Deacon Susan Erickson

Psalms 41, 52; Isaiah 48:1-11; Galatians 1:1-17

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Today’s readings for Morning Prayer offer a contrast in perspectives; you might even say that they create a division between the people who adhere to each of those perspectives.

In Psalm 41, the opening verses exclaim:  “Happy are those who consider the poor;/the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble,/The LORD protects them and keeps them alive;/they are called happy in the land./You do not give them up to the will of their enemies./The LORD sustains them on their sickbed;/in their illness you heal all their infirmities.”

But in Psalm 52, the psalmist criticizes a “mighty one” who boasts “of mischief done against the godly.”  “You love evil more than good,/and lying more than speaking the truth.”

And in Isaiah, the prophet criticizes those “who swear by the name of the LORD,/and invoke the God of Israel,/but not in truth or right.”  (Is 48:1)

Echoing Isaiah’s criticism of those who invoke God but fail to follow God’s ways, Paul warns the church in Galatia against those who “want to pervert the gospel of Christ.”  (Gal 1:7)

So on the one hand are the righteous who “consider the poor.”  And on the other hand are the boastful, those who neglect the poor or even oppress them, the perverters of truth—even of the truth of the good news of Christ.

There are many passages in the Bible that envision the harmony and peace of God’s Kingdom. 

But there are also passages like the ones I’ve just cited that essentially ask: “Whose side are you on?”  Or rather, do you choose to follow God, or not?  And if you choose to follow God, how will others know that you aren’t merely “swearing by God’s name” while in practice perverting God’s truth?

Psalm 41, among many other passages in Scripture, gives us one important answer:  God’s followers “consider the poor.”  What form might that consideration take for us as we seek to serve the truth manifested in Christ?

In Christ,

—Deacon Susan