Advent 2:3. 10 December 2013

image by Krzysztof Szkurlatowski

by Kaysi Hastings

Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to the royal son!
May he judge your people with righteousness,
and your poor with justice!
Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people,
and the hills, in righteousness!
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people,
give deliverance to the children of the needy,
and crush the oppressor!

Psalm 72:1-4

     Having grown up in the church, sometimes I struggle with the fact that the familiarity of Scripture often hinders my ability to see beyond the surface of a passage. The Psalms are poetic and peppered with cries for justice, which is beautiful, but sometimes they all seem to run together. Yet as I pondered this particular passage, I noticed that the psalmist is praying for the leader of a nation in a way that might seem foreign to us in our independent American culture. He is crying out not for his own salvation or security but for the well-being of others. He cries out for righteousness, justice, prosperity, defense, and deliverance for the people, but more specifically for the poor and for the children of the needy. In a word, he is seeking God's help on behalf of the powerless.

     Perhaps the powerless have a special place in God's heart because they rely on Him in a way most of us may never have to. They have no choice but to depend on Him. If we're honest, we're so blessed with resources in America, most of us aren't confronted daily with our desperate need for God even if we're cognitively aware of it. What should we do with this?

     In following with God's promise that He would bless Abram's descendants and that they would in turn be a blessing to all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:2-3), it seems that we as God's people ought also to use the blessings we've been given to bless others - especially those on whom no power has been bestowed. As the psalmist demonstrates in this text his longing to see God use the powerful to help the powerless, so we too can demonstrate our desire for the same by cultivating attitudes and actions that lift up the poor and needy rather than being primarily concerned with our own well-being or prosperity.

Take some time to consider the following. Perhaps it would be helpful to record your responses in a journal.

     Think back to a time when you were powerless in some situation. How did God or someone in your life step in and defend or deliver you? Who in your current sphere of influence is in a position of powerlessness? How might you use the resources you've been given to help defend or deliver this person (or these people)?

Here is a prayer in response to today's text. You can pray this as your own or use it as a prompt for a spontaneous prayer.

     Father, thank You for the abundant resources with which we have been blessed in this country. Help us not to become self-absorbed in our wealth but to always remember the poor and powerless as we move through life. May we be a voice for those who have none, and may we use the power with which You have trusted us to be a blessing to others.