For Thou hast been a strength to the poor
“Poor” and “needy”
Among the names applied to God’s people there are three which were destined to play an enormous part in the history of religion.
In the English version these appear as two: “poor and needy”; but in the original they are three. In Isaiah 25:4 : “Thou has been astronghold to the poor and a stronghold to the needy,” “poor” renders a Hebrew word, “dal,” literally, “wavering, tottering, infirm,” then “slender” or “lean,” then “poor” in fortune and estate; “needy” literally renders the Hebrew “‘ebhyon,” Latin “egenus.” In Isaiah 26:6 : “The foot of thepoor and the steps of the needy,” “needy” renders “dal,” while poor renders “‘ani,” a passive form--“forced, afflicted, oppressed,” then “wretched,” whether under persecution, poverty, loneliness, or exile, and so “tamed, mild, meek.” These three words, in their root ideas of “infirmity,” “need,” and positive “affliction,” cover among them every aspect of physical poverty and distress. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Poverty in the East
In the East poverty scarcely ever means physical disadvantage alone; in its train there follow higher disabilities. A poor Eastern cannot be certain of fair play in the courts of the land. He is very often a wronged man, with a fire of righteous anger burning in his breast. Again, and more important, misfortune is to the quick, religious instinct of the Oriental a sign of God’s estrangement. With us misfortune is so often only the cruelty, sometimes real, sometimes imagined, of the rich; the unemployed vents his wrath at the capitalist, the tramp shakes his fist after the carriage on the highway. In the East they do not forget to curse the rich, but they remember as well to humble themselves beneath the hand of God. With an unfortunate Oriental the conviction is supreme, God is angry with me; I have lost His favour. His soul eagerly longs for God. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Israel’s poverty of heart
These were four aspects of Israel’s poverty of heart, a hunger for pardon, a hunger for justice, a hunger for home, and a hunger for God. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
A refuge from the storm
A refuge from the storm
The conditions of our earth, and its varied phenomena, are employed by the sacred writers to represent many circumstances of human life. Troubles, especially when heavy and expressive of Divine displeasure, are represented in Holy Scripture as storms.
I. THIS IS A WORLD WHERE STORMS OFTEN GATHER AND TEMPESTS ON THIS PLANET ARE NEVER OUT OF PLACE. The storm has its mission as well as the calm. Among men, adversity of all kinds is a powerful agent in accomplishing necessary spiritual operations.
II. THIS IS A TIME OF STORMS AND TEMPESTS HERE ARE NOT OUT OF SEASON. The days of man upon earth are as the winter of his life. Death is the seed time, and immortality is the spring and summer and harvest. When the spring and summer have come, snow and hail are out of season; but during the winter of our being, hail and snow and rain are in season.
III. EVERY STORM IS RAISED AND GUIDED UNDER THE EYE AND HAND OF GOD. The stormy wind does not surprise Him. He determined that it should blow at such a moment, from such a quarter, with such a force, and with particular effects. Neither does it master Him. The stormy wind simply accomplishes His word.
IV. THE OBJECT OF EVERY STORM IS GOOD, ALTHOUGH THE PRESENT EXPERIENCE OF IT IS NOT JOYOUS, BUT GRIEVOUS. Hence the need of a refuge to the man of God. Have you marked how frequently God is spoken of as “a refuge”?
V. A PLACE TO BE A REFUGE MUST BE OUT OF THE STORM, OR, IF IN THE MIDST OF IT, MUST BE STRONGER THAN THE STORM. But how is it that we children of men come to take refuge in God? The Gospel reaches us with its wooing voice. In the mediation of Jesus, in His sympathy, love, and power we find refuge. And we come to make all the covenants and promises of God distinct refuges. There is a harbour or haven at every point of danger. Do you come to poverty? There are promises to the poor. Are you a widow? There are promises to the widow. And all the hopes which these covenants awaken become in turn so many refuges. In this world, quietness of mind and heart is a thing utterly impossible to a man who does not rest in his God. If you feel the need of a refuge, you may in that sorrow which another professes to despise find the very refuge which you seek in your God. And why? Say that your sensitiveness springs from weakness. Well, God has sympathy with your weakness. (S. Martin.)