Psalm 9:11-20
Twice today the psalmist speaks of the Lord remembering the poor, the needy, and the afflicted: …He does not forget the cry of the afflicted (v. 12b) and For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. (v. 18). I agree with the psalmist that the Lord remembers the poor, the needy, the afflicted. But my difficulty is with His people and their remembering – or not remembering – the poor, the needy, the afflicted.
There is huge income inequality among people in the industrial nations and between the industrial nations and the lesser developed peoples; wealth inequality is even more dramatic! We have a poverty rate in the United States of 13.4 percent, one in every 7.5 people living in poverty. Almost one-third of those living in poverty are children under the age of 18 – and they can’t do anything about it! Global poverty is even worse; I’ll not trouble you with those statistics. I’m encouraged that the Lord remembers the poor, the needy, the afflicted. I’m troubled that the rest of us don’t do more. But I don’t have any reasonable answers short of wholesale national and global changes.
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made… (v. 15a) Most of us will read this verse as referring to the “heathen” nations surrounding and challenging Israel. What if the psalmist some 3000 years down the road is referring to us, that we are the nation that will sink into the pit that we have made?
My apologies for such a sobering post.