You’ve doubtless been unable to sleep wondering about the results of my experiment so I won’t keep you in suspense any longer!

I asked for an interpretation of Psalm 145:15 (and 16 for you sticklers) which says:

The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.

This verse was quoted in an article entitled, “Food Is A Human Right.” The gist of the article (I’ll link to it in the comments so you can read it for yourself) is that hunger is a real problem in the United States and people are entitled to food so shame on you for not feeding everyone.

The article expresses disdain for people (like me) who “…hang their hat on Second Thessalonians chapter three, verse ten, that says that people who don’t want to work shouldn’t eat.” The author boldly announces, “I will address that issue head-on.”

He ‘addresses’ the issue by discrediting 2nd Thessalonians as “…in all likelihood not written by Saint Paul. He says, “Language to the effect that those unwilling to work should not eat is not found in Paul’s genuine writings or anywhere else in the New Testament.”

He spends several more paragraphs building his case that it’s okay to ignore Paul because, “Just like under the United States Constitution Federal Law pre-empts state law when there is a conflict, so too must the words of Jesus pre-empt the words of Paul when they contradict each other.” (He never actually cites any contradictions.)

After a few more paragraphs about the importance of generosity, he plunks down Psalm 145:15 (and 16) seemingly unaware that it undermines everything he wrote up to that point.

In my little experiment, nobody (NOBODY) interpreted Psalm 145:15 as a command for Christians to be generous. Nobody understood those verses to be directives to establish social programs to feed everyone. Nobody suggested, “This is God saying food is a human right.”

Everybody (EVERYBODY) understood Psalm 145:15 as poetry giving praise to God alone for sustaining all life, unaided by human beings.

When your theology pits Jesus against Paul (or any other biblical author), your theology is bad. When your humanitarian efforts require discrediting whole books of the Bible, you are not doing good works. The Bible never even hints at the idea that people are deserving of the things God provides.

…and laziness should not be rewarded with charity.