Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
The righteous shall flourish
72:1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.
72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor with justice.
72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
72:5 May he live while the sun endures and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
72:7 In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
72:18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
Again, a reversal; but of a different kind than I’ve emphasized before. Justice for the poor is prosperity for all. Not such a new idea. Jeremiah knew it.* But it reverses our notion of “trickle down” economics, and moral opprobrium for the poor (if we think of them at all.) And since this is a democratic republic where we, the people, are sovereign, substitute “king” for “the people,” and see how this lands.
Easier to say “the king” should do this for us, and during Advent to understand the “king” is the coming Christ, than to say, if the king should look out for the poor, the king is now us.
Are we our brother’s keeper? If not us, then who?
The reaction of people against the actions of ICE, is a reaction recognizing injustice. Injustice being done in our name. The reaction to the bombing of boats in the Caribbean, and the “double tap” to make sure everyone aboard is killed, is a recognition of injustice. And we seek a reversal, a restoration of justice. “Give the king your justice, O Lord!” But we don’t have king. If we want justice, we must see that the oppressors are crushed, and that the poor receive justice. Elected officials act at our tolerance. We have see that justice is done. The Psalmist had to rely on a king. We have to rely on us.
Give the king your justice, O Lord. And may we use it wisely.
*Woe to him who says,
"I shall build myself a spacious palacewith airy roof chambers and
windows set in it.
It will be paneled with cedar
and painted with vermilion."
Though your cedar is so splendid,
does that prove you a king?
Think of your father: he ate and drank,
dealt justly and fairly; all went well with him.
He upheld the cause of the lowly and poor;
then all was well.
Did not this show he knew me? says the Lord.
But your eyes and your heart are set on naught but gain, set only on the innocent blood you can shed,
on the cruel acts of tyranny you perpetrate.
Jeremiah 22: 14-17 (REB)
If that makes you think of Trump, I won’t argue with you.
"Easier to say “the king” should do this for us, and during Advent to understand the “king” is the coming Christ, than to say, if the king should look out for the poor, the king is now us.
ReplyDeleteAre we our brother’s keeper? If not us, then who?"
The best commentary I've yet read this Advent.
I wonder if the all-afflluent white five of the John Roberts majority, or all six of them have yet to even twig on to the clear fact that their unitary executive is one of the worst ideas in American legal history that has flopped almost immediately into the worst presidency in our history. I tend to doubt it, they would, no doubt, take the typically academic, theoretically ass-covering dodge that their job isn't to consider the outcomes of their choices ("balls and strikes")- about the stupidest such dodge there is. Especially that the outcome, their political party dominating and benefiting, the white, the affluent being the ones who benefit over the brown and black and poor and even working class, is and always has been the goal of their side of things.