Return, O Lord, deliver me! Oh, save me for Your mercies’ sake! For in death there is no remembrance of You; in the grave who will give You thanks? (Psalm 6:4-5)
According to some commentators, when David wrote this he was very ill and under intense pressure due to the many enemies who sought his destruction. In the midst of his plight — one severe enough that he thought he was close to death — he called upon the LORD to deliver, (more literally extract or release) him from this critical situation. More specifically, the Hebrew text reveals that he prayed God would release his soul from the angst he was feeling, thus hinting that whatever was oppressing David was meant to affect an inward change.
Without a doubt, at times, God will allow oppression to touch our lives in order to provoke us to search our hearts and cry out to Him for deliverance. Even the Hebrew language supports this concept. Interestingly, the Hebrew word translated deliver (חלץ chalatz) is comprised of the same three letters that form the Hebrew word for oppression (לחץ lachatz). In fact, both of these words can be found in this passage: “He delivers (chalatz) the poor in their affliction, and opens their ears in oppression (lachatz).”
In short, He uses oppression to get our attention — “opens their ears” — and being in our affliction we cry out for deliverance. Think of it this way: God compelled Israel to go down to Egypt in order to grow and multiply as a nation, but at the same time, He allowed them to go into Egyptian bondage that they might be provoked to hear His voice and then call out to Him for deliverance from their affliction.
For reasons known only to the Almighty, it was necessary for Israel to sojourn in Egypt; it was part of the process of becoming a nation. However, had they not cried out to Him for deliverance when they were afflicted, would they have been extracted from their oppression? If they had refused to cry out to Him for deliverance, would they have simply died under the heel of their oppressors and disappeared into history? Had they gone down into the grave, what people would have been on earth ready to give Him thanks? This could not be and so He allowed them to be oppressed to the point that they had no options but Him, and so they cried, “Deliver us!”
In the end, it was not their cries that delivered them — it was His mercy and faithfulness to the promise given to His servant Abraham that rescued them from death. God would not allow them to disappear into history; their deliverance, like David’s deliverance, came about because of His long suffering, His grace and His loving kindness. Perhaps that is precisely why God allows oppression to touch our lives — that we might truly appreciate and grasp the goodness of God. If that is so, if it brings us to the realization that things need to change within our soul and that our Father always has our best interests in mind, then it is a necessary and welcome inconvenience.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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