“Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.” (Ps 142:7 AV)
To feel that you’re in prison is pretty low. The previous verse mentions the writer’s feelings regarding his situation. In fact, he says he is very low. I find it ironic that the day this psalm is in my rotation of devotional passages, Job is responding for the first time to his friends’ faulty advice. Job states, “To him that is afflicted pity [should be shewed] from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.” (Job 6:14 AV) Note that above, the way out of the prison our writer feels he is held captive is the righteous compass him about. He also views the prison as temporary. Note the future tense of God’s dealing with the writer. The writer’s hope is in the absolute certainty of God’s bounty. This hope of God’s future bounty is what brings him out of the prison of persecution which he is suffering.
As I get older, I am having to learn to a quickly changing life. When you are younger, or middle-aged, dramatic changes are usually good ones. You get married, have children, and build a life. Then your children grow older, bless you with grandchildren, and your career begins to draw to a close. Then you hit those years where changes are usually trials of life. There are always blessings. But as you adjust to the new ‘normal’, it may feel as though you are in a prison. Your life is no longer under your control and there is very little you can do to affect it. Life happens. We get older. Climbing the stairs is not as easy as it was in our forties. We forget things. We cannot hear as well. Our eyesight is a bit off. The obligation to endure replaced the freedoms we enjoyed in our younger years. But then a funny thing happens. Once we cease to fret against the changes of life, we get our joy back. How do I know? Many years ago, the ministry that brought me the most blessing was a monthly widows’ luncheon. We had several in our church and I picked them up and we went to a Ponderosa. The widowers met us there. We had a time of it. There were about eight of us. We sat around the table, sharing a meal and swapping stories of days gone by. Of course, me being much younger and not from there, I simply listened. But here is the thing. They didn’t sit around complaining about life. They didn’t share stories in the spirit of regret or resentment. My home church called this age group the Hallelujah Group. They knew how to laugh. They have the joy of the LORD.
Regardless of the type of prison, it is only temporary. By life or by death, those held there will eventually be free. Whether a person put themselves there, or they were cast in by their enemies, it matters not. A prison is a temporary holding place. No one can keep you there. Our writer knew this. That is why he speaks of God’s bounty in the future tense. He knows it will come. He knows he will be surrounded by the saints of God and they will have a time. I think that is why older saints have so much joy. The closer they get to glory, the more they realize their prison stay is coming to an end. They see the light at the end of the tunnel. They know they are heaven bound and no one can take that from them. So, if you feel like your life is a prison cell, remember, God will deal bountifully with you! You are His child. He does not like to see His children suffer. It pains Him to see us go through hardships even though He allows it for our own good. The answer to a prison is to notice they are made of bars. They do not obscure the sight of hope. They cannot. The sun still shines through. The sound of life outside the walls still rings loudly. God is still there. He is waiting for His perfect plan to mature so that you and I can come forth into the arms of God and the company of His saints. It won’t last long. It is only temporary. Then God will deal bountifully with us.
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