian impulses, we are not to despair. We are to look them in the eye and say, with the authority of our risen King, "In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I will cut you off."
This does not mean we take up literal swords. It means we take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We cut off lies with truth. We cut off despair with hope. We cut off hatred with love. We cut off the arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God by taking every thought captive to obey Christ. We engage in spiritual warfare, knowing that the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world.
When you feel that personal, violent shove from the enemy, when you are about to fall, you must remember the great "but" of the gospel. "But Yahweh helped me." And He will help you. He is your strength when you are weak. He is your song when you want to cry. And He has already become your salvation.
Therefore, do not be intimidated by the swarming bees. Do not be dismayed by the encircling armies. Their fire is but for a moment. Our God is an everlasting flame. Stand your ground. Hold your line. And sing the triumphant refrain. For in the name of Yahweh, we will surely, most surely, cut them off.