Psalm 119 Devotional

Okay, so if you would then, I'm going to ask you to go back to Psalm 119 as we've been continuing going through the psalm, and I would ask you to look at verse 134 tonight with me.

A few thoughts again.

And I will say this, I find it hard to try to reframe to such few thoughts, and that really is to me a blessing because the Word of God has so much to say, and you have to kind of contain your thoughts and try to make them pointed and worthwhile and then allow time to pass.

So it's somewhat difficult sometimes to just take a few minutes, but nevertheless it's worthwhile.

So, Psalm 119 and verse 134, and the psalmist says this, he says, Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may keep your precepts.

Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may keep your precepts.

And as I've been kind of trying to lay out and emphasize as we go through these verses from the psalmist, again I want to emphasize that as you read this, even in just a quick reading, if you haven't read it before or lately, that again we find the psalmist beseeching God.

If you read through this psalm, and again I say all psalms, but particularly in this psalm, you cannot miss that point, that the psalmist is continually, if you will, pleading with God, beseeching God, pursuing after God.

And I thought about how some people might think, well you know what, this psalmist must be pretty weak.

Whoever wrote this, whether it be David or whoever you believe that wrote this, some people might think, well he must be pretty weak, all he ever does is ask for help.

He must not have a whole lot of strength, he must be pretty shallow.

Because every time I seem to read this psalm, all he ever does is ask God for help.

Well I'll tell you what, if you were to think that way, I would be more willing to say I think you're thinking right.

Because that's exactly what the psalmist is doing.

The psalmist is continually pleading with God.

He is continually pleading with God, and he's always asking God for help.

And that alone would be enough for us to spend a few minutes on, how much do we really ask God for help? How much do we really say, Lord, I am without ability, versus, Lord, I can carry most of the load, I just need you to support me in a couple of things because I'm pretty good at this.

That's not the way we ought to think.

And so again, as we think about this, what he says here, he's about redeem me from the oppression of men that I may keep your precepts.

There he is again and again and again, beseeching God, begging God, pleading with God.

I will say this, and I wanted to share this real quick.

So you know I've had a problem with my eye.

So I've had this situation with my eye now five months.

It actually came one morning as I woke up, there it was, and so I think it's my lizard eye.

My eye just drifts out here, it's called ocular myasthenia gravis, a real special name.

But the thing I wanted to say about it, as I thought about the psalmist asking for help, so it's happened to me for five months now, and you know when it first happened, I was confused.

I was confused, I didn't know what was going on, I never had a problem with my eyes before.

And then as I moved along in my thinking, as it went a little further, I went from being confused to being distressed.

Because I can't read the way I want to read, and it hinders me in many other things.

My depth perception is off, I'm afraid I won't be able to bait my hook, but I'll get through that even if I've got to stab myself.

So I went from being confused to being distressed, and then I've got to be honest with you, then I went from being distressed to being a little bit depressed.

Because I began to think, this is not going away.

This is not just a speck in my eye, there's something more to it.

But you know what, brothers and sisters, here's what's happened to me over this period of time.

I've gone from confusion to distress to depression, and I'm really in a state of contentment now.

Or I'm getting further in contentment.

I'm actually finding myself thankful for this little special gift that God has given me.

And I have enjoyed pleading with God to take it away from me.

Now I don't know if that makes sense to the world, but to me it does, because it's taken me from where I was, where I woke up every morning and thought, you know what, I'll just soak my eyes, rinse a little bit of water, maybe take the Sandman out, and I'm good to go.

Not that way anymore.

Now when I get in the car, I really have to pray, Lord, keep me between the lanes.

I struggle with it, but my whole point in saying that is not just for me, but that you and I would realize, listen, brothers and sisters, without him, we can do nothing.

And with him, we can do all things.

How did I get from a state of confusion to where I'm actually content? I'd be thrilled if God would take this away.

But if he doesn't, I'm okay.

My wife says I look like a pirate, so that's cool.

She says she likes pirates, so I'm good with that.

But my whole point in saying that, and I don't want to take any more time with it, but I want us to think about how the psalmist continually is pleading with God, and he's continually stressing over and over again this idea of his need for help.

In this setting right now, he talks about being redeemed from the oppression of men.

He talks about being redeemed from the oppression of men, and another thing I've been trying to say about thinking that way, living our lives that way, and praying that way, is that as you read this verse along with any other verse in this psalm, it's not that the psalmist is pleading with God for self-consumption, because he's not.

He's pleading with God for a purpose, and we looked at it last week, we looked at it the week before, we looked at it the week before that.

If you look at it real quick, what he says, there's his plead, right? Redeem me from the oppression of men.

Why? Is it only for self-consumption, for self-exaltation? No.

Redeem me from the oppression of men, then I might keep your precepts.

You see? That's what I said to you before, that true prayer is not selfish at all, because true prayer doesn't desire only for itself.

True prayer and true desiring of God is for God's glory, and for being useful in the kingdom of God.

So again, something to think about.

That we would realize, if you will, our own weakness, and that we would realize God's strength.

And so, as I said to you, he asks here to be redeemed from the oppression of men, to be, if you will, released from something, because that's what it really is at the heart of being redeemed, to be released from something, to be rescued.

The word, sometimes it's translated rescue in the scriptures.

Sometimes this word redeem here in his verses is interpreted, is translated as rescues.

Sometimes it's translated as deliver, but it's always the idea of being taken from something, and not only being taken from something, but being brought to something.

So when he says this, he says, redeem me from the oppression of men, what he's really seeking is that God would help him to be able to move away, if you will, from the things that hold him back from pleasing God and from, in essence, from growing in grace and love.

The psalmist, you got to believe he's a real humble person, isn't he? He's a humble man.

One of the quickest ways, I hope you will agree with this, one of the quickest ways to shut heaven's door is to enter into it with a proud spirit.

One of the quickest ways to see the heavens, as the scriptures say, turn into brass above you is to try to approach God with anything but true weakness and humility.

And we really have problems with weakness and humility.

And the person who says things like, I'm very humble, he's usually very proud to tell you he's very humble, right? But really, that's the quickest way.

And so when he says this, again, I hope we can enter into the experience that he's really pleading with God to be delivered, to be rescued, to be ransomed, all those rich truths that come out of that, that he would be able to move away from where he was and the things that would hold him down.

And let me read this to you before I close, because I thought about this, how it's so easy to fall into that trap of not coming to God as totally bankrupt.

And that's why I say my eye has been a real gift to me, because it's helping me to realize how bankrupt I really am.

But listen to this, and just think about it.

It says in the Psalms, and you'll know where it's from as soon as I say it, but it says, search me, O God.

Search me, O God, and try my heart, and know my anxieties, and see if there's any wicked way in me, any desires to be cleansed.

And then listen to what it says in Proverbs.

It says this.

It says, my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

If they say, come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood.

Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause.

Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole like those that go down to the pit.

And we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, and we shall fill our houses with spoil, and cast in your lot among us.

Let us all have one purse.

My son, do not walk in the way with them.

Keep your foot from their path.

Listen to Proverbs.

And so as the psalmist says, Lord, deliver me from oppression.

Deliver me from the intent of ungodly men.

Deliver me from the intent, even in that sense, of my own flesh and my own sinful propensities that we would desire that, and that the way we would desire it is through keeping God's precepts.

My friends, we ought to pray much about how we need God's word.

Not know God's word.

Need God's word.

We need to know it, but we need to need it.

I mean, you can know all you want and then not have a need or an expectation or a desire attached to it, and all it is is fact, right? So many people, hell is full of people who have facts.

Lord, Lord, have we not done many wonderful things in your name? Redeem me from the oppression of men, that I may keep your precepts, that the things that you desire of me, help me to walk in those.

So may God help us.

May God help us as we think little by little, here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept, that we really need God, not just for eternity.

Without him, we have and are nothing.

So God bless us.

All right, I will turn it over to my brother as he comes now and continues in his study for us.

Thank you.