Psalm 41--O LORD, Be Gracious to Me

Psalm 41
English Standard Version

O LORD, Be Gracious to Me
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
​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.

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.
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.

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

---

We just studied a psalm where David saw himself as poor and needy and that the LORD looked on him with compassion and saved him.  David now reflects and says that because the LORD has done this for him, that he should be doing the same for others (though he cannot save them from their sin) in the name of the LORD.

David starts this psalm by recounting how the LORD has treated the poor and needy favorably.  He has delivered them, protected them and given them an eternal inheritance of land that will always belong to them no matter how poor they become.  Even if they become destitute and sell their land, it will be returned to them or their family in The Year of Jubilee.  Every one of the people of Israel was a land-owner--no matter rich or poor, and their allotment was partitioned by the size of their family, not the size of their bank account.

The LORD had not let the enemies of the poor have victory over them and he has protected them even in times of poor health when they could not afford to pay a doctor to treat them.  We imagine health care as something belonging mostly to the rich, but the LORD who is Jehovah Rapha (the LORD Our Healer) is also called "The Great Physician" in the New Testament because He is able to not only heal the body, but also the soul of man in that He can deal with our greatest disease--our sin nature.  He is able to give us a "heart transplant" to take that which was corrupted by sin and to give us a new heart that is able to love Him and on which He has written His Law, which we will love and love to obey.

David has cried out to the LORD in mercy while his enemies have cried out for the LORD's wrath to be poured out on David, and David certainly earned the wrath of God and deserved the death penalty for his sins.  Those who came to visit him (probably on official business) kept things in their heart that they would not say to David's face, but they would then leave David's presence and whisper those things in the streets and spread rumors, gossip and slander.  The right thing to do would have been to have been like Nathan the prophet and confront David and call him to repentance.  We will see how David responded to Nathan the prophet in Psalm 51.  It seems these psalms come after that period as David is broken and repentant, but he is having trouble believing that God could forgive him and David is having trouble forgiving himself.  We too struggle with this as we realize that the wages we have earned from our life of sin would be death and hell, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We wonder if God will take His gift back or tell us that we don't deserve His Gift, but we know the answer to that from Scripture:

John 6:37
English Standard Version37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.
David's enemies claim that the LORD has cursed David with illness and disease for punishment for his sin and that he will suffer much and never recover--it will end in death.  David prays for the LORD to renew David's strength and health so that he can rise up and show these men that the LORD's favor still rests on them and so that David can execute the LORD's righteous judgment on the wicked in his land as is his duty as the king (though the LORD technically calls David a prince because the LORD is the King of Israel).

David is sure that his enemies will not have the last word and that the LORD will not give the victory to them.  David is also sure of his salvation in the end as he says how the LORD upheld him and because of the integrity he has (I assume he means the righteousness that has been imputed to him) that he will be in the presence of the LORD forever.

David will bless the LORD forever and ever and calls on everyone else, especially those who have experienced salvation, to do the same.  This is one of only a handful of times that we'll see the word "Amen" used in the psalms which means, "It is true"--using it twice in a row like this adds emphasis to it so as to say "This is very true and worthy of everyone's attention and response."  As Jesus would say, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."