Poverty & Justice(Psalm 82)

Psalm 82:

God has taken his place in the divine counsel...

vs 3 - give justice to the weak and fatherless,
maintain the right of the afflicted and destitute,
Rescue the weak and needy,
deliver them from the hand of the wicked...

Interesting, the Bible takes a realistic view of the "poor & broken" in this world – e.g. "The poor you will always have with you..."

There's not a lot of handwringing or soapboxing against the conditions in the world that make for this reality... eg. "What kind of God would allow for this kind of suffering?!"

Instead, the Bible seems to assume that this world is a rough place and you are always going to have the poor, weak, afflicted, etc. (contra our political left)

But than, rather than ignoring it or saying "Get a job! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps..." (contra our political right)

The Bible calls people, particularly leaders ("in the midst of the gods") to pursue justice, maintain rights, rescue, deliver – not so much by working against the condition of creation (e.g. it's a rough world), but rather by working against any who would take advantage of people in their plight.

And that's what's really going on in our society right now – behind a lot of our social ills (think drugs, payday loans, feeding addictions, etc.) we have people who are capitalizing on the plight, weakness of others.

And Asaph says these people who capitalize (the gods who take advantage, or who do not work to thwart those who are taking advantage) they have neither knowledge or understanding (vs 7), they walk in darkness...

What they are ignorant of is death and judgement...

Judgement is very different than karma... Judgment is really an accounting, a reckoning... how you did with what you were given.