Most blessings conclude in a participle – describing the Creator as the One who does things.
The subsequent blessing after the Shema concludes with a perfect verb – describing the Creator as the One who liberated Yisrael.
This unique praise of God expresses a fact of history: some 3700 years ago, the Creator intervened in human affairs, and both physically liberated an oppressed nation from within the world’s most powerful empire and spiritually (psycho-socially) liberated them from an oppressive worldview and culture by giving them a new, just Law.
In this blessing, we testify it is true: thus is our history and thus is the Shaper of our history.
It is not a matter of personal aspiration but one of historical inspiration.
Our ancestors were, in fact, liberated and they did, in fact, pass on that liberty to us.
And what will we do with that liberty?
First we kneel in wonder.
Then we stand in the presence of the king, who liberated us.