Old Testament
Psalm 72:1-4
1 God, give the king your justice; your righteousness to the royal son.
2 He will judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
3 The mountains shall bring prosperity to the people. The hills bring the fruit of righteousness.
4 He will judge the poor of the people. He will save the children of the needy, and will break the oppressor in pieces.
New Testament
James 2:1-6
1 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”
4 haven’t you shown partiality amongst yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonoured the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts?
Psalm 72 is a prayer for a ruler whose power looks like justice: defending the poor, rescuing the needy, crushing the oppressor. The psalm’s first request is simple and searching: ‘Give the king your judgments’ (מִשְׁפָּט, mishpat). In other words, make authority answerable to God’s character, not merely to popularity.
Lord Jesus, make us a people who do not fawn over wealth or look away from need. Teach leaders to govern with righteousness, and teach us to love our neighbour with the clear-eyed tenderness of your kingdom.
James brings the same concern into the life of the church. Do not hold faith in the Lord of glory ‘with partiality’. He paints an ordinary scene, and then exposes its ugliness: the rich welcomed, the poor shamed. Worship can be corrupted by the same hierarchy it ought to resist.
Economic justice begins with what we honour. Do we treat poverty as a nuisance, or as a call to mercy? Do we flatter influence, or protect the vulnerable? The Church cannot repair every system, but it can refuse to be trained by them; it can practise a different honour, and learn to see Christ’s glory where the world sees only ‘shabby’.