Advice for the times

Ha. Do you think that whatever current economic hardship--or impending hardship--you are undergoing is not of your own making? Does it seem that unseen men in Washington D. C. and on Wall St. and in banking conference rooms around the country have conspired to enrich themselves and their friends at the expense of you and your children and grandchildren?

Seems a little like that to me too: subprime mortgage lending, companies piling on to get their part of the bubble economy before it bursts. But the Psalter reading for this morning brought a bit of a grin to me as I read:

Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who
cheat me surrounds me,

those who trust in their wealth

and boast of the abundance of their riches?

A good reminder that the times we live in are not substantially different from the times in which men have always lived since The Original Odd Couple got tossed.
The Psalmist later goes on, putting into perspective our brief lively sojourn:

Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.

Man in his pomp will not remain,
he is like the beasts that perish.

But God will ransom my soul
from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.