Psalm 119:61 – Bound?
The bonds of the wicked encompass me,
I do not forget your instruction.
These posts are meditations, not attempts at exegesis. I’m pretty sure the psalmist is here congratulating himself and pointing out to the Lord how he has been faithful under difficult circumstances.
But what occurred to me is the number of times the “wicked,” or so they seem at the time, become the excuse for our own behavior.
There is such a thing as teamwork, where we combine our strengths to accomplish greater things than any of us could accomplish on our own. Such is the vision of the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12), with all using various God-given gifts to join together in serving others. The whole is greater than the parts because it functions together, combining strengths. And we must not forget God’s Spirit empowering everyone.
But much more commonly groups of people actually demonstrate lower intelligence than any of the individuals in the group and combine to do very stupid things. “The devil made me do it” becomes “my friends dared me to,” or even “I thought my friends would think I was dull or timid or wimpy if I didn’t do it.”
People my age like to think this is a problem of the young. Young people do this sort of thing. But most of us are subject to influence in a group, and we will frequently do things in groups that we would consider suboptimal if we were considering them individually.
The normal tendency of a group of humans is not to become a team, serving others with greater strength, but rather to become a mob, tearing others down. With encouragement from one another, we can become truly horrible people, generally in ways we individually would avoid.
What does this have to do with our passage? Well, we’re very susceptible to the very thing the psalmist says he’s avoiding. The wicked are trying to bind him, to carry him away from God’s instructions and get him on another path. Despite their influence, he is avoiding this problem.
We have a problem with this in socializing children and youth, and it carries on into adulthood. We want our children to get along. Popularity is, well, popular! Parents don’t want their children to be outsiders at school or in other social groups.
Getting along isn’t a bad thing, but when it’s priority is above doing right, it becomes the means of non-grace, of getting us into greater and greater problems.
The bonds, or ropes, or chains that bind us can be very pleasant. We are surrounded by the traps of popularity, of agreement with the crowd, of the approval of peers and perceived superiors. It doesn’t feel like bondage. It feels good. And we forget God’s instructions. We forget what’s right.
This is not to say that we always have to be going against the crowd we’re with. They might just be going in the right direction. What we have to do is remember. Remember what the right path is and be willing to break those bonds and go the right way, even when it seems hard.
What gentle, attractive bonds are drawing you away from God’s instruction? Break away from them today!
(Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)
