Handling Oppression (Psalms 119:145-152)
Handling Oppression
Psalms 119:145-152
January 8, 2012
As you know we are dealing with a Psalmist under oppression.
He is oppressed because he will not compromise on his convictions;
Namely that he loves and proclaims the word of God.
This commitment has certainly caused him to be hated,
Just as Scripture continually promises.
And yet in the midst of this oppression he has remained strong,
Even zealous for God’s Word and has refused to yield.
BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT IS EASY…
Twila Paris used to sing a song called: “The Warrior is a Child”
Lately I’ve been winning battles left and right, but even winners can get wounded in the fight. People say that I’m amazing; strong beyond my years. but they don’t see inside of me I’m hiding all the tears.
They don’t know that I go running home when I fall down. They don’t know who picks me up when no one is around. I drop my sword and cry for just a while ’cause deep inside this armor the warrior is a child.
Unafraid because His armor is the best, but even soldiers need a quiet place to rest. People say that I’m amazing; never face retreat, but they don’t see the enemies that lay me at His feet.
They don’t know that I go running home when I fall down. They don’t know who picks me up when no one is around. I drop my sword and cry for just a while ’cause deep inside this armor the warrior is a child.
That song could have very easily been written about our Psalmist.
We know he is a young man and that he appears absolutely fearless.
He fights his battles, he won’t quit, always standing on the word of God
Regardless of the enemies that approach him.
And yet tonight we learn that there is also
A much more dependant side to our warrior.
TONIGHT WE SEE HIM RUNNING HOME
In reality this is true of all followers of Christ.
• None are strong on their own…
• None fight on their own…
• All need help in their struggles…
What we see is his prayer in the midst of oppression.
He is a man willing to stand and fight for God’s Word,
But it is certainly true that the battle has taken its toll on him.
And he needs to be picked up.
This is very important stuff for us here,
Because any time we fight battles for the Lord it is vital
That we know where to go when we get wounded in the fight.
It is hard to stand under oppression,
Here we find the Psalmist’s secret to longevity in the battle.
We call it PRAYER
You probably even remember
After Paul wrote that great passage of Scripture on the armor of God
Immediately following that passage he then wrote:
Ephesians 6:18-20 “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
Prayer isn’t necessarily a piece of the believer’s armor,
But it most certainly is a necessity to every Christian soldier.
And it is a topic that is covered extensively in Scripture.
If we desired we could take a few months and examine the prayers
Of various men and women in Scripture:
We love Elijah’s prayer before the altar on Mt. Carmel asking God to show that He alone is God.
We love Jehoshaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20 as he prayed, “For we are powerless against this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”
We love Hezekiah’s prayer in 2 Kings 19 as he took Sennacherib’s letter of reproach and spread it out before the Lord.
We love Daniel’s prayer of humility and repentance as he confesses the sin of Israel.
We love the prayer of Jesus in John 17 interceding on behalf of all believers.
And once we were finished examining individual prayers
We could take another couple of years and study
All that the Scriptures say about prayer.
When to do it, how to do it, why to do it, etc.
(Not the least of this is the model prayer when Jesus taught us how to pray)
BUT TONIGHT WE LOOK AT THE PRAYER OF OUR PSALMIST
In looking at his prayer we find the secret to why he remains so strong.
3 main things
#1 HIS CRY
Psalms 119:145-149
We are obviously speaking of his prayer here.
We call it a “cry” because that is what he calls it.
And that being said, we actually get 5 different attributes about his prayer.
1) INTENSITY OF HIS PRAYER (145)
“I cried with all my heart; answer me, O Lord!”
In his mind it is more desperate than just an average prayer.
• This isn’t some routine ritual…
• This isn’t some normal thing…
• This is a deep, serious, emotional, petition to God.
Like the Canaanite who wouldn’t stop shouting until she got results.
That is how this man is praying.
This man’s prayer is intense.
“I cried with all my heart”
He has every ounce and fiber of his being wrapped up into this prayer.
WHY?
Because he is dependent upon it.
If God doesn’t come through, he is finished.
There is no plan B.
And by the way, Scripture seems to commend such prayers.
• We already know the Canaanite woman was successful as she revealed her great faith.
• We are certainly familiar with the widow who came every day before the unrighteous judge and literally wore him out.
• Who can forget Christ sweating drops of blood in the garden as He prayed?
Beyond that we are familiar with what Scripture says:
Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Later Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”
Even Jesus told His disciples after speaking about the persistent widow:
Luke 18:7 “now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?”
It is apparent in Scripture that God honors a desperate prayer.
Certainly not because He delights in theatrics,
But rather that He delights in a heart that is totally set on Him.
He delights in one who has dismissed all other options
And has placed all of their hope upon Him.
He delights in one who is totally dependent
And therefore completely focused.
That is the prayer of the Psalmist.
“I cried with all my heart;”
But that is not the only place we see his intensity.
Notice the tenses he uses.
“I cried”
And then he says, “answer me, O Lord!”
What that means is that when he “cried” he did not get an answer.
That cry was in the past.
Now he is praying reminding God that he “cried”
And that he is still awaiting an answer.
The point is this.
It is not as though he was pretending with God.
He is totally dependent upon God and he proves that by never leaving.
It is also important to note his intentions.
“I will observe Your statutes.”
You will notice each attribute of his prayer
Includes his relationship to the word of God.
First of all that indicates how he expects God to answer.
But it also reveals that his heart is pure in his request.
This is not a person wanting relief to return back to sin.
This is not a person desiring to have a selfish wish granted.
His heart desires righteousness.
His heart desires obedience.
And in that extreme desire he is desperate for God to answer.
Intensity of His Prayer
2) REQUEST OF HIS PRAYER (146)
“I cried to You; save me And I shall keep Your testimonies.”
Now we could also recognize here the direction of his prayer.
“to You”
He was praying to God.
How many times have we heard prayers, “God, if You’re up there and are real, then I’m talking to You…”
This man knew who he was praying to.
He was praying specifically to the Lord.
Isaiah 45:20 “Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save.”
But beyond that we see his request.
“save me”
(not salvation as we see it, but a prayer for deliverance)
And again we notice it is a salvation meant to lead to obedience.
“And I shall keep Your testimonies”
He isn’t wanting a comfortable life of sin.
But he does desire for God to “save” him.
But we also learn here that when we pray
It is ok to make requests to God.
Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”
Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
James 4:2 “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.”
Now certainly I recognize the importance of submitting our will to God’s
And understanding that sometimes He doesn’t give what we ask for.
We do end our prayers as Jesus did, “not My will, but Yours be done”
But that doesn’t mean that we lean so heavily
Towards the sovereignty of God that we never ask Him for anything.
He tells us to.
And the Psalmist certainly did.
He came to God and specifically asked to be saved.
• But what if it was God’s will that he be oppressed?
• What if God wanted to use his hardship to grow the kingdom?
• What if God was using this for his good?
Then we want God’s will to be done and we will love Him anyway,
But we only know what we know and we bring our requests.
The Psalmist still told God what he desired.
The Intensity…The Request…
3) THE PRIORITY OF HIS PRAYER (147)
“I rise before dawn and cry for help; I wait for Your words.”
Carrie laughed the other day at Abigail.
The day before she had asked Carrie to play cards with her. Carrie told her that the kids were going back to school and they would have time together and they would play then.
Wednesday morning, Abigail rolled out of bead
And the first thing she did was get the cards.
It was her priority.
That is the prayer of the Psalmist.
Nothing was more important to him than to take his prayer to God.
He didn’t desire breakfast…
He didn’t desire coffee…
He wanted to present his request to God.
Now, again, understand that it is not the timing of the prayer
That makes it effective as though God is more apt to answer
A prayer at 6:30 in the morning than at 5:30 at night.
We can’t manipulate God in that way,
But what it does reveal is the priority in the man’s life.
Nothing was more important than this to him.
This is the same attitude that works with fasting.
I’ve told you before you don’t pressure God to answer by refusing to eat.
But a heart that would rather talk to God than eat
Is a heart that is totally focused on God, and He responds to that.
That is our Psalmist.
He needed to talk to God and it couldn’t wait.
The Intensity…The Request…The Priority
4) THE ENDURANCE OF HIS PRAYER (148)
“My eyes anticipate the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word.”
So now we have moved from morning to night
And still the Psalmist is focused.
He started off his day with prayer
And now he is headed to night still waiting.
Luke 11:5-8 “Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
We’ve already mentioned the widow several times.
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘ Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.'” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
It is endurance in prayer.
And that motivates God, not that we ever wear Him out,
But rather our endurance indicates our faith.
The Canaanite woman endured being ignored, she endured flat out rejection, she endured insults, and still she requested of Jesus.
WHY?
Because she obviously believed Jesus could and Jesus would.
God is moved by a heart that is fully devoted.
The Intensity…The Request…The Priority…The Endurance
5) THE HUMILITY OF HIS PRAYER (149)
“Hear my voice according to Your lovingkindness; Revive me, O Lord, according to Your ordinances.”
Notice what he appeals to?
“Your lovingkindness”
Your bible may say “mercy”
He isn’t talking about how worthy he is, or how God owes it to him.
He prays to God and he prays early and he prays late,
Not because God owes him but because he knows God is merciful.
This is his humility.
We certainly must come humbly before God.
We all remember the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, one came in arrogance, but the tax collector wouldn’t even look up to heaven, asking only for mercy.
That man went away justified.
We’ve heard the Laura Story song: “There is Nothing”
CHORUS: “So clothe me; humility. Remind me, that I come before a King. And there is nothing, there is nothing, more precious, more worthy. May I gaze deeper, may I stay longer, may I press onward to know You Lord?”
HUMILITY MATTERS
And again, please recognize what he wants.
“Revive me”
This is where he gets his strength.
Remember, “The warrior is a child that runs home when he falls down”
That is what our Psalmist has done,
But he needs strength to get back up and go battle again.
When we battle and when we are oppressed,
We go to our merciful Father and we ask Him to help.
And we go early and we stay late and we go nowhere else
Because we know that strength comes from him.
Charles Spurgeon said:
“Prayers are the believer’s weapons of war. When the battle is too hard for us, we call in our great Ally, who, as it were, lies in ambush until faith gives the signal by crying out, “Arise, O Lord.” Although our cause be all but lost, it shall soon be won again if the Almighty doth but bestir Himself.”
Our Psalmist seemed to know that.
So when he was weak…
When he was beaten…
When he was tired…
When he was discouraged…
• He took his cry to God.
• He took it first thing.
• He continued to cry until God answered.
• And he depended upon God’s mercy for that answer.
That is where we find strength in the midst of oppression as well.
Now let me show you why he was crying.
#2 HIS CIRCUMSTANCE
Psalms 119:150
And now we see why the Psalmist is so intense in his prayer.
Those who hate him are close.
Earlier he said:
Psalms 119:141 “I am small and despised, Yet I do not forget Your precepts.”
Psalms 119:143 “Trouble and anguish have come upon me, Yet Your commandments are my delight.”
Earlier there was a pretty serious threat against him,
But now the threat has become reality.
“Those who follow after wickedness draw near;”
He then reminds, “They are far from Your Law”
And I kind of like the prayer.
“They are far from You, but they are close to me, and I need help!”
In other words the battle is at hand.
His Cry, His Circumstance
#3 HIS CONFIDENCE
Psalms 119:151-152
We could probably call this the FAITH of his prayer,
For we all know it is important that we ask in faith.
James 1:6-7 “But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,”
We have to pray believing, and that is what the Psalmist does here.
We know God has yet answer.
We know the enemy is upon him.
And yet, notice his confidence.
1) GOD WON’T LEAVE
“You are near, O Lord,”
In verse 145, God is yet to answer.
In verse 146, God is yet to save.
In verse 147-148, God is yet to speak.
In verse 149, God is yet to revive.
And yet the Psalmist still believes God is “near”
That is faith beyond sight.
That is confidence in the promises of God.
2) GOD CAN’T LIE
“And all Your commandments are truth.”
We know Hebrews says it is impossible for God to lie,
And the Psalmist believes that too.
• God has never misled him.
• God has never deceived him.
• God has never told him something untrue.
When we get in difficult circumstances
It is tempting to re-think all that God has said.
But the Psalmist didn’t.
He still believed God was near and he still believed God’s word was right.
3) GOD NEVER LOSES
“Of old I have known from Your testimonies That You have founded them forever.”
As we have said, “testimonies”
Refers to those instances of God’s deliverances.
Those are the stories we love from the Bible.
• Noah and the Ark
• Daniel and the Lion’s Den
• David and Goliath
• Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
And the Psalmist knows that of all God’s testimonies,
Even the really old ones, they stand forever.
God never loses.
That is his confidence.
NOW HERE IS THE POINT
It is his confidence in God that causes him to pray like he does,
And it is his prayer that brings about strength in his life.
As we have watched our Psalmist the last few weeks,
I hope you have been a little envious of his faith.
I hope you have desired his commitment and zeal.
WHAT IS THIS MAN’S SECRET?
He believes God.
• He believes that God won’t leave him.
• He believes that God won’t lie to him.
• He believes that God never loses.
And so it is easy for him to stand for God.
And when the battle is long and the soldier is tired,
He knows he can run to God and be revived.
But it all hinges upon his belief in God.
• If he thought God would leave, then why go to Him?
• If he thought God would lie, then why stand on His word?
• If he thought God could lose, then why face the hardship?
His zeal is a bi-product of his faith.
And so is his prayer.
So tonight, I DON’T just want to encourage you
To pray with more intensity, or with more priority,
Or with more endurance, or with more humility.
I want to encourage you to believe God more.
• I want to encourage you that God is trustworthy.
• I want to encourage you that God will never leave you nor forsake you.
• I want to encourage you that God will never lie to you.
• I want to encourage you that if you are on God’s side, He never loses.
And when you gain such confidence in God,
It will naturally transform your prayer life.
And that is how you handle oppression.
You simply believe in a Big God and you cast those cares on Him.
The Psalmist did, and that is how the child continued to be a warrior.
Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.”
