If you were an elected official or were involved in making policy in the US these days, there’s not much of a chance that the needs of people who struggle at the margins of society and live from paycheck to paycheck would matter to you at all.
That’s even more true of people who’ve already suffered a financial calamity or two; those folks are not on anyone’s radar and their lot in life is grim indeed.
Around nine centuries BCE, the writer of the Psalms was extolling the virtues of an ideal King.
And here, in the 72nd Psalm, he described a King who would be worthy of acclamation and long life:
12 For he will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.
13 He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death.
14 He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight.
In today’s political and cultural climate, the plight of people trapped in poverty and living on the margins of society means nothing.
Their plight means nothing to most Americans and certainly not to people who make policy or wield political power.
In Israel, in the time of King Solomon 3,000 years ago, it mattered.
And it should matter in America in the 21st Century, too.
Brother Ben
© 2019 The Fellowship of St Francis, Inc.
The Fellowship of St Francis 