We are responsible for defending the cause of the oppressed

Violence against women was occurring in biblical times – and still is today. Elaine Storkey urges us to realise that God’s intervention comes through other human beings

Study passages: Psalm 72:12-13, Psalm 82:3-4

Every day in news broadcasts we hear tales of people who suffer at the “hand of the wicked” (Psalm 82:4). Newscasters sometimes warn us that “the scenes you are about to see are distressing”, as cameras focus on victims of cruelty, neglect, violence and war. Bombed cities, women and men weeping over their dead, children disfigured by malnourishment and dehydration all remind us that the fruits of evil are everywhere. It’s around three millennia since the psalmist wrote the words in our study passages, yet we still live in a world today where the “needy…cry out” and the “afflicted…have no one to help” (Psalm 72:12).