THE first three words are italicized in our English version and do not represent any words in the original text. Actually, the sentence is, in a sense, unfinished. Or it may be considered as an exclamation, “Oh, if I had not believed to behold the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!” Had David been without faith and spiritual insight, he could not, dare not, think what the sad results might have been when his enemies were seeking his destruction and false witnesses were endeavoring to blight his life and ruin his testimony. But believing God, he triumphed over them all. Looking upon the promises of the Lord as certain of fulfillment, he was preserved from moral and spiritual shipwreck.
“Unless I had believed,
I had fainted,” long ago,
So buffeted by whelming seas,
With treach’rous undertow;
I dare not think what might have been
“Unless I had believed.”
“Unless I had believed.”
I could not have won the fight,
Too many and too fierce my foes
To have withstood their might;
They would have torn me, limb from limb,
“Unless I had believed.”
Now that I have believed.
Are my feet upon the Rock,
My soul established, strong, secure,
To brave the earthquake shock;
What tragic loss, what black despair! ―
“Unless I had believed.”
—T. O. Chisholm.