Psalms 124:6

We have sung a psalm: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth [Psalm 124:6]. Due gratitude for the gifts of God. Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. It is certainly a voice of gratitude, and worthy gratitude. And when are human thanks sufficient for such divine gifts? When in this place the most blessed martyr shed sacred blood, I do not know whether such a crowd of raging people was here, as there is now a multitude of praising people. I say again—for it delights me indeed, to see people gathered in the house of the Lord with the utmost piety in this place, and to compare times with times—hence I say again and repeat, and commend to your senses, with as much devotion as I can; when in this place the most blessed martyr shed sacred blood, I do not know whether such a crowd of raging people was here, as there is now a multitude of praising people. But even if there was, blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. When they were killing, they believed they had won; they were being conquered by those dying, and they rejoiced. If they were conquered, surely they raged. Therefore, the crowd of raging people has departed, and the multitude of praising people has succeeded. Let the multitude of praising people say, say: Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth. To whose teeth? To the teeth of enemies, to the teeth of the impious, to the teeth of the persecutors of Jerusalem, to the teeth of Babylon, to the teeth of the hostile city, to the teeth of the crowd raging in crimes, to the teeth of the crowd persecuting the Lord, abandoning the Creator, turning to the creature, worshipping what is made by hand, despising the One by whom it was made. […]

Let them escape the water without substance, and say, "Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us over for a prey unto their teeth" [Psalm 124:6]. For the hunters were following, and had placed a bait in their trap. What bait? The sweetness of this life, so that each man for the sake of the sweetness of this life may thrust his head into iniquity, and be caught in the trap. Not they, in whom the Lord was, they who say, "If the Lord Himself had not been in us;" they have not been taken in the trap. Let the Lord be in thee, and thou wilt not be taken in the trap.

God's people are taken in the snare, and are as unable to help themselves out as any weak and silly bird is; and then is God's time to appear for their relief, when all other friends fail; then God breaks the snare, and turns the counsel of the enemies into foolishness: The snare is broken and so we are delivered. Isaac was saved when he lay ready to be sacrificed.

Blessed be the Lord,....

Blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Leaving the metaphor of a boiling flood, he compares the adversaries of Israel to wild beasts who desired to make the godly their prey. Their teeth are prepared to tear, and they regard the godly as their victims. The Lord is heartily praised for not permitting his servants to be devoured when they were between the jaws of the raging ones.