Meet The Stronger One

Psalm 146

1Praise the LORD!

Praise the LORD, I tell myself.

2I will praise the LORD as long as I live.

I will sing praises to my God even with my dying breath.

3Don’t put your confidence in powerful people;

there is no help for you there.

4When their breathing stops, they return to the earth,

and in a moment all their plans come to an end.

5But happy are those who have the God of Israel as their helper,

whose hope is in the LORD their God.

6He is the one who made heaven and earth,

the sea, and everything in them.

He is the one who keeps every promise forever,

7who gives justice to the oppressed

and food to the hungry.

The LORD frees the prisoners.

8The LORD opens the eyes of the blind.

The LORD lifts the burdens of those bent beneath their loads.

The LORD loves the righteous.

9The LORD protects the foreigners among us.

He cares for the orphans and widows,

but he frustrates the plans of the wicked.

10The LORD will reign forever.

O Jerusalem, your God is King in every generation!

Praise the LORD!

Frederick Baedeker enjoyed going to prison. In 1877 he traveled to Russia to preach and give out Bibles. While there, he was allowed to visit the prisons, and for eighteen years he was the only person who had the right to visit any prison in Russia. And visit he did, from Poland to the Pacific. Wherever he went, he was watched by secret police, but he continued traveling, becoming one of the greatest distributors of Scripture of all time.

“Few people have any idea,” he said, “of how many people in many lands are kept behind iron bars like wild animals.” Though he was threatened, and his life was often in danger, Baedeker said, “These people need the gospel terribly, and I am going to give it to them.”

When he met Count Lev Tolstoy, the Russian writer told him that if the Russian people had better education, there would be no need of prisons.

Baedeker disagreed and said, “The Evil One is stronger than we, and against him we are helpless.” Then he paused before adding, “But my message to the prisoners of Russia is that there is a Stronger One still who is able to free the prisoners and slaves of Satan and to change them into holy and beloved children of God.”

People today often make their own prisons. The message of Psalm 146:7 is that the Stronger One is still in the business of freeing prisoners.

Now are we free—there’s no condemnation,

Jesus provides a perfect salvation;

“Come unto me”—O hear His sweet call,

Come, and He saves us once for all.

PHILIP P. BLISS

Bible Networking

It is no coincidence that verse 7 mentions freeing prisoners and feeding the hungry in one breath. They are also mentioned together in Isaiah 58:6-7.