"I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.
I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me."
Psalms 142:4-7
I like the poetry of this one as well as the ideas here. We start out with a desolate image of someone who feels very alone and ignored/abandoned. Realizing there is no help to be found in people, the person cries to the Lord, knowing that the Lord can overcome persecutors, prison, and really, any other obstacle. God can see us and help us even when we are trapped and alone.
I love the idea of dealing bountifully as well. The supplicant here knows that the Lord will deal bountifully / give freely / provide loving assistance to those who call on him for help. I think that whole idea is something we can learn to incorporate in our lives as well. We can learn to treat others always as though they were our favorites... to go out of our way to help strangers just as we would our close friends or family. To be generous and deal bountifully with others sometimes makes us shrink because we are thinking in worldly ways. And I am not saying that we should squander or waste, or fail to prepare for the future, but I think that giving bountifully (like the widow's mite?) is always a good call. As we live in the Lord's sight, scarcity becomes an illusion. God provides for us, and the sacrifice of giving to others is almost no sacrifice at all, since we know that God will provide for us, and bless us for being generous and bountiful to others.
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