Psalm 113:7 –
He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.
I am not sure how I feel about this Psalm. It’s so filled with hope and promise one cannot help but feel good. Then I start dwelling on this verse and wonder when. My mind immediately thinks of Chinendega, Nicaragua and the people living in the dump there. For 12 years families were displaced from mudslides and still live in makeshift huts in the dump.
It’s a very sad story and I have talk with people that are helping there. But even with their help the move from the dump is not like moving to an air conditioned 3 bedroom 2 ½ bath home in the ‘burbs. Basically they are lifted from the dump but not the dust. In no way are these people set with princes like promised in verse 8. So what to think?
Is this a promise for here and now or is it a promise for tomorrow? Is it a promise for the “afterlife”? Or is this a promise for those who seize it? I think that’s the key because you can sit in the dump your entire life and focus on despair or you can accept the help that comes your way and go with it. To some extent it’s a choice to remain in the dump because as much as you’d think it stinks there is a “safety” associated with the known.
So I go back to my initial though of this chapter and immediately think of a joke. Flood waters rising and a man decide he was going to wait for God’s help. An officer knocked at his door to save him, a boat and a helicopter also came his way, but the man insisted he was waiting for God to help. At the Gates of Heaven God asked why he did not go with the officer, the boat or the helicopter He sent. God is not going to reach down from the heavens and prop you up, but He will prompt others to give guidance.