How Am I Poor and Needy?

Psalm 86

Psalm 86 is one of the evening psalms for today, and I have to admit that I have some trouble with it; I’m not sure how to read the words of verse one. “Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy,” and right there is where I have a problem. I’m not really sure I can claim to be “poor and needy,” especially if the psalmist is speaking in purely economic terms. It’s all relative, of course. I mean I have more money than some and less than others. But when we take the rest of the world into consideration I must be in the top, well, maybe 25% certainly of wealth. Even as a paperboy back in junior high school I remember being told that I was earning more money than the majority of the world’s population. So in economic terms I don’t feel right claiming to be poor and needy.

There are other ways of reading these words, I know, and that is what I do. Some days I am bereft of spiritual well-being, feeling disconnected from God, most out of step with the church, confused and concerned about where the world is headed. Other days I may not be in peak physical condition but in need of God’s healing touch in my life. Sometimes I find myself running out of patience with my family, not communicating well, being way too sensitive to what other folks say to me. And boy do I make mistakes! As a minister I don’t always get all of my work done, don’t always get my phone calls returned or my visits made. I don’t always make the right choices, don’t always spend money as wisely as I could, don’t use my talents fully to the glory of God. In all of these ways I am very poor and needy, wanting in what only God can give me, the healing, patience, and focus that I am missing.

So maybe Psalm 86:1 is for me. Maybe I can read the worlds of the psalmist in fresh and exciting ways, looking for its meaning in my life even as I seek to share its meaning with others. In truth we are all poor and needy because we stand in constant need of God’s abiding grace. And in mercy and love God provides that grace to us, opens us to the possibility of lives restored and blessed, allows us to move beyond verse 1, on to the richness of God’s love as found in the fullness of God’s word.

Prayer: Lord, give us what we need so that we may serve you faithfully. In Jesus’ name. Amen.