Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 257 · September 14
Him That Hath No Helper
“For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”
Our prayers for the people in charge tend to be about stability. That things hold, that our own arrangements are not disturbed. Psalm 72 is a prayer for a king and almost none of it is about us.
Walk its list. He shall judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with judgment. He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor. He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall redeem their soul from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be in his sight. The same small category in every line.
Him that hath no helper is the phrase doing the sorting. Not everyone poor is unhelped; some have a family, a church, somebody who picks up. This king is described by what he does about the ones with nobody assigned. And precious shall their blood be in his sight is an accounting term. Blood nobody else is counting has a price in his ledger.
Then look at what happened. The psalm carries Solomon's name, and within a generation the complaint brought to Solomon's own son was thy father made our yoke grievous. The prayer outlived the king it was prayed over, which is why Isaiah keeps saying it of somebody still coming: with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.
Find the one person in your week who has no helper. Not the poor in general; the particular name nobody has been assigned to. Then do the one thing a helper does, which is to be reachable. Give them a way to cry to you, and be there when they use it.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 257 is Gentleness Makes Great (Psalm 18:35).