Psalm 119:134 Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep your precepts. The tone of this entire psalm is that of a man who is in some kind of bondage to his fellow-man, either material, mental, or moral. It may reflect the feeling of the exile in Babylon; but perhaps it reflects better the feeling of the restored exile, whose endeavors to resuscitate the Israelite nation and religion were so variously opposed by the neighboring kingdoms, and by political parties. The restored exile, because of his joy in his new-found liberty, felt all the more deeply the way in which he was checked and hindered by fresh forms of the "oppression of man." And true to the Jewish instincts, he saw the oppression chiefly as a hindrance to his hope of restoring the Jehovah-worship. I. THE VALUE OF FREEDOM DEPENDS ON THE USE WE MAKE OF IT. A child had better not be free, because he does not know what to do with freedom. He gradually gains the freedom as he gains the control of himself and the control of his circumstances. Some men never can be free. They are not masters of themselves enough to have so serious a trust. Freedom is a passionate desire of humanity everywhere, and in all its stages. It is God's gift to man, and his inalienable right. And yet with this passion for his own freedom there goes another passion to hold his brother in bonds. Man would use his freedom to take away his brother's; or to satisfy his lower animal nature. There is dignity and peril in mental freedom and in moral freedom. They depend on the use we make of the trust. II. WE USE OUR FREEDOM ARIGHT ONLY WHEN WE PUT OURSELVES IN BONDS. The psalmist wants his liberty in order that he may keep God's precepts. Liberty for man is but license when it is simple freedom from restraint. It is a noble anti intelligent thing only when a man uses it to fix rules for himself, or to put himself into the Divine rule. Men think of freedom as getting rid of the restraints of righteousness, so that they may do what they like. But the true liberty, the only liberty a man can desire who looks aright on life, is getting rid of the restraints of evil, self will, and self-pleasing, so that he may be free to do what God likes. He wants liberty to be righteous. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.WEB: Redeem me from the oppression of man, so I will observe your precepts. |
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