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Psalm 41

Started by Al Moak, April 26, 2003, 10:20:53 AM

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Al Moak

Psalm 41

Our Lord is righteous and rules the earth according to righteous principles.  Those principles are are only two, and they are: 1) He blesses those who love Him and care for others, and 2) He curses those whose hearts are hard toward God and man.

David loves, admires and worships a God like that. In fact he absolutely delights in such a God. One of the results is that he wants to be like Him - he too wants to "consider the poor."  But God delights in such a desire, and He therefore blesses David. He considered Him, in fact, as "a man after God's own heart." David knows God thinks that way, so he knows, "The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.  The Lord will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on earth." He says, "You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies." God always delights in the man who delights in Him.

Because David loves such a God, he therefore loves the people of that God as well, so of course he wants them to increase in their knowledge of Him and to rejoice in Him even more.  It's for that reason that  he has them repeat in song the words of this psalm as they begin their day, with the hope that, when they leave the temple, their lives, too, will be characterized by love to God and service to His people that day.

With that in mind, David sings of prayer and answered prayer – in other words of a loving relationship that God sustains to those who love him and who love and serve His people.  The particular prayer that David recalls on this occasion was prayed in an especially perilous situation, one in which David himself was very, very sick.  He describes his prayer when he says, "I said, 'Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.'"  He tells of his enemies' hatred and of their hope that he will never rise again from his sickbed - even though they had been his "own familiar friends in whom I trusted."

But David particularly wanted the people to remember that the Lord did actually answer his prayer and help him.  So he sings, "By this I know that You are well pleased with me, because my enemy does not triumph over me.  As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, and set me before Your Face forever!"  The fact is that David would not have realized how much the Lord loved him if it had not been for just such a perilous time - the Lord used the trial to open David's eyes to that love.  He often does the same for us.  He opens our own eyes to His love by means of the trouble we experience.

Next, after describing how God blessed him and answered his prayer, he finally and simply leads the people in praise to a God Who deals in such a merciful way.  He sings,"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting!  Amen and Amen!"

How's your own relationship to God?  Does it affect your relationship to other people?  Do you love them because you love Him?  Do you "consider the poor (poor in this world's goods, poor in spirit, poor by lack of friends)?"  And do you therefore feel free to call on the Lord in all your own trials?  Not that you've earned His favor by your "goodness" - but He's glorified by the work of His own Spirit within you - and you'll experience how much He loves you!  It's a happy relationship with God, a relationship you make clear by loving God and caring for His people even more. If this is your case, then bless your graciously loving God today!


Marilyn

This Psalm has been such a consolation to me when things have not been going the way I expected them to go, because as David says, whn trouble comes , the Lord will save him. I just put myself in--in place of David. And say the Lord will save me when trouble comes. And every place David says 'him" I say 'Me"
"Good people take care of their animals, but even the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel" Prov. 12:10
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