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\u201cThey have greatly oppressed me from my youth,\u201d let Israel say; \u201cthey have greatly oppressed me from my youth, but they have not gained the victory over me. Plowmen have plowed my back and made their furrows long. But the Lord is righteous; he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.\u201d May all who hate Zion be turned back in shame. May they be like grass on the roof, which withers before it can grow; a reaper cannot fill his hands with it, nor one who gathers fill his arms. May those who pass by not say to them, \u201cThe blessing of the Lord be on you; we bless you in the name of the Lord.\u201d (Psalm 129)

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The Bible reports that the Egyptians treated the Israelites ruthlessly: beating them, abusing them, running them ragged in forced labour until they cried out to the Lord.\xa0 It\u2019s here, in Israel\u2019s youth that they experienced the plowmen that plowed long furrows\u2014back and forth like the strips from a whip\u2014along Israel\u2019s back. They were a nation raised in oppression, and they knew what it was to bear the brunt of insult, violence, and abuse as their humanity was ripped away furrow, by long furrow.\xa0 Israel also knew, therefore, what it was to hunger for justice and righteousness, to live with fists clenched, teeth gritted, and anger smoldering under the surface\u2014to live with a curse on their lips.\xa0

It\u2019s not what we would think to call a Christian sentiment, but until the day when the Lord comes, it certainly is an honest one.\xa0 The Psalms are pretty honest about the hard stuff of life\u2014and this is one of those things.\xa0 Righteous or not, there were times when Israel actively longed for the downfall and disgrace of her enemies.\xa0

And yet, it\u2019s precisely these people\u2014these honest, grumbling, wrestling people\u2014that the Lord comes out in righteousness to save.\xa0 Israel knew just what that meant too. \xa0It was the Lord that first blessed them and gave their ancestor Jacob the name \u201cIsrael\u201d\u2014"the one who wrestles with God.\u201d\xa0 It was the Lord that acted out in righteousness to uphold their cause against the wicked oppression of the Egyptians, too, cutting them free from the cords of the wicked and ending the tyranny of the slave-driving plowmen.\xa0

After Egypt and throughout the Old Testament the Lord delivers Israel from the hand of their enemies again, and again, and again.\xa0 The same basic truth rings out in a thousand places on Israel\u2019s lips in the Old Testament: \u201cThe Lord is Righteous, and he has cut me free.\u201d\xa0

Troubles and forms of oppression still face us today\u2014in small ways and large.\xa0 All sorts of untidy emotions bubble to the surface with it\u2014fear, sadness, rage, and bitterness\u2014any of which can leave us cursing or close to it.\xa0 That\u2019s honest.\xa0 It happened to the Israelites too.\xa0 But lo and behold, it finds its place right here in the prayer book of God\u2019s people: the Psalms.\xa0 Those ancient Israelites didn\u2019t bother to hide such untidy feeling from God.\xa0 He sees it anyway, and so they simply brought it into the conversation with Him.\xa0 Might as well be honest.\xa0 How else can you be healed?

Because it is God who heals the long gouges of the furrows plowed into our hearts.\xa0 It is God who cuts us free from the cords of oppression.\xa0 Through another dramatic action of God\u2014not the Red Sea, but the waters of baptism\u2014we too have come to know salvation.\xa0 The death and resurrection of Christ has broken the oppressive cords to sin and its effects so that we might become His righteousness\u2014his saved people: a people that belong to God.

It\u2019s a basic truth of the Christian faith that rings true in a thousand places: Salvation and preservation belong to the Lord.\xa0 It was the Lord who made us into His people through the work of Christ, and it is the Lord who will sustain us as His people in the strength of Christ, no matter the oppression we face along the way.\xa0\xa0\xa0

As we journey on together, no matter how easy or hard the road we face, it\u2019s important that we continue to remind and encourage one another of who we are because of who God is, as the Israelites did each year on their journey when they sang: \u201cLet Israel say: they have greatly oppressed me from my youth\u2014but the Lord is righteous, he has cut me free.\u201d\xa0\xa0\xa0

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