—Psalm 37:14-15
Bows and swords may have been the weapons used to bring down the poor and needy in biblical days. Today's weapons are less physically violent, but no less injurious to life and spirit. In the 21st century, the wicked use tools such as credit bureaus, the force of law, and lobbyists to take what little the poor have and make it their own. As we watch more and more wealth rise to the top, the majority of people are sidelined as their job security, affordable housing, nutrition, access to healthcare, and their children's access to education disappear at an alarming rate. Far from doing something to protect them, the nation's leaders utilize congress, the courts, and governmental agencies to ransack the country and steal from those who have the least.
Yet the psalmist promises that the very tools that are used to abuse the poor will be the downfall of their persecutors. What is happening now is not forever. The power of the selfish rich will indeed be broken. But when?
Help me not simply to observe the problems that surround me, O God, but to act on behalf of those with whom my Savior identified, for it is in his Name I pray. Amen.
