God Helps Those Who Help... Those in Need – Ps 41

Summer in the Psalms ‘23

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

July 23, 2023

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves Those in Need – Ps 41

Psalm 41 was written by David following a trying time, possibly when his son Absolom was trying to kill David and steal the throne. The psalm has three movements that flow naturally from declaration to confession mixed with lament to thanksgiving.

1. Psalm 41 begins with a declaration that God helps those who help those in need

41 Blessed is the one who considers the poor! In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him;
² 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. ³ The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.

I am no Hebrew scholar but it’s worth our while to unpack a few of the Hebrew words used in verse one. The word “blessed” is the Hebrew word “asre” and it means happy. Happy is the one who considers the poor. The word translated poor in Hebrew is the word “dal”. It means more than just not having money, it means weak, helpless, needy. The big idea is someone who is vulnerable.

Blessed is the person who cares when someone is vulnerable. When someone is poor, weak, defenseless, sick, happy is the person who is ready to help them. To share with the poor. To defend the weak. To comfort the sick.

The psalmist says that they will be blessed because God promises to be there for them in their day of trouble. It’s an example of sowing and reaping. If we sow protection to the defenseless, we will reap protection from God when we need defending. If we sow compassion to the hurting, we will reap compassion from God when we’re hurting. If we sow generosity to the poor, when we are poor we will reap generosity from God. If we’ve sown comfort to the sick person, when we are sick we will reap sustaining comfort and restored health from God. We will reap from God according to the measure we gave to others.

Now, as Christians we know we aren’t saved by what we do. Helping the poor or protecting the weak doesn’t save us. We are saved solely on the basis of what Jesus did for us on the cross. But when we believe the gospel we are believing that we were poor, needy, weak and helpless and Jesus came to save us when we could not save ourselves.

And as the Holy Spirit works in us, giving us a new heart, a heart that better reflects the heart of God, what we see over and over again in the Bible is that God cares about the poor, the weak, the needy, the defenseless. If our religion has no heart for the needy, our religion is missing the heart of God.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27

In Isa. 58 God rebukes Israel for their self-centered focus and pious religious activities that sought God’s blessing but missed His heart. I want to read a larger portion of it cause it’s so good and listen to God’s promises to the one who does these things:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness^[a] will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. ⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. ¹¹ The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.

God says, you help the oppressed, feed the hungry, give justice to the one being chained by injustice, if you stop being malicious and pointing fingers and spend yourself on behalf of the hungry I will guide you, help you, satisfy you, strengthen you, supply your needs.

Jesus said it this way, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Matt. 5:7

Blessed is the person who considers the poor, the weak, the needy, the defenseless. There are so many ways the Lord might lead us to do this. Your way might be different than my way, but we should all seek ways to help the poor and defenseless. Obviously we can’t help everyone, but God will put needy people in our path and we will have to decide: will I to help them like the good Samaritan or pass try them by like the priest and the Levite? As a church, we give to a couple wonderful organizations that do just this: Potter’s Hands Foundation which helps young trafficked women break free from the chains of their oppressors, and STPRC which provides young pregnant women and the dads with the support and resources to make the choice for life. You might also want to consider giving to an organization like Compassion which helps children in other countries get education, food, clothing, and the gospel. Janice and I have had the privilege of supporting a young lady in Tanzania named Agnes since she was 7 yrs. old (she will be 16 in September).

We can’t do everything – in fact, we can do very little – but we should all ask God to show us ways we can care about those around us who are in need.

2. David then shares a personal confession and lament

In verse 3 David declares that God sustains the person on their sickbed and now we find out that this isn’t just a concept to David. It’s personal to David. He is terribly ill.

⁴ As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” ⁵ My enemies say of me in malice, “When will he die, and his name perish?” ⁶ And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. ⁷ All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. ⁸ They say, “A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies.” ⁹ Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

David asks God to graciously heal him and confesses his sin to God. By no means is all sickness the direct result of sin (indirectly all sickness is the result of sin because sickness and death entered the world when sin entered the world) but sin can lead to sickness.

Paul writes the Corinthian church and says that because they were not examining their lives and were eating and drinking communion in an unworthy manner, “that is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”

What I believe Paul is saying is the soul sickness of sin can sometimes manifest itself in physical sickness as well. So sometimes – and I underline sometimes – sickness is the result of sin and David knows that’s the case with him. He doesn’t demand from God, he doesn’t bargain with God, he asks God to be gracious to him and heal him, confessing that he has sinned against Him.

That’s the personal confession. Then comes the lament. There are people who are glad to see him sick and can’t wait to see him die. Others come to his bedside acting like they care but really they’re just gathering juicy gossip they can’t wait to pass on as soon as they leave. They’re whispering and conspiring together hoping to see the worst happen. They whisper, “a deadly thing has fastened onto him, he’s a goner!”

David is lamenting the malicious gossip that’s going on about him. David is vulnerable and they are doing the opposite of caring for him, they are enjoying his vulnerability! They are hoping for his demise!

But what hurts David most of all is that one of his close friends has joined them and betrayed him.

⁹ Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Some Bible scholars believe the close friend who betrayed David was Ahithophel who was David’s trusted advisor and friend but then betrayed David and joined Absolom’s rebellion. This verse is later applied to Judas’ betrayal of Jesus. More than once I’ve noted how deeply rooted Judas’ betrayal is to Jesus’ suffering. When we take communion we quote Paul who writes “on the night he was betrayed.”

Betrayal is twice painful. Betrayal not only means someone is trying to hurt us, but because it’s a friend, betrayal also hurts our ability to trust. We trusted them and they betrayed us! I thought they were a friend only to find out that behind my back they were speaking ill of me. I thought they were a friend but when the opportunity arose for them to advance themselves by stabbing me in the back, they took it. How do we ever trust again once our trust has been violated?

I pray none of us ever experience the pain of betrayal, but betrayal is a sad reality in this fallen world and that’s why it is an important part of what Jesus suffered for us. David was betrayed by a friend, but he didn’t lose the ability to trust people, largely because David primary trust wasn’t in people, it was in God. And so the last movement is David giving thanks to God for His future deliverance.

3. Finally, David offers thanksgiving for future deliverance from the Lord

¹⁰ But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them! ¹¹ By this I know that you

delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. ¹² But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.

But you, O Lord…David doesn’t focus on his enemies whispers or his friend’s betrayal, he points his soul upward. He puts his trust in the Lord. And while on that sickbed, while his enemies are whispering his demise, while his friend is stabbing him in the back, he thanks God for God’s future grace to him.

Raise me up that I may repay them! This sounds a lot like vengeance to me, but I’m not sure it was and I think there’s a way where we can pray a similar thing. David wasn’t really the revenge-seeking type. I could be wrong but I don’t think the repayment he was thinking of was their death, I think it was they’re whispered assurances that David was done, that God had abandoned him to his sickbed, that his name would be forgotten, would all be proved wrong.

The vindication for David was the blessing of God on his life. Ahithophel never got to see David’s restoration to the throne, although I think he knew it was coming when Absolom refused to listen to his good military counsel and instead listened to the military counsel of a man who was secretly working for David. Either Ahithophel knew it was a sign that David would triumph, or his pride was so wounded by not being listened to – or both! – that he killed himself.

Judas also reaped the fruit of betrayal in waves of regret so deep and so debilitating that he also killed himself. Quick side application: don’t betray a friend. It’s not good for the soul.

We can see this in that David’s not thanking God for his enemies future destruction, he’s believing God for his future deliverance. “They may hate me but I know you delight in me and they won’t shout in triumph over me. You have (present tense) upheld me because of my integrity (not sinlessness – he’s already confessed his sin).” David is walking in the light. He’s not two-faced. He’s sincere, genuine, whole. That’s what integrity means. And he knows he lives in the presence of the Lord, now and forever.

As Christians we can, I believe, pray the same thing. We are to love our enemies and pray for their salvation not their demise. But there is a sense where we want the right to triumph and justice to prevail. We can look for that without being filled with lust for revenge or hateful thoughts. If someone wants your downfall, it’s ok to want them to be wrong! If someone wants you to be abandoned by God and your life to be destroyed, it’s right and good for you to believe God will never abandon you and thank Jesus that he has saved you from destruction. That’s your vindication – not their harm, but your good. And if they see it and have a change of heart – all the better!

The final verse isn’t actually part of psalm 41, it’s the closing doxology of Book I. Each of the five books close with a doxology. Let’s just enjoy it.

¹³ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.