Psalms 72:12

For He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also and him that hath no helper.

The poor man’s friend

I. The special objects of grace.

1. They are needy. This we all are, all our life long, for body and for soul. But God’s peculiar people feel their spiritual need as others do not. They are full of needs. Once they thought they had need of nothing, but they do not think so now.

2. They are poor: “the poor also.” A man might be needy, and yet be able to supply his own need, so far as temporal things are concerned. But in things spiritual we are not only needy, but poor also.

3. They have no helper. Now, until God enlightens us, we seem to have a great many helpers. Priests, ministers, parents, preachers and many earthly things. But we have done with all such help now; we have found them all broken reeds. We felt this at our conversion, and we feel it now when we would advance in grace; and we feel it also when Satan tempts us, and in our trials and sorrows. But the Lord has not cast us off, for “He shall deliver the needy,” etc. Now, why does God select these for His favour? Partly because He is a Sovereign, and chooseth whom He will; then, they are the most willing to accept it; and they will never set themselves up in rivalry with Christ; they are glad to be saved in God’s way; the Lord finds in them warm friends. If the Lord were to save the Pharisees, they would hardly say, “Thank you,” they are so good themselves. But these poor and needy ones, they feel like that good old woman who said, that if ever the Lord saved her, He should never hear the last of it. They will praise and bless God with their whole soul.

II. The special blessing which the Great King has stored up for these people.

1. They shall be judged with judgment--they are often judged now with harshness. The Lord will right them.

2. Saved from oppression.

3. Deliverance shall be theirs, and--

4. He shall redeem their souls.

III. The special season when all this shall be true. “When he crieth,” when the needy cry unto Him. A cry is more than an ordinary prayer. We cry unto God when it gets so with us that we must have His grace, and our heart breaks for it when we will not let Him go unless He blesses, then deliverance is not far off. Oh, to feel our need, to know our utter poverty and helplessness, then shall we cry unto God, and He will save us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The cry of the needy heard and answered

A French tourist relates that some time ago he set out to cross St. Bernard’s Pass by himself, and got caught in the fog near the top. He sat on a rock and waited for one of the dogs to come and attend to him, but in vain, and when the fog cleared away he managed to reach the Hospice. On arrival he observed that he thought the dog a rather overrated animal. “There I was,” he said, “for at least six hours, and not one came near me.” “But why,” exclaimed one of the monks, “did you not ring us up on the telephone?” To the astonished tourist it was explained that the whole of the pass is provided with shelters at short distances from each other, all in direct telephonic communication with the Hospice. When the bell rings the monks send off a hound loaded with bread and wine and other comforts. The dog on duty is told what number has rung, and he goes straight to that shelter. This system saves the hounds their old duty of patrolling the pass on the chance of a stray traveller being found, and as the pass is for about eight months of the year under snow, this entailed very hard and often fruitless labour. There are many people in need of spiritual help who have not yet realized that there is One who will hear and answer directly the troubled soul cries to Him for aid.