Last weekend I discussed, with respect to Psalm 129, the appropriateness of praying that evildoers should be punished for their evil deeds. There is another side to this coin expressed here in Psalm 112. Inasmuch as it is right to desire temporal justice for evildoers, it is also right to desire temporal justice for those who do good. This is the positive side of the coin. Those who walk in God’s ways should naturally become more productive human beings and this will inevitably mean that they accrue more temporal benefits for themselves and others. In this world, however, justice does not always prevail and, often, evildoers prosper while those who try to do the right thing suffer. It is therefore right that we should pray for this situation to be turned the right way up. It is right to pray for God to prosper honest labour and to protect the lives of those he loves from exploitation and misfortune. But let’s not just pray this for ourselves; let’s seek this for everyone and do what we can to create environments where people can flourish and enjoy the just rewards of their labour. In much of the world this is not the case and it is up to us to work towards correcting this wherever we can have influence.
Pray for God to bless the work of your hands and reflect on what you can do to enable others to have this same blessing.
Read Psalm 112
