Thought from today’s Bible reading from Psalm 119:89-176.
“Redeem me from the oppression of man, that I may keep Your precepts” (Psalm 119:134).
Throughout this psalm, David expressed his love for God’s word and his determination to follow it. Yet here he mentioned a potential obstacle for his obedience – oppression. David certainly experienced this in his life. Therefore, he was well aware of the challenges that oppression presented to faithful obedience. So his prayer to God was for this obstacle to be removed.
There is nothing wrong with us today having the same desire and prayer as David. In fact, we are told to pray for this.
“First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity” (1 Timothy 2:1-2).
Of course, difficult circumstances are no excuse for failing to obey the Lord. We must be of the mind that we will serve God no matter what the consequences. Peter said, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Jesus said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). We must be faithful, even if it costs us our lives (Revelation 2:10).
However, we cannot ignore the reason why persecution and oppression exist: to convince Christians to stop serving the Lord. Many times the oppressors are successful. Christians fall away and cease serving the Lord in order to avoid persecution. Therefore, while we must prepare for persecution, it is perfectly appropriate to pray that we and our brethren might avoid it.
Tomorrow’s reading: Song of Solomon 1-8
[I’m using the Chronological reading plan on the Bible Gateway website if you’d like to follow along, too.]
Daily Notes & Observations contains all 365 articles from this series and is available in paperback from Gospel Armory.
