Psalm 25:12-22
The OT here emphasizes the corresponding case for the legal help of Yahweh. “The conviction that those whose legal standing was weak and who were less privileged in the struggle of life were the objects of Jahweh’s particular interest reaches far back into the history of the people of Jahweh. This conception of the poor practically contains a legal claim upon Jahweh; and it was precisely this which later made it a self-designation of the pious before Jahweh” (G. von Rad, OT Theol, 1:400). But “pious” in this connection can only mean: “cast” entirely on Yahweh (Ps. 22:10*), completely dependent on him and on him alone. In the OT we cannot separate socioeconomic and spiritual “poverty,” indeed we cannot even distinguish between them. Poverty (in all its forms of expression) is indigence of life, and that can only be understood as life before Yahweh.