The One Who is the highest cares for the lowest.

For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.

Deuteronomy 10:17-18

In the highest and to the lowest, God is great. That’s what Moses is reminding Israel in this passage. They should seek to worship God and keep His law because of these twin tensions. He is powerful over all creation with control over everything. He is concerned for everybody, caring for the people that many in society would overlook: widows, orphans, and foreign immigrants. Yep. God loves THOSE people. We should worship God because He is greater than us in power and He is more concerned about people than we are. He is perfect. We are not. We humbly admit that and worship and seek to align our hearts with His!

Yet it is so easy to only want our worship to celebrate one half of this truth. We can sing “How Great Thou Art” with enthusiasm and pride. But will we ignore social injustice, walk right past the needy, and despise those who are different than us, who we think have no right to be in our society? If we do, we aren’t really worshiping God. We are worshiping a false idol of our own design who does not challenge us to love like He does.

God gives food and clothing to outcast wandering immigrants looking for a home. God doesn’t let the sins against the impoverished, the needy, the fatherless, and the family-less go unpunished. He is concerned for people who hurt. He will lead them when they are abandoned. And He will hold accountable those who neglect and abuse people made in His image who hang on to the lowest rungs of the social ladder. …even when it is official government policy to deliberately make their lives hard.

Israel was taken out of sojourning in Egypt where they were abused and hated. God wanted Israel to love foreigners among them out of worship of the God Who delivered them from this oppressive life (Deuteronomy 10:19). And God is still rescuing lost wanderers. Jesus saves us, taking us from sin’s slavery to His home as the children of God. Shouldn’t we worship our rescuing Redeemer by loving others in the most desperate of circumstances who also need His rescue?