who are the poor?

Psalm 72:¹² He will rescue the poor when they cry to him;
he will help the oppressed, who have no one to defend them.
¹³ He feels pity for the weak and the needy,
and he will rescue them.
¹⁴ He will redeem them from oppression and violence,
for their lives are precious to him.

 

So who are the poor?  The Bible speaks about them a great deal.  I have been listening to Psalms in the morning and they are frequently mentioned there.  More importantly, we see God's attitude toward them.  Psalm 72 tells us that He will rescue them as they cry out in their poverty.  Then there are "the oppressed" who aren't able to defend themselves from harm.  Then there are the weak and needy.  God's heart melts for these vulnerable ones.  They are people who have a "low relative value" to other people but a "high absolute value" to the God who made them.  When you get right down to it each one of us is desperately poor, with a poverty of spirit that cannot be satisfied apart from a restored relationship with God.  If we don't have compassion for those who are poor and oppressed in a natural sense, we haven't learned all we need to know about the value and worth each one has...because that worth is not established by people...it is built in by God.

 

blessings,

Rob Smith