{"id":1242,"date":"2020-05-14T15:35:32","date_gmt":"2020-05-14T15:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/?p=1242"},"modified":"2020-05-14T23:52:08","modified_gmt":"2020-05-14T23:52:08","slug":"a-biblical-song-of-the-oppressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/?p=1242","title":{"rendered":"A Biblical Song of the Oppressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scripture is subversive in that it has within it the power to undermine, to topple and overthrow the existing world order \u2013\u2013 its values, its thinking, its way of life. This subversive quality is frequently apparent in the Psalms where the poets have discovered something utterly amazing about God. What they have discovered, as the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann observes, is this: \u201cYahweh\u2019s peculiar inclinations are with the broken-hearted and the ones with crushed spirits. That is, Yahweh\u2019s<\/em> solidarity is not with the ones who go from success to success, but the ones denied success.” In the Psalms the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed and the humble look only to God\u2013\u2013 have no one but God for their help. The Psalms are subversive, then, because God is subversive. I thought you might appreciate the following version of Psalm 10. Well, actually, I hope it will feed your own subversive passions\u2013\u2013your feelings of compassion and justice in an age of exploitation, corruption, greed, violence, mendacity and arrogance.<\/p>\n

Psalm 10: A Song of the Oppressed<\/strong><\/p>\n

1Why do you stand so far from me, O God?
\nWhy are you hiding, Lord, in all this crisis?
\n2 In arrogance the selfish and greedy chase down the poor.
\nMay they be caught in their own cruel traps
\nset for the innocent!
\n3 Having departed from the path
\nthey have no knowledge of what is sacred,
\nand no compassion
\nfor the suffering of humanity.
\nThey boast of their power to take whatever they want,
\nthey curse the Lord and reject God as weak.
\n4 With smug and condescending faces
\nthey disdain God and deny the divine power.
\nIn their self-centered importance they are always saying,
\n\u201cThere is no God.\u201d
\n5 They are rich, powerful, and entirely self-satisfied.
\nThe wisdom of your Way, O God,
\nis far beyond their comprehension.
\nAs for any who would challenge them,
\nthey laugh in derision.
\n6 They say to themselves,
\n\u201cNothing can touch me!
\nNo one can bring me down!
\nNo one is as clever as I am!
\nNothing bad is ever going to happen to me!\u201d
\n7 Their mouths are full of rotting lies,
\nviolence, and oppression;
\nUnder their tongues are plots to hurt
\nand destroy all that is good, beautiful, or true.
\n8 Courts, markets, and positions of leadership
\nare their lurking places;
\nthey spring from hidden blinds
\nto kill the innocent and vulnerable.
\nTheir stealthy eyes are always watching for victims.
\n9 Like predator lions
\nthey stalk those alone and helpless;
\nThey lurk in the dark shadows
\nready to catch those already afflicted;
\nThey catch the injured and the poor
\nand draw them into their net.
\n10 In their speech they camouflage their true motives
\nwith high principles and ideals,
\nbut they are always crouching in readiness
\nto spring on the innocent.
\n11 They confidently reassure themselves saying,
\n\u201cGod has forgotten;
\nGod has hidden His face; God will never see it.\u201d
\n12 Arise!, O Lord, Arise; lift up Your hand.
\nDo not forget the hurting, troubled and afraid.
\n13 Why have the wicked despised You O’ God?
\nBecause they do not believe
\nYou will require accountability.
\n14 But You have seen it,
\nYou have carefully noted the harm they do
\nhow they devour the poor and vulnerable as prey.
\nThe defenseless commit themselves to You;
\nYou have been the helper of those
\nwho have no other help.
\n15 Break the power of the unjust,
\nthe indifferent and the cruel;
\nseek out all their ways of wickedness,
\nuntil by your goodness they are overcome;
\nand no injustice or oppression or unkindness is to be found.
\n16 You are the Lord, You are our good and strong King;
\nYou are our Help and Comforter.
\n17 O Lord, You have heard the cries of the oppressed
\nand know the longing hearts of the humble.
\nStrengthen their hearts, listen to their desperate pleas.
\n18 Vindicate the vulnerable, the helpless, and the oppressed;
\nSo that those who have become their own god
\nwill no longer cause terror.
\n(trans. larry hart)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scripture is subversive in that it has within it the power to undermine, to topple and overthrow the existing world order \u2013\u2013 its values, its thinking, its way of life. This subversive quality is frequently apparent in the Psalms where the poets have discovered something utterly amazing about God. What they have discovered, as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1242"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1242\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awakeningheart.spiritual-christian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}