Greetings:
I friend of mine who manages a biblically based investment fund called "Eventide" recently sent an email concerning the current Wall Street crisis as it pertains to Psalm 52. I thought I would post it for anyone who might be blessed by it.
Obviously this weekend, and today, marks a very significant further meltdown in the fortunes of certain American financial institutions. It remains far from clear what else might fail and just how far the damage will spread. In reading Psalm 52, I am struck by its applicability to what is playing out in our financial services sector. Verse 7 seems a rather apt description of many American financial institutions — both the trusting in wealth and the fact that (much of) that wealth came from "destroying others." (Think how many relatively poor and unsophisticated borrowers are now in great financial peril or ruin because of the abuses of the subprime mortgage marketplace. Similarly, think how many individuals are in deep trouble with credit card debt that was aggressively marketed to those for whom it has proved toxic.) Verse 5 seems a telling description of the consequences coming to bear on these institutions and their malignant practices.
I say this with no pleasure whatsoever. There is widespread economic pain and even systemic danger. But it is also a very large reminder that, as God makes clear in Proverbs, "ill-gotten gain" — profit made at the expense of others — inevitably brings a day of reckoning. Unfortunately, such practices have become normative in many financial institutions and in many parts of the business landscape as a whole. Hence the importance of Eventide's commitment to searching out investment opportunities in which well-gotten gain comes as a byproduct of companies' creating real value and blessing for individuals and society. And as we do so, I believe that Eventide and our shareholders will be characterized by verse 8 instead.
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying,
7 "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!"
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.
9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
I friend of mine who manages a biblically based investment fund called "Eventide" recently sent an email concerning the current Wall Street crisis as it pertains to Psalm 52. I thought I would post it for anyone who might be blessed by it.
Obviously this weekend, and today, marks a very significant further meltdown in the fortunes of certain American financial institutions. It remains far from clear what else might fail and just how far the damage will spread. In reading Psalm 52, I am struck by its applicability to what is playing out in our financial services sector. Verse 7 seems a rather apt description of many American financial institutions — both the trusting in wealth and the fact that (much of) that wealth came from "destroying others." (Think how many relatively poor and unsophisticated borrowers are now in great financial peril or ruin because of the abuses of the subprime mortgage marketplace. Similarly, think how many individuals are in deep trouble with credit card debt that was aggressively marketed to those for whom it has proved toxic.) Verse 5 seems a telling description of the consequences coming to bear on these institutions and their malignant practices.
I say this with no pleasure whatsoever. There is widespread economic pain and even systemic danger. But it is also a very large reminder that, as God makes clear in Proverbs, "ill-gotten gain" — profit made at the expense of others — inevitably brings a day of reckoning. Unfortunately, such practices have become normative in many financial institutions and in many parts of the business landscape as a whole. Hence the importance of Eventide's commitment to searching out investment opportunities in which well-gotten gain comes as a byproduct of companies' creating real value and blessing for individuals and society. And as we do so, I believe that Eventide and our shareholders will be characterized by verse 8 instead.
Psalm 52
1 Why do you boast of evil, you mighty man? Why do you boast all day long, you who are a disgrace in the eyes of God?
2 Your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit.
3 You love evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the truth. Selah
4 You love every harmful word, O you deceitful tongue!
5 Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin: He will snatch you up and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous will see and fear; they will laugh at him, saying,
7 "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!"
8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God's unfailing love for ever and ever.
9 I will praise you forever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.
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