A Psalm of Solomon,
"Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy righteousness to the royal son! May he judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with justice! Let the mountains bear prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness! May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor!
He has pity on the weak and the needy,
and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight."
- Psalm 72: 1-4, 13-14
In this Psalm I was especially struck by the lines "give deliverance to the needy" and "saves the lives of the needy." For several years in my affiliation with the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine I taught a course on "Policies that Promote Public Health." One of the major emphasis is on "the social determinants of health" which shows the ways that many of our negative public health outcomes are associated with poverty/low income and lack of education. For amelioration the focus is on interventions "upstream" in order to prevent negative health outcomes: that is, on measures that will promote education and raise incomes for those currently in need.
Governmental policies have the most widespread impact, and many current ones are helpful (such as Head Start and the Earned Income Tax Credit)--but more needs to be done. Examples of additional advocated policies include more funding for early childhood education, a higher minimum wage, and paid family and medical leave insurance. If we truly want to "give deliverance to the needy" who are poor, I hope we can intervene "upstream" to try to prevent poverty/low incomes and the chronic financial stress associated with it--otherwise it seems we will continue to respond to the many "downstream" conditions of health and social problems.
"Dear God, please help us to discern how we can love our neighbors who are in need and promote their health and wellbeing. Amen."
