Gospel Reflections #1169: Close to the ordinary, vulnerable, and poor people.

Psalm 138:6 ‘Though the Lord is on high, he sees those who are lowly; though he is far away, he knows those who are proud.’

This scripture clearly illustrates the paradoxical nature of God—His love and justice—in that He, though great and on high, takes note of those who are ‘lowly’ in social and spiritual terms, whilst rejecting those who are ‘haughty’.

In the human world, the higher one’s status or power, the more one tends to distance oneself from ordinary, vulnerable and poor people.

However, the God presented in the Bible is exactly the opposite.

Here we see depicted an astonishing gap of love: whilst the Lord is an absolute Being ‘on high’ (transcendence) who rules over heaven and earth, He simultaneously turns His gaze upon and draws near to the very smallest, the oppressed, and those who are ‘humble’ (immanence).

This passage contrasts the kinds of attitudes of heart (or circumstances) that God observes in human beings.

 The ‘lowly’ (the humble and those in distress) are those who acknowledge their own weakness and place their trust in God, or those who are unjustly treated with contempt in the world.

God does not merely ‘see’ them, but actively extends a helping hand to them (takes notice of them).

 The proud (the arrogant and the insolent) are those who rely on their own strength and look down upon God and others.

God ‘sees through’ the arrogance in their hearts from afar and distances Himself from them.

Traditionally, this psalm is attributed to David.

David himself, who became king of a nation, was once a nameless shepherd (one of the lowly), and throughout his trials—when his life was threatened by King Saul—he constantly experienced God’s care (protection).

This attitude of ‘God who looks upon the lowly’ is fully fulfilled in the New Testament through the birth and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The very fact that Jesus, the Son of God who dwelt in the highest heavens, came into this world in the form of the lowliest of human beings and shared meals with the poor and sinners is the embodiment of this verse.

For us too, when we face unjust suffering in our daily lives and feel that we are being ‘humiliated’, these words offer great comfort.

Even if we feel overlooked by the world, this scripture gives us the assurance that God, who dwells on high, is watching over us and caring for us.

This assurance is not David’s alone.

It is ours as well.

May this be a day when we ask God that our faith may surpass even David’s assurance.

AUTHOR'S BIO: This Gospel Reflections page is written by Masae San, who resides in Hiroshima, Japan. Masae is a dedicated student of the Bible with a deep passion for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She shares her daily reflections on Gospel perspectives to reach out to others and spread the message of God's true love through a Christ-centered approach. We are sharing her insights here so that you, too, can experience the joy that comes from knowing and understanding the true Gospel and the love of God through Jesus Christ.