Devotions for the Poor

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3

Friday, May 26, 2006

Jeremiah 22:13, 15-17

Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work...

Shalt thou reign, because thou closest theyself in cedar? did not they father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the Lord. But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Jeremiah 22:3-6

Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on hourses, he, and his servants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, taht his house shall become a desolation.

Jeremiah 7:6-7

If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.

Psalm 14:6

Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge.

Psalm 12:5

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.

Psalm 10:8-11, 14, 17-18

He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. He crouchet, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it...

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless...

Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

Psalm 10:2

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

Psalm 9:18

For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Job 29:12, 15-16

Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him...

I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

Job 31:16-19

If I have withhheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering...

Job 30:25

Did not I weep for him that was in trouble? was not my soul greived for the poor?

Exodus 30:15

The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the Lord, to make an atonement for your souls.

Exodus 23:11-12

But the seventh year thou shalt let it [the land] rest and lie still; that the poor of thy people may eat: and what they leave the beass of the field shall eat. In like manner thou shalt deal with thy vineyard, and with thy oliveyard.

Six days thou shalt do they work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.

Exodus 23:3, 6

Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause...

Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of they poor in his cause.

Exodus 22:25-27

If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

If thou at all take thy neighbor's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down:

For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.

Exodus 22:21-24

Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.

Ye shall not afflict any widow, or fatherless child.

If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;

Any my wrath whall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.