“Let not a slanderer be established in the earth; let evil hunt the violent man to overthrow him.” Psalm 140:11.

The above portion of a prayer by King David was posted here on 9-27-26 as Psalm 140:9-11. It is shown here to maintain context. Today’s post of the last two verses of Psalm 140 is shown below.

“I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.  Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.” Psalm 140:12-13.

“I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.” Some folks may ask, “If this is true, why do we have so many millions of poor and afflicted people in this world?”

First let us consider that many Christians are poor and afflicted. One reason for this is they are Sunday morning Christians who have accepted Christ as their Savior, go to church faithfully but have not dedicated their lives to living in a righteous godly manner.

God loves His children, but He cannot reward a sinful lifestyle, so He allows them to reap the rewards of their choices until they awaken to the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Jesus asked the following question of people like these:

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46.

Many who call out “Lord, Lord,” are not real Christians, to those who think that going to church and singing in the choir makes them Christians, Jesus will say, “I never knew you.”

We are discussing real Christians and their problem in Luke 6:46 above may be clarified below.

“… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved…” Romans 10:9, New American Standard Bible

Now consider the difference between the verse above from the NASB and the New King James version below.

“…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 NKJV.

Here is the difference between these two excellent translations:

The New American Standard Bible translates this phrase this way, “… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord…” and the New King James Bible translates it this way, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus…” both of these quotes mean exactly the same thing, but they are often understood differently.

Many Christians, “…confess with your [their] mouth the Lord Jesus…” and are serious, but they do not live like He is their Lord, and this is why Jesus states these words quoted earlier:

“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?” Luke 6:46.

The world has spent years training us in its corrupt ways, God spends the rest of our lives breaking us of the many sinful habits we were taught even from our youth, deceiving us into thinking that many of them are harmless.

For instance:
Fibs and little white lies can get you out of minor troubles; whoppers can often be necessary to save a marriage or friendship. The perceived morality of these is what makes them acceptable in the world. God says these are all lies, fibs or not and He has a place for all those who practice such things.

“But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral [whoremongers] and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.” Revelation 22:15.

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21:8.

Forsake lying.
Gossip, idle talk, tale bearing, slanders, viciously revealing confidences for revenge.
Drinking parties and barhopping are of the world and can lead to all sorts of serious sin.
Illicit drugs are a no brainer and can destroy your entire Christian life. Or terminate it.
Tricking waitresses, or keeping excess change, switching price tags on merchandise does not show Christian love for your neighbor nor does it show personal integrity.
Fornication, sodomy, and too often adultery is excused. The world has embraced illicit sex; God has warned us against all these things because of the misery which they cause in the world.
This is a partial list of the sinful things that the world teaches us that have no part in the Christian life.

In time many of these Sunday morning Christians will come to the realization that for a complete Christian life Jesus must be Lord of their life.

The difference between the above Christians and those who have entered a relationship counting Jesus as Lord of their life,(“… if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord…”) enter a new life with the intent of serving the Lord Jesus in putting away all sinful habits as revealed to them by the Holy Spirit.

These Christians will stumble sometimes too, but their focus will never leave Jesus.

Now let us take up the question asked earlier:
“I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.” Some folks might ask, “If this is true, why do we have so many millions of poor and afflicted people in this world?”
The key to answering the above question is this Bible fact; all of mankind has a sin nature in their flesh, all of us! The Christian struggles with it, and the ungodly revel in it.

“Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned…” Romans 5:12.

When God created everything in the beginning, He pronounced it all good. God gave this green earth with its pure water and clean air and abundant food to mankind with the intent that we care for it.

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26-28.

Mankind was created in God’s image and given a perfect world to enjoy and care for. But that was ruined through the cunning of Satan who caused our first parents to fall into sin in the Garden of Eden, see Genesis chapter 3.

Soon, both before and after the universal flood of Noah’s day men built cities and gained riches and accumulated goods bringing on jealousy and men’s hearts were filled with avarice and the lust for power replacing God’s desire for love among their fellow humans.

The greedy gained more power and riches as they robbed and defiled the poor. This may not have happened so universally if it were not for mankind’s rejection of God in their lives and their slavish acceptance of the most foul of idols to worship and sacrifice their children to.

“…they built the high places of Baal which are in the valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” Jeremiah 32:35.

So, men abandoned God and embraced godless idolatry. Both the rich and the poor were swallowed up in Satan’s lies dragging the world into the darkness of idolatry, witchcraft, necromancy, superstition, and sexual perversion.

People in utter darkness do not cry out to God, they cry out to the demons in their dark world for help from the very things that the demons dragged them into to begin with.

God cannot rescue these people because they would only give credit to the demons they worship. Even so God calls out to every man that they might receive Him.

“…He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Acts 17:26-28.

Jesus is the Light of the world:

“That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.” John 1:9.

Seeing that the idolator, the atheist, Muslims, and other false religions will not call on the Lord God for help, we can understand why there are so many afflicted and unjust dealings with the poor.

It is the Christian who cries out for mercy and justice that this phrase is meant, “I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and justice for the poor.”

“Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; the upright shall dwell in Your presence.” Psalm 140:13.

The righteous here are Christians. There is no such thing as a righteous unbeliever because they are still in their sins. When someone accepts Jesus as their Savior righteousness is imputed to them. It is then the task of the Christian to continue to live a righteous life.

“For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.” Psalm 11:7.

“…the upright shall dwell in Your presence.” This last phrase in verse 13, speaks of the same righteous Christians who seek God’s presence in their lives through study of God’s word and prayer.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”. James 4:8a.

Psalm 140:12-13 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-10-26 ck.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.