Psalm 119:134

As with the previous verse, I often pray using the words of today’s verse from Psalm 119.  This is especially the case as I see the freedoms that we have enjoyed in our nation receding before an ever expanding civil government and judiciary that are no friends to Biblical Christianity.

Psalms 119:134  Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.

The essence of this prayer is found in a number of other places in the psalms.  Here is but a sampling:

Psalms 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,

9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.

Psalms 56:1  Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

Psalms 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

If the Lord would answer the psalmist’s prayer and deliver him from the oppression of man, so, in this way, he would keep God’s precepts.  That is, he would keep God’s precepts as a free man, not restrained by any other man.  Commenting on this verse Charles Spurgeon wrote:

“We little know how much of our virtue is due to our liberty; if we had been in bonds under haughty tyrants we might have yielded to them, and instead of being confessors we might now have been apostates.  He who taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation,’ will sanction this prayer, which is of much the same tenor, since to be oppressed is to be tempted.”

The psalmist prayed for freedom from man’s tyranny not simply that he might pursue his own happiness, but rather, that he might keep the commandments of God.  Freedom to obey God’s precepts is the greatest and purest freedom there is.  Examples of such freedom would be the freedom to preach the gospel in obedience to Christ’s commandment; the freedom to worship God in an assembly of believers as God commands; the freedom to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; the freedom to work, save, and provide for our own as God’s law requires.  Throughout history there have been times when the oppression of man has hindered God’s people in keeping some of God’s commandments.  Preachers have been imprisoned and/or killed for preaching the truth (Acts 12:1-3).  Churches have been destroyed and congregations scattered (Acts 8:1-3; Galatians 1:13).  Children of God-fearing parents have at times been coerced into schools that teach things that contradict and deny the word of God.  In times of oppression men have been deprived of their livelihoods and their properties confiscated because of their political views or their faith.  And so on we could go. 

But, sadly, for many freedom from the oppression of man means the freedom to indulge in amusements no matter how vile or destructive they are, freedom to have sex any way one wants it, freedom to sell or purchase pornography, in short, freedom to indulge the vices of the flesh without restraint.  Such freedom as this is no freedom at all but rather an oppressive bondage.

John 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

Proverbs 5:22  His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

When man’s idea of freedom is the freedom to sin, he will find himself under a government that will grind him in the end to humiliating servitude and poverty as the following passage describes would happen to Israel if they would not observe to do all God’s commandments:

Deuteronomy 28:28  The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart:

29  And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

30  Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof.

31  Thine ox shall be slain before thine eyes, and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass shall be violently taken away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy sheep shall be given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to rescue them.

32  Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long: and there shall be no might in thine hand.

33  The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway:

34  So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.

So when we pray for deliverance from the oppression of man, when we pray for our freedom, let us be sure to qualify that request with this resolve:  so will I keep thy precepts.