Camp Meeting Devotions Day Thirty-Nine

 Psalm 9:9 (NASB)

⁹  The LORD also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble;

How many people suffer silently? They have no voice. They are trafficked, abused, held hostage by harsh taskmasters, terrorized, intimidated, and threatened. They are tortured. Punished. Treated unjustly. Some are innocent children. Some are teenagers. Some are adults. 

They awake every day to the same nightmare. These are the oppressed in life. They are the afflicted for their faith. They endure grueling misery for their love for Jesus and refusal to deny their faith. Some have their fingernails and toenails plucked out. Others are burned. Then there are the merciless beatings. There are also the trafficked. They are enslaved as objects of sex. From little children to grown adults. They are forced into vile acts they neither want nor do they understand why they are crushed this way. They were stolen. Abducted from normal life and dragged into a dark world of ritual abuse. Their bodies broken and bruised. There are also the abused. Those who are crushed by the very people who are supposed to love them. Those whose bodies are mangled by the cruel blows of the abusers who mistreat them. Psychological power games are perpetrated.  These are intimidated into voiceless from which they cannot escape. 

Each suffers silently. Their voices snuffed out among the sniffles to the outside world. Each a prisoner in a sinister dark world from which they cannot escape as they are squeezed into submission. It appears they have no defender or deliverer. That may be how it seems, but it is not the reality of the situation. They have God. 

Yahweh Himself is their stronghold. Even while they are badly battered, God is their refuge, safe and secure retreat, and inaccessible fortress. Sometimes the oppressed can only find this safe place in their minds while their bodies are still bruised and beaten. He does not turn a deaf ear to the oppressed. He does not forget them. He will not abandon them. 

The question surfaces why God allows this to happen in the first place? Sin is evil. The schemes of Satan are wickedly injurious to the vulnerable. Some sins are cyclical passed from one generation to another. Sexual sins as well as violent tirades are learned at early ages and repeated on others in some instances in later years. The abused abuse. The oppressed oppress. Some were born into what seemed like loving homes. Behind closed doors a different cruel reality ruined the lives of the victims. They suffer silently from sadistic mistreatment. Nobody can give a satisfactory answer to why God allows this to continue and why He does not put a stop to it all. It is part of the curse on this sin diseased terminal planet. People sin. Sin hurts others. Twisted and deceived people live to inflict pain on the weak and helpless. 

Trouble exists. People live in distress. They are miserably injured, painfully anguished, and in the deepest throes of depression. Maybe that is not our story. What can we do? We can be advocates for the oppressed. Pray for their deliverance. War through prayer for their rescue and their full recovery. Intercede for those who will have to suffer a little longer. Plead that they will find God in their torturous conditions. Pray for their protection and that justice will rule the day. That evil people will be brought into account for their actions. This will certainly happen in the courtroom of heaven. We must open our eyes and ears to those around us. Become aware of the persecuted believers around the world. Notice the oppressed right beneath our noses. 

• Were you oppressed and a victim of some type of abuse? If so, how have you learned to cope with it? Are you whole yet?
• List some ways you can be an advocate for the oppressed. 
• Will you battle in prayer for the helpless and hopeless? 
• Pray that God will bring secret abuses to light and that justice will prevail.