To an orphan or a widow in Israel’s patriarchal world, it would have been nonsense to say, “God helps those who help themselves.” With no legal or social status, and no influential male relative to take their side, widows or orphans in that society simply had no way to “help
themselves.” Yet again and again, in the psalms and in many of Israel’s laws, it was clear that God cared passionately about helping those who could not help themselves.

• Israel’s defining story was the Exodus, told in the first part of the book of Exodus and recalled every year at Passover. God delivered Israel from being held by the most powerful king on earth in helpless, hopeless slavery. When have you found help and freedom from a situation in which you felt helpless? In what ways can God’s help in the past become a basis for hope as you face future situations that feel hopeless?
• God most often acts through people. In what parts of life do the words of Psalm 82 speak most clearly to your heart: “Give justice to the lowly and the orphan; maintain the right of the poor and the destitute! Rescue the lowly and the needy. Deliver them from the power of the wicked”? For whom can you be God’s instrument to help those who cannot help themselves?