Psalm 142:7

New International Version (NIV)

Set me free from my prison,
    that I may praise your name.
Then the righteous will gather about me
    because of your goodness to me.

For mediation

The Joseph, Jeremiah, Peter, John, Paul, John the Baptist—war veterans of Biblical times. Unlike guilty criminals, these saints went to jail for their faith and ministry. Some didn’t survive the dungeon, but others survived to glorify the Lord with their stories. Today, there are countless Christians in prisons all over the world because of their faith.

However, the prison of the soul locked up in darkness by Satan is worse. Its prisoners are blind, deaf, and lame. The light that gives life glows, but people cannot see their way out of the dungeon. The Good News sounds from hilltops, yet they can’t hear and believe. Like the cripple at the pool of Bethesda for 38 years (Jn. 5:1-7); the way to the Father is open before them, but they cannot drag themselves to Jesus. They are as helpless as those around them. The pity is, such people love their situation and find pleasure in it.

Yet, there is another kind of prison. It is more of the economic, social, and political conditions of our nations. This prison accepts the Christian, people of other faith, the rich, poor, black, white, or yellow. The world system and its oppressive demands control it. Its load is heavy and cruel and shows up with unfamiliar faces to deceive in order to maintain its dominion. Sadly, its prisoners don’t even recognize it. This system has shackled millions and thrown them into forced labor, slavery. Misery abounds around the world, as poverty shuts many in its cells. Yet, the exploitation continues. New York, London, Paris, Tokyo, and lately, Beijing, systematically endow millions with the best of the world to lock them up in their deceptive state of affluence. They are the actual slaves of the modern world, branded beautifully to conceal its cruelty. Their condition is worse than the inmates of our modern prisons in the West.

Driven by envy and panic, King Saul threw David into another brand of prison—the kind that reveals our helplessness in tight situations—the coldness of rejection. David wandered in the wilderness. He feigned insanity to keep one step ahead of the king, hungered and thirsted, and for a supportive voice out of the king’s court, but only Jonathan responded. Considering Saul’s attempted murder of his own son, nobody dared speak up for David. The example of Ahimelech, the priest, further deterred everyone (22:18-19). His soul distressed, his heart depressed, and his body wearied in the wilderness, David found refuge in the cave of Adullam. His siblings finally came to him along with 400 men who were distressed, in debt, or discontented (22:1-2). 

Yet, for David, the cave could not be his real refuge. David found refuge in God alone and His heart found expression in Psalm 42:5. At last, he cried out to the Lord to set him free from prison, that he may praise Him (7).

Whatever your prison may be today, you have the liberty to cry out of your anguished soul and call on Jesus to set you free from your prison, that you may praise Him (Psalm 142:7). Amen!