Dennis Tuuri

Psalm 111 and 112. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart in the company of the upright and in the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord. They are studied by all who delight in them. Splendid and majestic is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has made his wonders to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and compassionate. He has given food to those who fear him.

He will remember his covenant forever. He has made known to his people the power of his works in giving them the heritage of the nations. The work of his hands are truth and justice. All his precepts are sure. They are upheld forever and ever. They are performed in truth and uprightness. He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding have all those who do his commandments. His praise endures forever. Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth. The generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.

It is well with the man who is gracious and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment, for he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever. He will not fear evil tidings. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord. His heart is upheld. He will not fear until he looks with satisfaction on his adversaries. He has given freely to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor.

The wicked will see it and be vexed. He will gnash his teeth and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

Let’s pray. Almighty God, we thank you for your scriptures. We acknowledge before you and gratefully so that they are honey to our lips and true food to our souls. Almighty God, help us to understand these two psalms and what they command us to do in relationship to our fellow men. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Most of you are aware that the last two days myself and some other people from our church were at the Reconstruction Conference in Seattle. We got back last night around 10:30 or 11. Otto Scott was one of the speakers yesterday and his first topic was on the arts and Christianity. He took the movie industry and the history of movies and made an interesting observation that sort of stuck with me.

He said that originally the theaters—the movie theaters—had a pit in the front for the richest, boxes for the middle class and a balcony for the poor. Then with the advent of the movie theater, they changed all that to equal seating. Everybody sitting in the same rows in the same sort of seat, which meant people sat in the darkness next to one another. He said also that this caused a great deal of sensation at the time and people were more than a little afraid to sit next to somebody in the dark like that, a complete stranger.

Apparently, and I’m sure his history is accurate, in some of the earliest showings of movies, they would flash up signs on the screen that the ladies would be protected by the management of the theaters—some cause for worry. In any event, I thought that was an interesting observation—that seating pattern of the rich having the best seats in the front, middle class in boxes, and a balcony for the poor. I’ll return to that a little later because I think our initial reaction to that, cultured and formed by our culture of the day, is one of disdain for the lack of egalitarianism that’s shown in that sort of seating arrangement.

We’ll go through some things based on this psalm and other portions of the word of God that talk to the question of the poor in society and our relationship to them. We’ll return to that observation by Otto Scott a little later and analyze it a bit from what we’ve gleaned from scripture.

My basic outline will be: I’m going to draw some theological foundations for a proper understanding of the poor and our relationship to the poor in society—as individuals, as a church, and as civil government. Then on the basis of those theological foundations, we’ll make some practical applications.

The three theological observations will be: First of all, our compassion for the poor is based upon an understanding of God’s compassion for us and for the poor in spirit. In other words, our relationship to God is analogic. Second, mercy is to always be seen in relationship to justice and righteousness. Third, compassion for the poor is a covenantal reality—a covenantal fact.

Based on that, our four points of application are: First, we must help the poor in society. Second, we must truly help the poor in society. Third, compassion for the poor and help for the poor is not egalitarian in perspective. In other words, it’s not an equalizing sort of function. Fourth, compassion for the poor is not to be primarily overseen by the civil magistrate.

Let’s turn back to Psalm 111 and 112. I read these two psalms together. I was going through Psalm 112, which I was originally planning to talk on this morning, and I noticed a phrase in here about righteousness enduring forever. I did a couple of little studies on that and found out that the same phrase is repeated in Psalm 111. I saw that on the basis of that there was a correlation between these two psalms. Nothing new in that really. In Spurgeon’s Treasury of David, he talks about these two psalms as being linked, first of all through the literary device used in the two psalms.

Apparently, Psalms 111 and 112 are the first truly acrostic psalms, and each of the phrases in them begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It’s very regular and very consistent. There are no really variant Hebrew manuscripts that deviate from this pattern. It’s a very solid poetic device used here—an acrostic interpretation of the Psalms with each line beginning with a separate Hebrew letter.

John Noble Coleman noted this fact and he said it’s singular that not only are Psalms 111 and 112 perfectly regular, but furthermore that not one various reading of note or importance occurs in either of these psalms. Spurgeon himself, writing on these psalms, also sees the correlation between Psalm 111 and 112 and says this about it: even the number of verses and clauses of each verse coincides in the two psalms. Also in many of the words and phrases, the reader should carefully compare the two psalms line by line.

The subject of the poem before us is the blessedness of the righteous man, referring to Psalm 112. These two psalms taken together—Psalm 111 stressing attributes of God, Psalm 112 stressing the righteous man—emphasizes again this analogic character to man. Man can be best understood, or only understood, in relationship to his Creator. And so the psalmist here gives us two psalms: first emphasizing God’s characteristics and as a result showing our characteristics.

For instance, in the first portion of the first verse, both psalms obviously begin with “Praise the Lord.” So there’s an obvious connection there. Verse 3 of Psalm 111 says, “Splendid and majestic is his work, and his righteousness endures forever,” describing God. Verse 3 of Psalm 112 says about the righteous man, “Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.” Our righteousness endures forever because God’s righteousness endures forever.

Specifically in relationship to our subject matter today, verses 4, 5, and 9 in both psalms are correlary. Verse 4 in Psalm 111 says that He—God, in other words—has made his wonders to be remembered. “The Lord is gracious and compassionate.” In verse 4 of Psalm 112, “Light arises in the darkness for the upright. He is gracious and compassionate and righteous.” God is gracious and compassionate. The righteous man who is in correct covenantal relationship to God is gracious and compassionate.

Same verse 5 in Psalm 111 describing God: “He has given food to those who fear him. He will remember his covenant forever.” Verse 5 of Psalm 112: “It is well with the man who is gracious and lends, who gives his food to his fellow man. He will maintain his cause in judgment,” related to God’s covenant mercies. And then in verse 9, Psalm 111: “He has sent redemption to his people. He has ordained his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name.” And verse 9 in Psalm 112: “He has given freely to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted in honor.”

And so you can see the correlations between these two psalms, and our covenantal relationship to God being founded on his covenant mercies and his righteousness, and therefore our righteousness enduring. God shows covenant mercy to the poor in spirit and demonstrates that through his covenant keeping—Jesus Christ, his Son, to come. And so we, as recipients of that covenant grace, turn around then and display that characteristic of God toward our fellow man, maintaining a correct covenantal relationship to God now through Jesus Christ. He commands us to show that same covenant mercy that he has shown to us to the poor around us, the physically poor as well.

So these two psalms point out the central fact—the theological foundation—that our concern for the poor has to be rooted in an understanding of who the poor really are. God’s compassion for the poor in spirit and for us results in him giving us true food in terms of covenantal relationship with Jesus Christ. We turn around on the basis of that and show that same covenant grace and mercy that he’s shown to us to the poor by giving to the poor.

Now, that sounds real familiar because the last three or four weeks when we’ve talked about the widow, the fatherless, and the stranger, we’ve seen from the word of God that Jesus relates those specific terminologies to us, to his covenant people. That we are truly widows in a sense. We’re truly fatherless, and so he’s adopted us. We’re truly strangers in the land—that is, God’s particular possession and ownership. That was the basis for the Year of Jubilee, and all these things—all these acts of compassion that God commands us to do—must be understood theologically to demonstrate the grace and compassion of God shown to his elect people and to his covenant people, and to people that were truly poor in spirit.

Now, it’s interesting that in relationship to the compassion that we’re to show to our fellow man, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechism talks about this. It’s interesting in talking about how this command is related to God’s concern and compassion, to recognize that the discussion of us being compassionate and upstanding toward the poor in our land and to those who are needy comes in the discussion of the Catechism under commandment number six, not commandment number eight, as some would normally expect—you know, “Thou shalt not steal.” I suppose a liberation theologian today would take that as his basis for explaining why we should be compassionate if we don’t share our wealth totally with those around us who don’t have wealth—we’re stealing from them somehow. But that’s not where the Catechism puts it, and I don’t think it’s where God puts it either.

The Catechism puts it under commandment number six: “Thou shalt not kill.” Let me just read what Question 135 from the Westminster Larger Catechism says:

“What are the duties required in the sixth commandment?

Answer: The duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies and lawful endeavors to preserve the life of ourselves and others, by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices which tend to the unjust taking away of the life of any, by just defense thereof against violence. Patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit, a sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labor, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness, peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior, forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and suffering the distressed and protecting and defending the innocent.”

The Westminster divines saw correctly that our compassion for the poor is in the context of life-givingness, and not killing people and not taking away their life. God is said to be the God who gives life, who creates, and who destroys. In Deuteronomy 32, which we’ve referred to frequently in these last few weeks because it’s a compact song of witness about the covenant, talking about the covenant, who the covenant God is, his history with the covenant people, his commandments, his blessings and cursings—in Deuteronomy 32:36-39, we read the following:

“For the Lord will vindicate his people and will have compassion on his servants when he sees that their strength is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. And he will say, ‘Where are their gods? The rock in which they sought refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their libation. Let them rise up and help you. Let them be your hiding place. See now that I am He. There is no god beside me. It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from my hand.’”

God says that He is the one who will put to death and give life. God is the one who creates and who can destroy. And the life-givingness there is related to providing food for those who are hungry—spiritually hungry, of course. In the context, in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, the same thing is echoed in Hannah’s prayer:

“Hannah said, ‘My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides Thee, nor is there any rock like our God. Boast no more so very proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed.

“‘The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for bread. But those who are hungry cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven, but she who has many children languishes. The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low, he also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor.

“‘For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s words, and He set the world on them. He keeps the feet of his godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered. Against them He will thunder in the heavens. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and He will give strength to his king and will exalt the horn of his anointed.’”

God is the one who makes alive, the one who destroys. God is the one who makes rich and makes poor. He takes the poor and exalts them so that their horn is exalted. He does that out of his covenant mercy and out of his total ability as sovereign of the entire world and entire created order. Of course, God is the one in relationship to the poor and the rich who kills and who makes alive. And so the commandment to us to show that same compassion toward the physically poor in our land and the other poor as well is underneath the heading of God’s killing and making alive—the sixth commandment.

We’re not to kill. We’ve been made alive by God for the purpose of showing that life—that covenant-giving life, that life-giving covenant rather—that God has demonstrated to us to other people. And so that’s where the proper understanding of helping the poor should be seen—under the context of the sixth commandment.

Of course, Jesus Christ himself said that was why he came, after all, in his proclamation of what he was doing and that he was indeed the covenant keeper to come. He used very similar words in Luke 4:18:

“‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord’—to preach the gospel to the poor, to bring them up out of the dust of death, as it were, out of the fall into recreation in Jesus Christ, in the new Adam.”

Jesus Christ is the one who makes alive those who have been destroyed by the fall and by the judgment of God upon sinful man. And then when John the Baptist said—of course when he said, “Are you the one who is to come? Are you the Messiah? Is there one to come yet?” Jesus said, “No, tell John this. Tell John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up. The poor have the gospel preached to them.”

If we’ve had the gospel preached to us, it’s because we were poor. Jesus said, “After all, blessed are the poor in spirit.” The poor in spirit recognize their position before God as fallen sinners who recognize that spiritually speaking, they are absolutely destitute and dead. And they rely upon God to make alive now that he has destroyed us in rightful judgment against our sin.

God is the one who makes alive and so demonstrates that by preaching the gospel to the poor. Now analogically to that, then we know also that the institutions that God has given us should also be seen as institutions that make alive and destroy. The civil magistrate is, as Luther said, God’s hangman. But he’s more than that. He doesn’t just destroy. He helps to make alive as well. He is to command the righteous of the land to preserve peace of the lands that they may prosper and the kingdom may grow. That’s the function of the civil magistrate. It’s two-natured—to make alive and to destroy as well—being analogic to God.

The church as well makes alive and destroys. The church makes alive through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, through faithful adhering to his scriptures, spreading that message out to create life again in a dead world through the preaching of the gospel of Christ. But the church also recognizes that God’s judgment comes upon those who have cut themselves off from fellowship with him, who continue in their sin. And so the church has to function as a hangman of sorts in terms of excommunication—of acknowledging what God has bound and releasing what God has released, those who come to him in true contrition of heart and spirit.

The church makes alive. The church destroys—through the preaching of the gospel and through a pronouncement of excommunication on the basis of God’s excommunication from heaven. What God has done in heaven we analogically do here on earth in the institutions of the church and the state. Indeed, we’re that same way as individuals. God commands us to have compassion toward the poor, to demonstrate the character of God in bringing life back to those who have no life. And certainly the poor are those who are seen in scripture as ones who do not have life and who are bowed down, as it were, to the point of death.

And God commands us to show mercy and compassion toward them the way that he showed mercy and compassion to us. That’s the first point: our compassion for the poor has to be understood analogically to God’s compassion for the poor in spirit. It demonstrates that same compassion and mercy God shows to us to others.

The second point, though, and we’ll go through this fairly quickly, is that mercy is always seen in the context of scripture in relationship to justice. We know, as we looked at the fatherless and the widows rather, that Jesus said of those cultures or those groups of people that actively work against his law and who actively seek to put down an understanding of him and who turn their backs upon him, God won’t have compassion on those widows. God won’t have compassion on the fatherless who reject him. And God won’t have compassion on the poor who reject him.

After all, the scriptures say that God is the ultimate supreme court, as we said before, who’s always in session for the poor. If the institutions that God has provided to look after the poor don’t do that, and they cry out to God, he answers them. But they cry out, don’t they? That’s what it says: “When the poor cry to me, I answer them.” If the poor cry out to Baal, he won’t answer them, okay?

Justice is always the tempering part of mercy. And it’s the same thing in the context of what we’ve been reading in Psalm 111 and 112. Psalm 111:3 says, “Splendid and majestic is his work, and his righteousness endures forever.” God’s splendid works of compassion and mercy are seen in relationship to his righteousness and his justice. And so it’s true of us analogically in Psalm 112:1: “Praise the Lord. How blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments.”

Our compassion for God leads us to an obedience to his law and to true justice. Justice—compassion to the poor is tempered by mercy, or rather, the mercy is tempered by justice and always seen in relationship to it. Zechariah 7:9 and 10 is one of the verses that talks about the fatherless and the widow and the stranger that we were talking about before, but it also includes the poor. Zechariah 7:9 and 10 says this:

“Thus has the Lord of hosts said: ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother. And do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor, and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’”

In the same context of the fatherless, the widows and the strangers, God throws in the poor. And he begins that verse out with “Dispense true justice.” Compassion and kindness are seen in the context of the justice of God and his law word. To separate them is wrong.

First Kings 8:41 talks specifically about the stranger and says: “Also concerning the foreigner who is not of thy people Israel, when he comes from a far country for thy name’s sake—for he will hear of thy great name and thy mighty hand and thine outstretched arm—when he comes and prays toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to thee, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know thy name, to fear thee as do thy people Israel.”

An understanding of our concern for the stranger and of our concern for the poor is that compassion and concern that we demonstrate to them should lead them to reach out to God, that they might know God and might fear God. If they don’t do that and if they reject God being shown compassion from his people, we’re to cut them off. We’re not to continue to assist them. Justice has to temper mercy.

Proverbs 30—and we’ve talked about this before as well—the words of Agur, the son of Jakeh, the oracle:

“‘Two things I ask of thee. Do not refuse me before I die. Keep deception and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food that is my portion, lest I be full and deny thee and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be in want and steal and profane the name of my God.’”

He’s saying, “Keep me from poverty because I may sin against you. I will profane the name of my God if I am poor. And if I’m too rich, I may turn my back upon you.” Now that’s not always true. Of course it doesn’t mean if you’re poor you have to turn to stealing and blaspheming the name of God and profane his name. The point is that if you do that and you profane the name of God, you’ve rejected your whole source of help to begin with. And so justice has to temper mercy.

So we see that our compassion for the poor and for those in our society is seen contextually in the relationship of God to us, which has reference specifically to his character being compassionate and merciful, and it also has relationship to his law and to his justice. Mercy and justice lead to the third point: we understand that this is a relationship to the covenant of God, and the covenant permeates Psalm 111 and 112 by specific reference and by inference as well.

Compassion for the poor, as we’ve said before—compassion for the widow, the fatherless and the stranger—demonstrates proper understanding of the covenant that God has made with his people. The covenant of grace, the covenant of compassion and mercy, and yet also tempered with justice. God has graciously demonstrated covenant mercies to us. And he called us into correct relationship to him that we would obey his commandments and have justice, exercise justice and righteousness in our lives as well.

Obedience to God’s covenant law, the nature of the covenant, all these things are demonstrated in our compassion to the poor. And also, and of course, in relationship to that, the blessings and cursings of God are seen as well. We know that God, as we said before, makes alive and kills. He makes alive those who demonstrate their true electedness in Jesus Christ through their exercise of justice and righteousness by keeping his commandments. And he excommunicates or kills those who walk in disobedience to the commands.

And so we see various references, and I’ll just quote a few here from scripture. Psalm 10, for instance: “The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices that they themselves have imagined.” Proverbs 17:5: “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker, and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.” Proverbs 22: “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.”

God says, “If you don’t have compassion for the poor, if you don’t demonstrate proper understanding of the covenant grace and covenant justice, if you don’t do those things, then God’s cursings will come upon us.” And the cursings here, as we saw with the other groups we’ve talked about, is in terms of our actual disobedience. If we try to steal from the poor, God will throw us into a condition of want. If we don’t open our hand to the poor the way that God has commanded us to do, then he’ll cause our hand to be empty, and we’ll have nothing to offer to the poor. We’ll be the one out begging with that open hand.

What does all this mean to us today? And the fact that compassion to the poor is a covenantal fact and demonstrates God’s covenant mercy and God’s covenant justice.

Well, I think that obviously what these verses tell us is that number one, we have to help the poor. Okay? It’s not an option to the Christian life. It is a commandment of God seen in the context of the covenant, demonstrating correct covenantal understanding.

Now, in order to help the poor though, you have to identify the poor. Who are the poor, after all? And if we understand this analogic relationship of compassion for the poor being a result of the compassion that God’s shown to us, and we understand that Jesus told us to be compassionate to those who are poor in spirit, we recognize the poor is not just a group of people who have a limited amount of financial resources. That’s not the only definition of the poor.

This week, I don’t know how many of you got the recent publication from the Rutherford Institute. It was interesting, as I was studying through some of this stuff, that there are two articles in here—editorials, one by Whitehead, another by Udo Middleman—having to do specifically with the poor. And I thought, well, that’s kind of neat. It’s what I’ve been studying, after all. And Whitehead makes this great point himself: that we have to properly seek to identify who are the poor in society. And he says some of the following things, most of which I agree with. There are a couple that I don’t, and I ought to mention those.

The poor is a special category of people. I would add others to this category of poor. The unborn child on his way to an abortion clinic to be killed is the poor. Okay, there’s certainly some truth to that. The child without a real home because of a broken family is poor in the generic sense of the word, and that’s true as well.

However, he also said a few things in here which I don’t particularly agree with. He said: “The woman who has an abortion and will suffer mentally and physically because of it is the poor.” Well, I don’t know. You could carry that reasoning out and say, well, the abortionist, you know, who commits the murder himself will probably suffer physically and emotionally as well. And I don’t think I want to classify him as the poor. And he goes on even with a worse one: “The hooker who was victimized by prostitution is the poor.”

Funny thinking, in terms of the context that we understand—we read earlier that compassion is tempered with justice. The hooker who deliberately violates the commandments of God is hardly to be seen in the context of the poor that are shown as those who cry out to God for relief.

But anyway, overall it’s a pretty good article, and I’m glad that he brought up that point about trying to properly identify the poor. But it is obvious that, although we talk about these other categories of people, the poor primarily has reference to us in terms of our relationship to those who don’t have physical resources. That’s the primary reference. There are other references as well. We talked about some of the implications in terms of the fatherless and widows and strangers. But primarily what we want to talk about today are those who don’t actually have the physical resources for sustenance of life itself. And we have to obviously help those, as well as help these other groups of people who are poor as well.

Ari McMaster, one of the other four speakers yesterday—an economist—pointed out that in his experience, and I think that there are examples in how Jesus treated the poor as well, if people are starving and don’t have food, it’s very difficult to reach them with the gospel. They need sustenance. They need to have their eyes brightened, as it were, and then you can preach the gospel to them. It was this understanding that led General Booth to create the Salvation Army. He knew that people had to be brought to a point of at least a…