Grosey's Messages

PSALM 41 BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL

1 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.

Dionysius' the former bishop of Alexandria sent into desert exile, wrote to Eusebius of the plague in Alexandria.

"For as it was written of the firstborn of the Egyptians, so now 'there has arisen a great cry, for there is not a house where there is not one dead.' And would that this were all! For many terrible things have happened already. First, they drove us out; and when alone, and persecuted, and put to death by all, even then we kept the feast. And every place of affliction was to us a place of festival: field, desert, ship, inn, prison; but the perfected martyrs kept the most joyous festival of all, feasting in heaven. After these things war and famine followed, which we endured in common with the heathen. But we bore alone those things with which they afflicted us, and at the same time we experienced also the effects of what they inflicted upon and suffered from one another; and again, we rejoiced in the peace of Christ, which he gave to us alone. "But after both we and they had enjoyed a very brief season of rest this pestilence assailed us; to them more dreadful than any dread, and more intolerable than any other calamity; and, as one of their own writers has said, the only thing which prevails over all hope. But to us this was not so, but no less than the other things was it an exercise and probation. For it did not keep aloof even from us, but the heathen it assailed more severely."

Farther on he adds: "The most of our brethren were unsparing in their exceeding love and brotherly kindness. They held fast to each other and visited the sick fearlessly, and ministered to them continually, serving them in Christ. And they died with them most joyfully, taking the affliction of others, and drawing the sickness from their neighbors to themselves and willingly receiving their pains. And many who cared for the sick and gave strength to others died themselves having transferred to themselves their death. And the popular saying which always seems a mere expression of courtesy, they then made real in action, taking their departure as the others: "Your humble servant bids you goodbye."       "Truly the best of our brethren departed from life in this manner, including some presbyters and deacons and those of the people who had the highest reputation; so that this form of death, through the great piety and strong faith it exhibited, seemed to lack nothing of martyrdom. And they took the bodies of the saints in their open hands and in their bosoms, and closed their eyes and their mouths; and they bore them away on their shoulders and laid them out; and they clung to them and embraced them; and they prepared them suitably with washings and garments. And after a little they received like treatment themselves, for the survivors were continually following those who had gone before them." "But with the heathen everything was quite otherwise. They deserted those who began to be sick, and fled from their dearest friends. And they cast them out into the streets when they were half dead, and left the dead like refuse, unburied. They shunned any participation or fellowship with death; which yet, with all their precautions, it was not easy for them to escape."

Famine and war had recently afflicted the city of Caesarea, so when the plague hit in the early fourth-century, the populace was already weakened and unable to withstand this additional blow. The populace began fleeing the city, one of the larger ones of the Roman Empire, for safety in the countryside. However, in the midst of the fleeing inhabitants, at least one group was staying behind, the Christians. As bishop of the city and a historian of the early church, Eusebius, recorded in "The Church History" that during the plague, All day long some of them [the Christians] tended to the dying and to their burial, countless numbers with no one to care for them.  Others gathered together from all parts of the city a multitude of those withered from famine and distributed bread to them all. Eusebius goes on to state that because of their compassion in the midst of the plague, the Christians' "deeds were on everyone's lips, and they glorified the God of the Christians.  Such actions convinced them that they alone were pious and truly reverent to God."  A few decades after Eusebius, the last pagan emperor, Julian the Apostate, recognized that the Christian practice of compassion was one cause behind the transformation of the faith from a small movement on the edge of the empire, to cultural ascendancy.  Writing to a pagan priest he said: "when it came about that the poor were neglected and overlooked by the [pagan] priests, then I think the impious Galilaeans [i.e., Christians] observed this fact and devoted themselves to philanthropy." * "[They] support not only their poor, but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us."

This Psalm seems to underlie our Lord's Sermon on the Plain found in Luke 6. Indeed the Lord quotes from this Psalm as referring to the Lord's betrayal by Judas. It presents similar themes to Luke 6, and similar theological problems: on the surface it implies that giving to the poor is the means to receiving blessing from God. In a similar way to Luke 6 however, we can view this Psalm as being a character description of those whom God has already blessed. They character, as one saved by the mercy and grace of God, reflects the graciousness and mercy of their Father and Saviour, and so their actions of giving to the poor and needy, their compassion and mercy towards these people, is a reflection of the change of their heart from selfish to gracious people.

Yesterday I saw a brief Dr. Oz news item: heart health is best improved by stress relief. And the ebst stress relief is to do something gracious and kind to people in our community.  But of course if you do that to experience heart health you are doing it for selfish reasons and it doesn't actually bring stress relief.

What are the ingredients of a gracious heart?

They consider the poor

They confess their sins and their need of mercy

They endure betrayal and hostility

Are you a person who considers the poor?

1.Are you a gracious hearted person who considers the poor

The Psalm would suggest that it may have been written by David when he fled from Absalom, his son, when his own son turned against him and the great bulk of the army of Israel followed after Absalom. David left the city of Zion and passed over the brook Kedron, climbed the Mount of Olives, weeping, descended into the valley on the other side, and fled eventually across the Jordan. When his own son had turned against him, then he was indeed the poor one, the weakened one. You remember the story of Barzillai who heard of David's need and distress and came with all manner of fruit and provisions, and one can imagine David receiving these things with a grateful heart and sitting down to write this Psalm, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble." And of course the principle comes down to us. Do you want blessing yourself? Then be thoughtful and considerate of others who are in need. Do you know why some Christians, when they get in distress and trouble, cry to God and do not seem to get any answer? The reason often is this, when they were prosperous and others cried to them in their need and distress they did not give to them; they did not consider the poor, they did not minister to them, and the Lord says, as it were, Now you can just have a dose of your own medicine. You were not interested in others in the days of your prosperity; you were thinking of your own comfort; you knew that the poor and needy were all about you, and they pleaded in vain for help from you. So do not be surprised now if I turn you down. That is exactly what the Spirit of God intimates in the first Epistle of John when speaking of answers to prayer. The Lord has never promised to answer the prayer of one who is not walking in manifest love and concern for other people. Look at 1 John 3:16 to 22, "Hereby perceive we the love of God [Hereby know we love, R.V.], because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him…If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God." If our own consciences tell us that we are indifferent to the needs of others in their distress, God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not"-if we know that we have walked before God with real concern for others, that we have not been living for self, then in our time of trial-"then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." This is the New Testament way of saying, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble."

"There was a man, and some did count him mad,  The more he gave away the more he had."

2.Are you a gracious hearted person who considers your own heart?

Verse 4 I said, Lord be merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.

 He confesses that he is a sinner. The law brings the conviction of sin, but the greatest sin of all is unbelief.

 He counts sin the disease of the soul--"heal my soul." Sin affects the soul as disease the body.

 He views God as the only physician--Lord, heal my soul We cannot heal our own soul; nor can any creatures. The sooner we see and feel this the better. But the Lord heals: "by His stripes we are healed."  He is also persuaded that nothing but mercy in God will induce him to heal his soul. Here is the only source of our hope. (W. Jay.)

A prayer.  "Lord, be merciful unto me."

 "Heal my soul." David does not pray, "Heal my eye; heal my foot; heal my heart; heal me, whatever my disease may be"; but he goes at once to the root of the whole matter, and prays, "Heal my soul."  "Heal me, Lord, of the distress of my soul." "Lord, heal my soul of the effect of sin."  "Heal me of my tendency to sin."

A confession. "I have sinned against Thee."

 It is a confession without an excuse.  It is a confession without any qualification. He does not say, "Lord, I have sinned to a certain extent; but, still, I have partly balanced my sins by my virtues, and I hope to wipe out my faults with my tears." No; he says, "I have sinned against Thee," as if that were a full description of his whole life.

 It is without affectation. I like a man, when he makes a confession of sin, not to be carried away into the use of proud expressions without meaning, but to speak with judgment, and to acknowledge and confess only what is true. This is the excellence of David's confession, that he owns to what no sinner will ever admit till the grace of God makes him do it: "I have sinned against Thee."

 A plea. "I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul." Why? "For I have sinned against Thee."

It is a plea no self-righteous man would urge. The Pharisee keeps to this strain, "Lord, be merciful unto me, for I have been obedient, I have kept thy law." O foolish, self-righteous man, do you not see that you are shutting the door in your own face? You say, in effect, "Be merciful unto me, for I do not need any mercy."

You need mercy because of the sickness of soul.  When I visited one day, as he was dying, my beloved friend Benjamin Parsons, I said, "How are you today, Sir?" He said, "My head is resting very sweetly on three pillows—infinite power, infinite love, and infinite wisdom."

You need mercy because of your sinfulness against God.  Thomas Goodwin. "What saith David from the very bottom of his heart, in his sickness? Not, take away this death only. No; but David being sick, first comforts himself with this promise, The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness; and then adds, I said, Lord, be merciful unto me, and heal my soul; that is, destroy my lusts, which are the diseases of my soul, Lord; and heal my soul, and renew life and communion with thee, which is the health and strength of my soul. Do not take this sickness and death only away; but this sin away, that hath dishonoured thee, hath separated between me and thee: Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee."

3. Are you a gracious hearted person who considers your purpose?

Our Lord's quotes part of verse 9, with the significant omission of "in whom I trusted," John 13: 18 I do not speak of all of you. I know the ones I have chosen; but it is that the Scripture may be fulfilled, 'He who eats My bread has lifted up his heel against Me.'

He deeply felt the wicked conduct of his enemies (Psa 41:5-9).

(1) They desired his death. (2) They plot his ruin. He directs his heart to the great God (Psa 41:10-13).

(1) He prays.  (2) He confesses. (3) He worships.

David said to himself, "Oh, my son is treating me the way I treated God." David would not be able to forget those terrible failures that had come into his life, and he was suffering still under the hand of God because of them. Sin may be confessed, but after all, there are temporal consequences that follow. "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal 6:7), and when David committed that awful sin that made such a blot upon his record you remember how he gave judgment against himself. Nathan came and told that story about the ewe lamb. David loved sheep and more than once he had put his life in jeopardy to save a lamb, and so when Nathan told of this rich man who took the ewe lamb and killed it in order to make a dinner for his visitors, he was wrought up and said, "The man that hath done this thing…shall restore the lamb fourfold" (2Sa 12:5-6). And in this, David pronounced his own judgment. Nathan brought the word home to him and said, "Thou art the man." And David said, "I have sinned against the Lord." The Lord put away his sin, but there were temporal consequences still. David had said, "The man that hath done this thing…shall restore the lamb fourfold."

The little child that Bathsheba bore took sick, and David went in and threw himself down before God and pled with the Lord to save that little child's life. By-and-by he noticed his servants whispering together, and he asked, "Is the child dead?" They said, "Yes." David went out and washed himself, sat down, and took food. "Why," they said, "what a strange thing! When the child was living you fasted and would not eat, and now the child is dead and you anoint yourself and eat." David said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead…I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me" (2Sa 12:22-23). There was David's first lamb taken away.

Then you remember how Amnon committed the very same kind of sin that his father had committed. It is an awful thing, "Visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation" (Exo 20:5). The father goes into sin and the first thing you know the son goes into the same thing. And Absalom was so angry about the wrong wrought upon his sister that he slew Amnon. There was David's second lamb.

And then Absalom turned against his father, and this Psalm was written, perhaps, while David was fleeing from his presence. How David would have saved Absalom if he could. When Joab went out against Israel David said, "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, even with Absalom" (2Sa 18:5). But when Joab found him caught in the boughs of the tree, he drove three darts through his heart and David's third lamb had gone.

And now David is an old man, and Solomon has come to the throne, and it looks as though David is going to have to restore only threefold. But no, the last sorrow that he had was Adonijah, another son, who rebelled against Solomon and was put to death, and so David had restored fourfold. We need to realize that it is a serious thing to have to do with the living God. We get so careless about sin; we get so indifferent and imagine we can sin with impunity, but God's Book says, "Be sure your sin will find you out." David faces his sin and says, "I have sinned against Thee." He does not say, "Why do You call me to suffer like this?" No, he says, there is good reason for it for I have sinned. "If he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him" (Jam 5:15). Then David speaks of enemies, and here we may realize how he becomes a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and this name perish?" That is the way they spoke of the Lord Jesus. "And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity." Was that not like Judas coming to the Lord Jesus and saying, "Hail, Master," and kissing Him, pretending to be His friend? "His heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt." And then they are anxious to lay something on him. "An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more." In other words, now we have him where we want him. That is what they said when they crucified the Lord of glory but God raised Him from the dead.

And then in the ninth verse the reference is to Ahithophel the Gilonite, who had been David's friend. Do you know why he turned against him? Look up those names in the early chapters of Chronicles and you will make a remarkable discovery. Ahithophel was the grandfather of Bathsheba. That is why he turned against David. David had wronged his granddaughter, and he betrayed David. Jesus had not wronged anybody, but Judas turned against Him, and the Lord uses these words about Judas, "Yea, Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath lifted up his heel against Me." Do you get the meaning of that expression? You have read it often. If it were translated into modern English it would be, "Mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of My bread, hath kicked Me." You understand what it means to be disappointed in one you thought to be your friend, to have him turn against you and then kick you. If you have to suffer like that, go and talk it over with Jesus, for He has been through it all

John 13:15 For I have given you an example that you also should do just as I have done for you.  16 "I assure you: A slave is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.  17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.  18 I'm not speaking about all of you; I know those I have chosen. But the Scripture must be fulfilled: The one who eats My bread has raised his heel against Me."

The Lord endured this, because it had a purpose: the salvation of His people.

But look at Psalm 41:10 But You, Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up; then I will repay them.  11 By this I know that You delight in me: my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.  12 You supported me because of my integrity and set me in Your presence forever.

David endured this because of his purpose: That I may repay them. David was not as one of the common people, but a king appointed by God and invested with authority, and it is not from an impulse of the flesh, but in virtue of the nature of his office, that he is led to denounce against his enemies the punishment which they had merited. John Calvin.

You can endure this because God has a purpose in our betrayals. The times we are cast down by our enemies all are purposeful and lead us along in God's sovereign will. It is sort of like a statement the Lord made to a young man named Saul. Why do you kick against the goads?  Goads move us along in God's direction for our lives to better places.

The merciful can expect mercy because God is merciful.  "The feeblest saint shall win the day Though death and hell obstruct the way, "  The merciful can expect mercy because God keeps His promises.

The final verse is a fitting conclusion to this psalm, but it is also serves as a fitting conclusion to the first "book" (or major editorial division) of the Psalter. Similar statements appear at or near the end of each of the second, third, and fourth "books" of the Psalter.  Psa 72:18 Blessed be the LORD God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things. 19 And blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen. 20 The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.  Psa 89:52 Blessed be the LORD for evermore. Amen, and Amen.  Psa 106:48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the LORD.

Matthew Henry. Ver. 13. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. We are here taught, 1. To give glory to God, as the Lord God of Israel, a God in covenant with his people; that has done great and kind things for them, and has more and better in reserve. 2. To give him glory as an eternal God, that has both his being and his blessedness from everlasting and to everlasting. 3. To do this with great affection and fervour of spirit, intimated in a double seal set to it, Amen, and Amen. We say Amen to it, and let all others say Amen too.