This Psalm celebrates this in actual deliverance; in Psa. 123 the contempt of the proud was there—here "If," etc., they would have overwhelmed," and "gone over their soul." But there was One into whose soul the waters had come in, and therefore it did not come nigh them—their power was gone, for Jehovah was on their side. "Men rose up," all the power of man there, their gibborim (powerful ones) were wakened up, and come down with their weapons to the valley of Jehoshaphat, but there the Lord and His gibborim, whom He had caused to come down, were. It was multitudes—multitudes, but in "the valley of decision," and the day of the Lord near. Joel is just the expression of the great inroad on the Remnant, or nation, or of all the nations—chapters 1 and 2 describing it with the Lord's summons, and chapter 3, what He turns it into—"the valley of decision." Here is the escape of the Remnant whose hope was in "the name of the Lord." "The snare was broken," wide as its cords were spread, and strong to the eyes of men, but the Lord was there. It is not Antichrist so much, as the power of man in the trouble which ensues upon his destruction. The universal character of Jehovah is carefully brought in, because it is His millennial blessedness, His comprehensive Name herein, so manifested in blessing.
It was well they did trust in Jehovah, for, if Jehovah Himself had not been on their side, in man all hope was utterly lost. Men rose up against them and the proud waters had gone over their soul, but it was the occasion of their being able surely to say, Jehovah Himself was for them, for there were none else, and to Him they had looked. Such the effect of extreme and hopeless trouble—in Jehovah's deliverance, the clear certainty that Jehovah is for them. This Israel might now say—a long-lost word in the mouth of the sorrowing but still loved people, "Jehovah is on our side." "Blessed be Jehovah," was now therefore their word. The snare is broken, they delivered, and they could say now with experience, "Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth." Their great and hopeless trouble thus becomes the certainty of Jehovah's being with them.