When we share our testimony with others, we are bearing witness to what God has done for us. Hearing someone share how the Lord has powerfully worked in his or her life strengthens my own faith and confidence in God.

Unfortunately, too many testimonies, while well-intended, fail to do that. I learn a lot about the person, but little about God. I learn a lot about the person’s troubles and needs, but not enough about how God came to their rescue. In particular, while the testimony may have meant to encourage me to trust in the Lord Jesus, it makes little mention of what Jesus has done to rescue us.

By contrast, Psalm 124 is a wonderful model of a testimony. The psalm is in two parts. In the first part (vv. 1–5), the psalmist, David, contemplates the awful prospect of what might have happened to him and his people if the Lord hadn’t intervened.

It seems that Israel had experienced a sudden attack from an enemy. She was completely unprepared and ill-equipped to deal with it. She could have been destroyed or swallowed alive (v. 3). Although the situation was terrifying and life-threatening, we know from the opening words that the outcome would be a good one, because we’re told that the Lord is “on our side” (vv. 1, 2).

The second part of the psalm is the response to God’s rescue, which is worship (vv. 6–8). David describes the troubles faced by the Israelites with two vivid metaphors. It was like drowning in a flood (vv. 4–5), and like a bird that had been trapped (v. 7). The bird actually did get caught, but the trap was broken.

Similarly, troubles and attacks will come upon us. Persecuted Christians sometimes end up in prison. We can be left battered and bruised by what people say or do to us. The reality is that sometimes we may not experience rescue in this life.

But that is not the end of the story—the Lord who is on our side will rescue us. There is a Day coming when storms and floods have will have ceased for ever, and we are finally and fully set free from all our enemies.

The apostle Paul writes, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Paul then catalogues some of our enemies: trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, or the sword (v. 35). But his confidence is that we are more than conquerors, because the Lord Jesus is interceding for us (v. 34). Or, in the words of Psalm 124, the Lord is “on our side” (vv. 1, 2).

A good and useful testimony, like Psalm 124, is about God. He is the subject of the testimony. When we’ve finished speaking, we want people’s thoughts to be all about the Lord. We don’t want to hear people say, “You have an amazing story.” We want to hear them say, “You have an amazing God. Let’s worship Him together.”