by Arthur W. Pink
by Arthur W. Pink
Philologos Religious Online Books
Philologos.org
by Arthur W. Pink
February, 1940
THE OPPRESSION OF MAN.
“Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep Thy precepts” (Psa. 119:134). But how is this to be asked? First, this is not to be asked as our main blessing: “seek ye first the kingdom of God” (Matt. 6:33). If we seek our ease and temporal felicity only, that prayer is like a brutish cry: “And they have not cried unto Me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds” (Hosea 7:14). A dog will howl when he feels anything inconvenient. You will never be freed from murmuring and quarrelling at God's dispensations and questioning His love, if this be the first thing that you seek; and so your prayers will become your snare. Besides the great dishonour to God, it argues the great disorder of your affections that you can be content to have anything apart from God: “Seek ye the LORD and His strength; seek His face evermore” (Psa. 105:4). In all conditions that must be our great request, that we may have the favour of God.
Second, it must be asked with submission. It is not absolutely promised, nor intrinsically and indispensably necessary to our happiness, but if the Lord sees fit for His own glory and our good. We cannot take it ill if a friend refuses to lend us a sum of money which he knows will be to our loss and detriment. God sees fit, sometimes, for His own glory and our good, to continue us under oppression, rather than take us out of it. There are two acts of Providence: relieving and comforting the oppressed, and punishing the oppressors. Sometimes God does the one without the other, sometimes both together. Sometimes God will only comfort the oppressed; we cry to Him in our afflictions, and God will not break the yoke but give us strength to bear it: “in the day when I cried Thou answeredst me, and hast strengthened me with strength in my soul” (Psa. 138:3). He gives you strength to bear the burden, if you continue in your integrity. Sometimes God does punish the oppressor, yet that is no relief to you. You must bear it, for you are to stand to God's will and to wait His leisure to free you from it.
Third, your end must be that God may be glorified, and that you may serve Him more cheerfully. So it is in the text. And again, “Have mercy upon me, O LORD; consider my trouble which I suffer of them that hate me, Thou that liftest me up from the gates of death; that I may show forth all Thy praise in the gates of the daughter of Zion; and I will rejoice in Thy salvation” (Psa. 9:13, 14). David begs salvation in order to praise. Temporal mercy should not be loved for itself, nor sought for itself; but as we may glorify God by it: that is to be our end. Lord, I seek not my own interest, but Thine. If you have a carnal end, you miss: “Ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:3)—that ye may please the flesh.
Fourth, we must pray in faith, that God can deliver from the oppression of man, and will do so in due time, when it is good for us. Though our oppressors be ever so mighty, God can break their power, or change their heart. It is a great relief to the soul to consider the several ways that God has to right us. “Then had the churches rest . . . and were multiplied” etc., (Act. 9:31). When was that? When Paul was converted. He was an active instrument against the Church, and God turned his heart; then had the churches rest. Or the Lord may do it by determining their interests that they shall show favour to His people though their hearts be not changed: “when a man's ways please the LORD, He maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Prov. 16:7). Please men, and you cannot say God is your Friend; but please God, and He makes your enemies at peace with you. There is much in the secret chain of Providence: see Daniel 1:9. God can break the yoke by raining judgments on them: see Isaiah 49:24, 25. Therefore we should not be discouraged with unlikelihood when we go to God, who has many ways which poor shortsighted creatures cannot foresee.
God is ready to deliver us. The love which the Lord has for His afflicted people will not suffer His justice to be quiet very long. That God is ready to help and deliver will appear from these things. 1. It is His nature to pity and show mercy to the oppressed and to revenge the oppressor. He pities the afflictions of them that suffer justly, and far beneath their desert, from His own hand: “they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD, and His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (Judg. 10:16 and cf. 2 Kings 14:26)—how much more will He pity them that are unworthily oppressed! And the Lord's pitiful nature does incline Him to deliver His people: and when the oppressed cry, “I will hear them; for I am gracious” (Exo. 22:21-27).
2. It is His usual practice and custom: “the LORD executeth judgment and righteousness for all that are oppressed” (Psa. 103:6). If for all; surely for His people. He sits in Heaven to rectify the disorders of men: see Psalm 34:19. 3. It is His office as Judge of the world: “Lift up Thyself, Thou judge of the earth; render a reward to the proud” (Psa. 94:2). Look upon Him only in that notion, according to our natural conceptions, as the supreme cause and Judge of all things. Again, His office as Protector of His people: He is in covenant with them, He is their Sun and Shield, His people's Refuge in time of trouble (Psa. 9:9), when they have none else to flee to.
Now for instruction to teach us what to do when we are oppressed. First, patience. It is the lot of God's children to be often troubled with the world: and badly used. Satan is the ruler of the darkness of this world, and his subjects cannot endure those who would overturn his kingdom. The good are few, and therefore must look to be oppressed. If there be any breathing room it is God's mercy. “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3:12 and cf. Gal. 4:29).
Second, let us be prepared to commend our cause to God: “LORD, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble; Thou wilt prepare their hearts, Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressor that the man of the earth may no more oppress” (Psa. 10-17, 18). God prepares the hearts of the humble, How so? By continuing the trouble till they are sensible of the misery of the sin—of the cause. “I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their offenses and seek My face” (Hosea 5:15).
Third, when you have prayed, then wait. It is a good sign when we are engaged in prayer, and encouraged to wait. When God has a mind to work, He sets the spirit of prayer at work. How can our prayers be heard when we regard them not ourselves and expect no issue? How should God hear when we pray out of course and do not think our prayers worth the regarding? “I waited patiently for the LORD, He inclined unto me and heard my cry” (Psa. 40:1). “I will watch to see what He will say” (Hab. 2:1). Look for an answer: God does not usually disappoint a waiting people.
When God delivers us from the oppression of man we should be quickened and encouraged in His service. First, because every mercy infers an answerable duty: “But Hezekiah rendered not according to the benefit done unto him” (2 Chron. 32:25). There must be rendering according to the receiving. Second, this is the fittest return, partly because it is real, not verbal. The Lord cares not for words—He knows the secret springs of the heart: see Psalm 50:23. It is good to be speaking good of God's name. This is one way of glorifying, but ordering the conversation aright is that which is most pleasing to Him. And partly, too, because our fear and sorrow are taken away: “I will run the way of Thy commandments when Thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psa. 119:32 and see Luke 1:74, 75).
We are now under the sad effects of our former unthankfulness, and by remembering our duty we may see our sin. Ingratitude and walking unanswerably to received mercy is the great and crying sin of God's people; therefore we should humble ourselves that we did so little good and that God had so little glory and service from us in former times of liberty. Now God by His present providence shows us the difference: “Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things, therefore thou shalt serve thine enemies” etc., (Deut. 28:47, 48 and see 2 Chron. 12:8). We must be humbled for the abuse of former mercies before we seek new.
Thus we may know (from the second part of our text) what to have in our eye when we are asking for mercies. The end is first in intention, though last in execution. Do not pray to serve thy lusts more freely, nor think how to execute revenge, nor how we should be provided for—but what glory and service we may bring to God: see Psalm 75:2. It also teaches us how to make our promises to God. When you promise duty and obedience to Him, be sure to be sincere and holy; make due provision that it may be so by mortifying the roots of such distempers as will betray us. When a people in a low condition have a real inclination to praise and glorify God by their mercies as soon as they shall receive them, it is an argument that He will hear.—Thomas Manton.
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