This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. – Psalm 34:6

Today's Scripture Reading (June 3, 2025): Psalm 34

The name a Pope chooses often foreshadows the kind of Pope he wants to be. If you want to know what things might be important to a new pope at the beginning of his time as the Bishop of Rome, it truly is all in a name. So, what kind of Pope does Leo XIV envision for himself? To find the answer to that question, maybe all we have to do is look at what Leo XIII saw as important.

Leo XIII (1878-1903) saw himself as the Pope who was concerned for the working class. He wanted to right the wrongs that he believed had been visited on society by the Industrial Revolution (c.1760-c.1840). Leo XIII spoke against taking advantage of the poor. He wrote that not paying wages to workers was "a great crime which cries to the avenging anger of Heaven." (Maybe those who became rich by not paying those who worked for them should take special note.) Pope Leo XIII also encouraged Labor unions as a weapon that protected the poor from being persecuted, giving the poor a voice in economic policy.

Rev. Art Purcaro, a friend of Leo XIV, also commented that the new Pope wanted to continue Pope Francis's role in supporting social justice causes. This advancement of these social issues is who Leo XIV wants to be and what he wants to accomplish during his time as leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

David called himself a poor man. He was a nobody who, according to the inscription attached to the front of the Psalm, found himself in the presence of a Philistine King and pretended to be insane. (Abimelek means "my father reigns" and is a generic name given to all Philistine Kings.) In this moment, David knew he had no power. David wasn't a king, not yet. Yet, he understood that God protected him. I can't think of any better way of summing up the passage than the way that Charles Spurgeon chose to summarise this passage.

Who was he (David [GM])? He was a poor man — any poor man — nothing very particular about him, but he was poor — a poor man. What did he do? He cried. That was the style of praying he adopted — as a child cries — the natural expression of pain. Poor man, he did not know how to pray a fine prayer, and he could not have preached you a sermon if you had given him a bishop's salary for it; but he cried. He could do that. You do not need to go to the Board School to learn how to cry. Any living child can cry. This poor man cried. What came of it? "The Lord heard him." I do not suppose anybody else did; or if they did, they laughed at it. But it did not signify to him. The Lord heard him. And what came of that? He "saved him out of all his troubles." Oh! Is there a poor man here tonight in trouble! Had he not better copy the example of this other poor man? Let him cry to the Lord about it. Let him come and bring his burdens before the great One who hears poor men's prayers. And, no doubt, that poor man lived to tell the same tale as he who wrote this verse. "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard and saved him out of all his troubles."

God still hears the cries of any of us willing to recognize that we are poor and stand in his presence in need of Him (God).

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 56