Psalm 119:134-136 “Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts. Make Your face shine upon Your servant and teach me Your statutes. My eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep Your law.”
I wish that I knew the writer of this Psalm personally. He’s truly a human being who recognizes where he comes up short, but also evaluates his circumstance logically and processes it by way of talking to the Lord. A man of God, no doubt…
The one word that boggles my heart/soul/mind/strength here is redeem. He wants to be redeemed from the oppression of man.. He doesn’t want to be relieved of it, or forget about it. He doesn’t ask to have revenge for it, or reconciliation even. No, he chooses to ask for redemption. Restoration.
The original word in Hebrew is “padah” which in the Greek translation of the Old Testament is rendered “latroo-oh” which more descriptively means something along the lines of “to deliver from evils of every kind; external and internal” (BlueLetterBible.org definition)
Evils of every kind…hm. It is apparent to me now, though it wasn’t for so long in previous situations, that wrong-doings committed are firstly and in fact only committed against God Himself. Often times it is the intent of our motivation to act wrongly against other people. For instance (and I use a common though quite extreme example for familiarity’s sake) murder. When a human being is killed by another human being, is it not abundantly clear that the crime committed was intended for specifically that victim? But, truth be told, the murderer’s sin was committed against God whether he even considered God in his intent to kill or not.
The condequence of his sin is evident then secondly in many instances. Someone is dead because of him. Someone is without a son because of him. Someone won’t fill their usual spot at the table Christmas Eve. Some bus driver will not get his daily ‘good morning’…etc. In any case, the possibilities of the effects of the murder are endless.
What’s more, God allowed that guy to be murdered. God allowed some individual to pull the trigger. So often our faces become wrinkled when we think of that concept. God, being infinite in knowledge and power, allowing someone to do such a thing that would have such detrimental effects. BUT out of His sufficient mercy and grace, is it not true that good things come out of this murder? Percieve it as you will, but lessons are learned, forviveness is understood. Ah, these possibilities are also endless.
On quite the contrary, many times it is no such intent of a human being to do anything wrong against another person. However, God knows the true motivation of the hearts of us all and sees in our most hidden moments. Yet those secret sins have effects on other as well, whether we choose it to be so or not. The behavior or hiding something often leads to outward behaviors that are either misunderstood or simply unnecessary. Lies. Justification. Nerves. Humans will do almost anything to save their own backs, yeah? We’ve all cut the corner to hide our flaws before.
So essentially, there is consequence to all sin. Ther is always going to be another person who feels the blow of one’s wrong. A sin committed is a vertical crime with horizontal consequences, and must be, or we’d likely never learn anything. The writer of this Psalm recognizes this truth and asks God for restoration from the times when people hurt him with their wrongs. He wraps up the passage by saying that he cries and is in pain on behalf of those folks who don’t follow God’s law. He says basically, “God, I don’t want to hurt others with my sin, and I certainly don’t want to sin against You, so teach me Your law and let me recover from all of this mess.” That’s a pretty bold statement to make…not to mention insightful.
And what does that type of recovery entail? I believe that I am learning. And it has caused me to be more aware of times when my outright sinfulness causes others to hurt. Like the writer of this Psalm, I’m learning that dealing with sin that is not your own is often as painful as dealing with your own sin. As love and mercy collide with the sorrow in my heart for those who are drifting from the Truth, I am faced with a decision. I can either react towards the people I cry for and thus insert myself into an illogical battle of futile ends and means. Or I can turn my trust and hope to the Lord like the writer of this Psalm.
God, give me the strength to do it.
