OUr gracious God
Psalm 41
Main Idea: In Jesus, we can look to the Lord’s promises and make them our own.
I. The Position of Promise (v. 1-3)
Psalm 41:1-3: Blessed is the one who considers the poor!
In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
the Lord protects him and keeps him alive;
he is called blessed in the land;
you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.
The Lord sustains him on his sickbed;
in his illness you restore him to full health.
The Psalms are not trite, superficial answers to life's deepest problems. The Psalms take us deep down into the pain of this life, and then they take us up again into divine renewal and true hope. We see this when verse 10 begins by saying "But ..." David's pains are not the sum total of his life. The deepest reality of his life is the promises of God.
~Dane Ortlund, In The Lord I Take Refuge
Psalm 41 is the last psalm in book one of the Psalter (Psalms 1-41). While it is similar in content to Psalm 6 and Psalm 38 with cries of deliverance from illness or sickness, its opening line is clearly a call back to the first Psalm. They both open with the phrase “Blessed is…”
Psalm 1:1-2: Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
While Psalm 1 pronounces blessing in those who obey God’s law, keeping them from trouble, Psalm 41 pronounces blessing on the weak who are in trouble by assuring them of rescue.
~ John Goldingay, Baker Commentary
We see David's position of declaring the LORD’s promises in his time of need in 5 distinct ways. These are all “theological truths” that David believes about the LORD. He says that the LORD:
Delivers (v. 1)
Protects (v. 2)
Keeps (v. 2)
Sustains (v. 3)
Restores (v. 3)
Hebrew 5:12-14: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.
1 Thessalonians 4:3: For this is the will of God, your sanctification.
II. A Personal Prayer (v. 4-10)
The power of verse 4 in this psalm cannot be understated. David turns impersonal principles about God, into personal prayer and applies the theological principles to his own life. His prayer echoes Psalm 32 where he turns to the Lord in prayer and acknowledges his sin to the Lord and confesses it. It is this confession of guilt that paradoxically and mysteriously turns him, and us, from betrayer to benefactor.
Your accuser goes on scoring points off you, as long as you insist on making your own excuses. So do you want to ensure that your accuser—the devil, that is—suffers and groans? Do what you have heard, do what you have learned, and say to your God, “I myself have said it, Lord. Have mercy on me, heal my soul, since I have sinned against you.” “I myself,” he says, “I myself have said it; not the devil, not luck, not fate. I myself have said it. I’m not making excuses, on the contrary, I accuse myself. I have said it. Have mercy on me, heal my soul.
~ Augustine
While David is the author of this Psalm, we can read it in light of the hope and truth of the Gospel as Jesus has revealed. Therefore, we have two pictures in mind. The type and their fulfillment (antitype). David was a type of Christ. David’s enemies, in particular Ahithophel (2 Samuel 15:12), were a type of the betrayer who would come (Judas). We can be confident of this because Jesus quotes this verse (41:9) in reference to Judas’ betrayal of him (John 13:18-26; Matthew 26:21-30).
It may seem too rudimentary, too simple, but what better plea can one bring in all our own guilt or in the face of the malice, hatred, and betrayal of others to a God who already has a grace-bent to His nature?
~ Dale Ralph Davis, My Exceeding Joy
III. The Power of Grace (v. 11-13)
Psalm 41:11-13: By this I know that you delight in me:
my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.
But you have upheld me because of my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
Amen and Amen.
The 'integrity' bothers some readers. After all, didn't David confess sin in verse 4? But 'integrity' is not sinlessness nor perfection; he only claims that this is the overall bent of his life-that he has not turned away from his devotion to Yahweh. And what has he found? That Yahweh has 'held on to' His servant. How much more secure can one be?
~ Dale Ralph Davis, My Exceeding Joy
John 10: 27-28: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
