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A Timely Psalm...

Last year I said that I would post the weekly responsive Psalms that I regularly draft for use on Sunday mornings, but after a few weeks that petered out because we were using an Advent candle liturgy in the run up to Christmas (and as it was only partly my own work I didn't have the right to post it...)
Anyway, I meant to post last week's, and perhaps will in a week or two, but I got swamped last week and am only now coming up for air... But for various reasons I thought I would post this one a day early.
It's the annual Service for DFCI (Dundonald Family and Community Initiative) our community outreach programme on Sunday morning, come and join us if you are free... This is the Psalm that their director, Sally, asked for this year:

Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
Those whose hope is in the LORD our God,
the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them
the LORD, who remains ever faithful, ever true.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free and gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down and watches over the immigrant
He supports and sustains the fatherless and the widowed,
the LORD loves the righteous.
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The LORD reigns for ever,
His Kingdom endures for all generations.
Praise the LORD.
From Psalm 146: 5-10

The reason I posted it a day early is not only so that I can have a day away from the computer tomorrow, but as I was drafting this in its current form I got an email from another DFCI executive member filling me in on yet another racist attack in Ballybeen where the church and community programme is based. And the words "he frustrates the ways of the wicked" leapt off the screen at me...
Does he?
Then why can cowardly, racist thugs get away with breaking the windows in the house and car of an innocent family, intimidating them out of the home they have invested their life savings in?
Why do the police take 3 days to come out to see the family?
Why do the authorities only offer alternative accommodation in an even more unstable estate?
 
O Lord uphold the oppressed and frustrate the ways of the wicked...
And show us your people the part we have to play in that!
Selah.
ps. To be fair to the police, I have been told that they initially responded within 30 minutes, but there was no follow up visit until 3 days later, because the community support officers were not in on the Monday and Tuesday...
Sadly, subsequent to me writing this post there has been another attack on the same family involving injury to a child...
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