Psalm 41 Continued…
Psalm 41:1-3 Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the Lord delivers him in times of trouble. The Lord will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.
Many men have had a rebellious son but not many have sons who have hated them as much as Absalom hated David. No rebellion takes place in a vacuum. Behind Absalom’s rebellion was David’s sin with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, which continually haunted David’s conscience. These hideous crimes had been forgiven, but the consequences of his actions was something which David had to contend with throughout the remaining years of his life. God will forgive us, but we must still face the music and reap what we have so foolishly sown.
How could David impose the death sentence, required by the Law of Moses, upon Amnon for his wicked seduction of Absalom’s sister, when he himself had been guilty of the wicked seduction of Bathsheba? How could David impose the death sentence, required by the Law of Moses, upon Absalom for the murder of Amnon, when he himself had been guilty of murdering Uriah? So, from that one evil seed the whole Absalom rebellion flowered, flourished, and bore fruit. Truly, what we sow we eventually reap.
In these first three verses we sees David’s deep fears. In the first verse, David is referring to himself as the one who is “weak.” The Hebrew word is one used of sickness. David has been made literally sick because of what he is enduring in the rebellion of his own son.
What happened to David—to the mighty man who could tackle a lion and a bear and in single-handed combat route the giant of Gath? What happened to the warrior-king who never lost a battle and who raised the Hebrew people from a dozen squabbling tribes into an International Power?
That’s his condition. Matters of state slipped away from him; he no longer had a firm grip on the helm of the kingdom; he was a weakling. That is what sin did for David and what sin will do for everyone. But David was a contrite and a humble man.
And David no doubt based his prayer on the stipulations given in the covenant (Leviticus 26:1-13; Deuteronomy 7:13-16; 28:1-14). He knew that he had no right to claim mercy from the Lord if he himself had not shown mercy to others. But David had fully obeyed the Lord’s rules and had shown mercy to King Saul, to Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, and to the needy in the land he ruled. (See Matthew 5:7 and Luke 6:37-38) He believed, like other good men of his time that God, by his sickness, was seeking to correct him (Job 36:7-11). We have every reason to believe that David sought to care for the poor and needy in his kingdom and therefore was praying with integrity.
Now think about David. He was in the dark, everything around was black. He had lost his strength, his power was gone, and the nation was slipping from his grasp. It was one big black negative. However, he looked up to his God and said in effect, “Lord, You can change this negative into a positive and I believe you will. You can make the very worst thing that ever happened to me into the best thing.”
David listed in verses 2-3 the blessings God would send because he confessed his sins and asked God to be merciful to him (41:4). Because David has earned a good reputation for his consideration of the sick and the sufferings, he is confident that God will not desert him to the malicious will of his foes. He will instead give David all the grace he needs for his time in the sick room, then raise him up to health and strength once more. God would protect him from his enemies and prolong his life in the land of Israel. That in itself would bear witness to his enemies that David was a man favored by God.
PRAY
Father, do not let me fool myself into hypocrisy by asking for your help and denying that same kind of help to others in need.