The Feet of the Oppressed

Friday, August 08, 2008, 9:11 a.m. – I woke with this song in my head:

There's Within My Heart a Melody / Luther B. Bridgers

There's within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low:
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
In all of life's ebb and flow.

All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain;
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirred the slumbering chords again.

Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See his footprints all the way.

Feasting on the riches of his grace,
Resting neath his sheltering wing,
Always looking on his smiling face,
That is why I shout and sing.

Soon he's coming back to welcome me
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown;
I shall reign with him on high.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest name I know,
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.

I also woke from A DREAM: We were traveling on foot on something like a railroad or like a roller coaster rail and then we stopped at a bathroom to wash up. END

There was a whole lot more to the dream, but that is all I remember. Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Isaiah 26:

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:
We have a strong city;
God makes salvation
its walls and ramparts.
2 Open the gates
that the righteous nation may enter,
the nation that keeps faith.

3 You will keep in perfect peace
him whose mind is steadfast,
because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD, is the Rock eternal.

5 He humbles those who dwell on high,
he lays the lofty city low;
he levels it to the ground
and casts it down to the dust.

6 Feet trample it down—
the feet of the oppressed,
the footsteps of the poor.

7 The path of the righteous is level;
O upright One, you make the way of the righteous smooth.

8 Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws,
we wait for you;
your name and renown
are the desire of our hearts.

9 My soul yearns for you in the night;
in the morning my spirit longs for you.
When your judgments come upon the earth,
the people of the world learn righteousness.

10 Though grace is shown to the wicked,
they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
and regard not the majesty of the LORD.

11 O LORD, your hand is lifted high,
but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.

12 LORD, you establish peace for us;
all that we have accomplished you have done for us.

13 O LORD, our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us,
but your name alone do we honor.

14 They are now dead, they live no more;
those departed spirits do not rise.
You punished them and brought them to ruin;
you wiped out all memory of them.

15 You have enlarged the nation, O LORD;
you have enlarged the nation.
You have gained glory for yourself;
you have extended all the borders of the land.

16 LORD, they came to you in their distress;
when you disciplined them,
they could barely whisper a prayer.

17 As a woman with child and about to give birth
writhes and cries out in her pain,
so were we in your presence, O LORD.

18 We were with child, we writhed in pain,
but we gave birth to wind.
We have not brought salvation to the earth;
we have not given birth to people of the world.

19 But your dead will live;
their bodies will rise.
You who dwell in the dust,
wake up and shout for joy.
Your dew is like the dew of the morning;
the earth will give birth to her dead.

20 Go, my people, enter your rooms
and shut the doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
until his wrath has passed by.

21 See, the LORD is coming out of his dwelling
to punish the people of the earth for their sins.
The earth will disclose the blood shed upon her;
she will conceal her slain no longer.

My Understanding: A rail is used as a barrier, for support, for guidance, for transportation (direction), to provide a guard, etc. so walking on a rail has to do with walking in the way of God’s laws (see vv.8-9).

Also, the rail was up high off the ground and vv.5-6 speak of the lofty city being laid low and the feet of the poor and the oppressed trampling it down. The verb use of the word “rail” means to denounce, protest against, or attack somebody or something in bitter or harsh language (Encarta Dictionary). So, the feet of the poor and oppressed are protesting against and/or are attacking the lofty city.

The climb, i.e. walk up the railroad tracks ends with a wash in a bathroom. Bathrooms generally symbolize a place of spiritual cleansing and of ridding ourselves of the refuse of the world, so this walk up the rail ends in salvation. The ultimate goal of these judgments is to bring people to salvation. And, the ultimate end of our walk of faith with the Lord Jesus is our salvation completed.

So, if you are going through hardship, persecution, being oppressed by the enemy, etc., for your walk of faith in the Lord Jesus, just remember this:

Though sometimes he leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See his footprints all the way.

This is interesting. As I was recording what I remembered of the “Oppressed Feet” dream I felt as though the whole scene was a blur or faded (Haze), which is why that is all I recalled. It ended at the top with a shower (heat & humidity) and the mental picture I had of the “roller coaster rail” looked a lot like this:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26089120/