Scripture Reference;
Psalm 103
1Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
5Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
6The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
8The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
9He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
10He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
11For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
12As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
13Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
14For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
17But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;
18To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.
19The LORD hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
20Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
21Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
22Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.
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It has been a little while since I last looked at this psalm. I am looking forward to see what comes next.
6The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The first thing that caught my eye was the word “executeth”. I found it interesting that it was only used six times and it was only used in the Old Testament. The Hebrew meaning was the same every time, and it was a long one. Here it is:
Strong: H6213
Orig: a primitive root; to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows):–accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, practise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.
Isn’t that something? Next I ask myself “What does the Lord execute?” and my answer is “Righteousness.”. I believe I will look up that word, too.
Strong:
Orig: from 6663; rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity):–justice, moderately, right(-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).
From the information above I perceive that the Lord executes righteousness in every sense of the word. But that is not all. He also executes “judgement”…another long one.
Strong: H4941
Orig: from 8199; properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant’s) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant’s right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style:–+ adversary, ceremony, charge, X crime, custom, desert, determination, discretion, disposing, due, fashion, form, to be judged, judgment, just(-ice, -ly), (manner of) law(-ful), manner, measure, (due) order, ordinance, right, sentence, usest, X worthy, + wrong.
You know, it is interesting how the word “judgement” can mean different things to different people depending on to what they are referring. We all “execute” or more simply put…”use” “judgement” every time we consider something before we actually say or do it. Sometimes we use good judgement (right judgement). I guess we could say that good judgement is righteous judgement. Other times we use bad judgement (unrighteous judgement). We judge things, situations, people, and even ourselves.
However in this verse it is not about us. It is about the Lord. The Lord is entirely righteous. All he does is righteous. All of His judgments are righteous. Isn’t that a good thing?! That is good for everyone, especially the “oppressed”. If we look this word up it should tell us a lot.
Strong: H6231
Orig: a primitive root (compare 6229); to press upon, i.e. oppress, defraud, violate, overflow:–get deceitfully, deceive, defraud, drink up, (use) oppress((-ion)), -or), do violence (wrong).
When I think of the word “oppressed” I automatically think of the words “oppressor” and “oppressors”, so naturally I am looking up those words, too. 🙂 I notice that “oppressor” was only used once in the psalms (H6231…the same meaning as for “oppressed”), and “oppressors” was used only twice (H6184, and once again H6231), so all I need to do now is look up H6184):
Strong: H6184
Orig: from 6206; fearful, i.e. powerful or tyrannical:–mighty, oppressor, in great power, strong, terrible, violent.
Here are my thoughts about oppression and oppressors: Situations can be oppressive, people can be oppressors, and Satan and His army of demons are oppressors. Even when our oppressor is a person Satan is behind that act of oppression. There are some scriptures that come to my mind regarding oppression:
4The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
5The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
6In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Psalm 18:4-6 KJV
14Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.
15Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
16He sent from above, he took me, he drew me out of many waters.
17He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.
18They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.
19He brought me forth also into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me. Psalm 18:14-19 KJV
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10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Ephesians 6:10-13 KJV
13There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 KJV
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6: 13 KJV
I would think that every person has been oppressed on one occasion or another; perhaps on many occasions. I know I have been oppressed a number of times. It encourages me to know that there is not a moment that goes by that the Lord is not aware of my situation…that He faithfully considers me and all of the various circumstances in which I find myself, and he deals with each and every one of them righteously. He does this for everyone.
Now I am looking at verse 7:
7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The Bible tells us about many individuals, as well as groups of people who experienced oppression. Throughout all ages Israel has been no stranger to oppression. Verse 7 is referring to what they experienced when they were in Egypt. Below is a passage of scripture that tells what they were enduring when God called Moses to lead them out of there.
Exodus 1
Israel Oppressed in Egypt
1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob; each came with his family:
2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;
3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin;
4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.
5 The total number of Jacob’s descendants [a] was 70; [b] Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Then Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died. 7 But the Israelites were fruitful, increased rapidly, multiplied, and became extremely numerous so that the land was filled with them.
8 A new king, who had not known Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and powerful than we are. 10 Let us deal shrewdly with them; otherwise they will multiply [further], and if war breaks out, they may join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country.” 11 So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread [c] the Israelites. 13 They worked the Israelites ruthlessly 14 and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar, and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.
15 Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them as they deliver. [d] If the child is a son, kill him, but if it’s a daughter, she may live.” 17 The Hebrew midwives, however, feared God and did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live. 18 So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this and let the boys live?”
19 The midwives said to Pharaoh, “The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before a midwife can get to them.”
20 So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very numerous. 21 Since the midwives feared God, He gave them families. 22 Pharaoh then commanded all his people: “You must throw every son born to the Hebrews [e] into the Nile, but let every daughter live.” Exodus 1 HCSB
Exodus 2
Moses’ Birth and Adoption
1 Now a man from the family of Levi married a Levite woman. 2 The woman became pregnant and gave birth to a son; when she saw that he was beautiful, [a] she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could no longer hide him, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with asphalt and pitch. She placed the child in it and set it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. 4 Then his sister stood at a distance in order to see what would happen to him. 5 Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile while her servant girls walked along the riverbank. Seeing the basket among the reeds, she sent her slave girl to get it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child—a little boy, crying. She felt sorry for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrew boys.”
7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Should I go and call a woman from the Hebrews to nurse the boy for you?”
8 “Go.” Pharaoh’s daughter told her. So the girl went and called the boy’s mother. 9 Then Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the boy and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.” [b]
Moses in Midian
11 Years later, [c] after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people [d] and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people. 12 Looking all around and seeing no one, he struck the Egyptian dead and hid him in the sand. 13 The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you attacking your neighbor?” [e] 14 “Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”
Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known. 15 When Pharaoh heard about this, he tried to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in the land of Midian, and sat down by a well.
16 Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came to draw water and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. 17 Then some shepherds arrived and drove them away, but Moses came to their rescue and watered their flock. 18 When they returned to their father Reuel [f] he asked, “Why have you come back so quickly today?”
19 They answered, “An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds. He even drew water for us and watered the flock.”
20 “So where is he?” he asked his daughters. “Why then did you leave the man behind? Invite him to eat dinner.”
21 Moses agreed to stay with the man, and he gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses [in marriage]. 22 She gave birth to a son whom he named Gershom, for he said, “I have become a stranger in a foreign land.” [g]
23 After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. 24 So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 25 God saw the Israelites, and He took notice. Exodus 2 HCSB
Moses and the Burning Bush
1 Meanwhile Moses was shepherding the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, [a] the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, [b] the mountain of God. 2 Then the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire within a bush. As Moses looked, he saw that the bush was on fire but was not consumed. 3 So Moses thought: I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?
4 When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”
“Here I am,” he answered.
5 “Do not come closer,” He said. “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 6 Then He continued, “I am the God of your father, [c] the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.
7 Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of My people in Egypt, and have heard them crying outbecause of their oppressors, and I know about their sufferings. 8 I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey —the territory of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 9 The Israelites’ cry for help has come to Me, and I have also seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10Therefore, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh so that you may lead My people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”
11 But Moses asked God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
12 He answered, “I will certainly be with you, and this will be the sign to you that I have sent you: when you bring the people out of Egypt, you will all worship [d] God at this mountain.”
13 Then Moses asked God, “If I go to the Israelites and say to them: The God of your fathers has sent me to you, and they ask me, ‘What is His name?’ what should I tell them?”
14 God replied to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. [e] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the Israelites: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever; this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.
16 “Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt. 17 And I have promised you that I will bring you up from the misery of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—a land flowing with milk and honey. 18 They will listen to what you say. Then you, along with the elders of Israel, must go to the king of Egypt and say to him: The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us. Now please let us go on a three-day trip into the wilderness so that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.
19 “However, I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go, unless [he is forced] by a strong hand.20 I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles that I will perform in it. After that, he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that when you go, you will not go empty-handed. 22 Each woman will ask her neighbor and any woman staying in her house for silver and gold jewelry, and clothing, and you will put them on your sons and daughters. So you will plunder the Egyptians.” Exodus 3 HCSB
With all of the scripture I have included this post has become a little long, but it doesn’t end there. Still it is a good start…it’s always good to start with the beginning. Now let’s look again at Psalm 103:7:
7He made known his ways unto Moses, his acts unto the children of Israel.
The Lord made his ways known when He delivered Israel out of the hands of the Egyptians, and also during the 40 years that they wandered in the wilderness. It says He made “His ways” known to Moses, and “His acts” known unto the children of Israel. That is something we should consider. Moses had a personal relationship with the Lord …He was not perfect. He sinned at times, but when the Lord called Moses He heard Him and followed Him in faith. Not all of the children of Israel responded to the Lord like that. All of mankind have witnessed the actions of God no matter if they have acknowledged them or not. But witnessing the Lord’s acts and knowing His ways are two different things. Only those who both hear the Lord’s call and receive Him through faith experience the privilege of knowing His ways. The Lord even gave them the Ten Commandments and many laws which revealed much about His ways, but throughout history they ignored them time and time again. At times the children of Israel saw great miracles like when He parted the Red Sea and they crossed on dry ground, and when he gave them manna from Heaven to eat and water that suddenly came out of a rock. He also punished some whose behavior grieved Him, but in everything the Lord did He was always just. He cared about the oppressed then, and he cares now.
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Moore to Ponder 