The LORD protects and preserves them—they are counted among the blessed in the land—he does not give them over to the desire of their foes. – Psalm 41:2

Today's Scripture Reading (September 23, 2022): Psalm 41

“Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.” These instructions are given in the Dhammapada, a collection of sayings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, better known to most of us as Buddha. The Dhammapada is believed to be a collection of sayings where each statement was made on a different occasion and as a response to a unique situation that had arisen in Buddha’s personal journey through life. It is these situations that make up most of the legendary life of Siddhartha Gautama and his responses to real life situation that makes the Dhammapada one of the primary scriptural books of Buddhism.

Sometimes, as Christians, we become very focused on our scriptures and we often seem to believe that we alone possess the only truth. As far as understanding that Jesus is our truth, then we are correct. But if we believe that the other world religions have nothing to teach us, then we are wrong. And this comment, which is from verse 223 of the Dhammapada, is a good example. We can almost hear these words emerging from the mouth of Jesus as he taught us to turn our other cheek to the one who has slapped us and to pray for those who choose to persecute us. We should solve the problem of anger in the world by refusing to give into anger, defeat evil by doing good, conquering selfishness by being generous, and beat the lies by speaking only that which is true. All of these things were lessons taught by Jesus.

But, maybe the real problem of our contemporary society is that we don’t even recognize the problems of anger and we rarely see evil in it most common forms. Lies have become so prevalent in our society that it has obscured from our view the possibility of truth. And in a society that overflows with riches, we have lost the ability to see generosity as an essential need of life. Maybe that is why the poor in our society are often the most generous of people; they understand first hand what it means to live without and so they are more than willing to give out of their lack in an effort to conquer stinginess with their generosity.

The Psalmist asserts that the poor, a word here that indicates economic poverty but is much broader and meant to include all kinds of poverty including the lack of power, are important to God. He protects them and refuses to give them over to the desires of the rich. And we, as the children of God should follow in His footsteps. Those who are active in protecting the poor trust in God, and therefore are more willing to give out of their own resources. Those who protect the weak are willing to help those who will probably never be able to return the favor. Those who protect those who do without have a generous heart, and give to make this world a better place rather than to improve their own status among the wealthy. Those who protect the poor truly are the children of God.

Today’s Scripture Reading: Psalm 55