- Hear and Not Despise
Psalm 69:33
For the Lord heareth the poor,
And despiseth not his prisoners.
If you are poor then the Lord hears; if you are a prisoner then the Lord does not despise you. Paraphrase: the Lord pays attention to the commonly ignored people. The poor and his prisoners = the needy, the down and out, the outcast, the handicapped, the sick, the chronically ill, the shameful and disgraced, in short, any person who is not readily noticed by society in general. There are various reasons that people ignore certain individuals that exist around them, and over the years many charitable groups rise up to raise awareness of certain groups of people that are often ignored by the mainstream.
Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors; he pays attention to the sick, the invalid, the blind, the prostitutes, the poor, the demonized, the widows, the children, the lepers, the foreigners, the outcast, and even the crowds commonly ignored by those in power or seeking power. “The poor and…his prisoners” in this verse are summary terms designed to include all kinds of people who feel ignored, discarded, left out, on the fringes, excluded, unnoticed, rejected, insignificant and even useless. These are: “the least of these my brethren.” At various times and with various groups all of us have felt like one of these people. If fact, we better have felt that way, for Jesus came for just such ungodly sinners. I must count myself among the “sinners,” the kind of person that no one wants anything to do with.
The Lord “hears” them; He notices their cries and pleas; He listens to their complaints and problems; He cares about their predicament; He pays attention to them and makes them feel special. The Lord “does not despise” them: this is a euphemistic, understated way of saying He “likes” them. “Prisoners” are easy to forget about while they are locked out of sight, and prisoners usually feel forgotten. All of us prisoners of sin and death also desperately need to know that we are not forgotten and abandoned in our misery. Thus we have this promise. The first step in enjoying this promise is admitting that I am “poor and in prison.” The next step is knowing that Jesus pays attention to me, and He cares. Then enjoy that promise.