Desperate for Mercy (Psalm 41)

Read Psalm 41:

A Psalm of David.

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.

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.

To the choirmaster.

Understand Psalm 41:

In a fallen world, mercy is hard to find and often harder to request. Yet the Psalms give us words to use in times of desperation. They teach us how to rightly express our sorrows and to fall upon God’s grace. Thus, in the Psalms we find ourselves and in the Psalms we also find our God.

The psalter consists of 150 separate psalms, but is divided into five smaller books. Book I began with a two-part introduction: “Blessed is the man who walks [with God]. . . . Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (1:1a; 2:12b). And it now concludes with Psalm 41, “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”[1] The Psalms showed God’s people how to receive his manifold blessings and the first to receive such blessings would be the king himself. For each of the psalms in Book I appear to have been written by David, God’s blessed son.[2]

As we have learned, however, there would come a greater Son of David—a messianic King who would make these blessings available for all his people. Psalm 1 pointed to that Greater Son—the only blessed man to ever live a perfect life. He bore much fruit because of roots sunk deep into the water of God’s Word. Psalm 2 proclaimed the Lord’s Anointed who would be hated by this world and plotted against in death. Even still, he would conquer all his enemies, demanding their allegiance: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (2:12). Thus, Psalm 41 now confidently affirms that the “Psalm 2 enemies” of the “Psalm 1 blessed man” will never prevail.

The Psalms repeatedly show us the depth of our human affections, but teach us to submit those affections before the Lord—to bare our hearts before him as he leads us into praise. They must not be simply read as dry theological truths or esoteric Hebrew poetry. Rather, they are filled with joy and passion as they express our fullest desires. In Psalm 41, then, we listen to four cries of the believer’s heart which will lead us back to God.

A.    Bless the Benevolent (vv. 1–3)

The believer’s first heart cry is for God to bless the benevolent. Psalm 41 begins with a benediction: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!” (v. 1a). The poor are those who experience great need—who are weak and helpless.[3] Naturally, this includes people without money or clothes or shelter for their heads. In today’s society, we might picture the homeless or the hungry. Yet poverty primarily involves a lack of relationship for the greatest poverty in this world is to be lonely or abandoned. Our greatest need is relational connection to Jesus and to his church.

“To consider the poor” means to care for them in a skillful way—not just with warm feelings, but also with godly wisdom.[4] As Christians, we might leverage our skills, resources, or influence to compassionately care for the poor and needy. Good intentions, however, are not enough because sometimes helping hurts. According to this psalm, God only blesses those who wisely bless the poor: “In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him; 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. The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health” (vv. 1b–3).[5] The Lord is merciful to those who show mercy (Matt 5:7) and rewards those who are wise toward the poor. He compassionately cares for his own faithful servants as David knows by experience. His present sickness made him unclean or unfit for contact with people, but no sin, sickness, disease, or even death could separate him from the gracious love of God. In fact, “to restore” depicts the changing of one’s bedsheets or turning over a soiled mattress so that a sick person can rest on a clean bed.

David’s confident faith came from Yahweh’s promise in the covenant: “And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth” (2 Sam 7:9). God had promised eternal blessings for David and his descendants through the coming messianic king (vv. 12–13).

In like manner, the believer’s confidence declares God’s new covenant promises in Romans 8: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (vv. 38–39). We can claim such promises because David’s psalms were later sung by a benevolent King who cared for the poor in spirit. Jesus would be that blessed man who comforted the hurting in their sorrows and who pardoned sinners as they repented of their sin. To paraphrase Romans 5, “For while we were still [poor and helpless, with wise timing and great humility,] Christ died for the ungodly. . . . But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (5:6, 8). In mercy, Christ made himself poor so that we might gain the riches of heaven: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). He suffered for the helpless so that we might receive his Father’s mercy. Thus, we emulate the Son of God as we demonstrate mercy toward others. We follow the example of our Savior as we wisely care for the poor, the weak, and undeserving. Our God is merciful to those who show mercy. He will surely bless the benevolent.

B.    Heal the Humble (vv. 4–9)

The second cry of the believer’s heart is for the Lord to heal the humble: “As for me, I said, ‘O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!’” (Ps 41:4). In this way, David relates his sickness to his sin against the Lord (see 38:4–5, 18; 41:4). He beseeches the Lord to graciously heal him both physically and spiritually. He then humbles himself by confessing his sin. David will repeat this plea in verse 10 as well, “But you, O LORD, be gracious to me.”

When we really mess up, our God is often the only one to show us grace. As David laments, “My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die, and his name perish?’ And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. They say, ‘A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies’” (vv. 5–8). David’s enemies, and even some advisors, circle his bed like vultures, outwardly saying nice things, “We’ll pray for you. We hope you get better. We’re so sorry for your pain.” Yet in the waiting room, they whisper about his death: “Oh, doesn’t he look awful. I’m sure the old geezer won’t make it through the night. I do wonder, though, if he left me any money.” David’s enemies covet his throne and hope his kingdom will fall into ruin. They desire his name to perish and slander him without mercy, even while outwardly they have urged him to recover.

Most damaging of all, David’s heart is broken by betrayal: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me” (v. 9; e.g., 2 Sam 16:15–17:23). “To lift the heel” was an act of aggression as when victorious kings placed their heel on the necks of those they conquered in battle. David feels humiliated, yet he knows his God will heal the humble.

Believers today know another King who was betrayed—a sinless King who did not deserve the slander slung against him. Our Lord Jesus quoted from Psalm 41 as he explained to his disciples in the upper room, “I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me’” (John 13:18). Jesus had meditated on David’s psalm, for he knew the pain of intimate betrayal. Judas was his beloved friend and, for three years, Jesus had discipled him. That night, he even washed the feet of Judas and shared with him unleavened bread. And breaking it, he said to his disciples, “This is my body, which is given for you” (Luke 22:19). Jesus then dipped the bread into the sop—a kind of sauce for the Passover lamb and handed the morsel to Judas who sat beside him in a place of honor (John 13:26). Judas was a hypocrite just pretending to be a friend, uttering empty words, and ushering our Savior to his death for a mere thirty pieces of silver. Yet in humility, Jesus still served him and loved him to the end. Then, “after receiving the morsel of bread, [Judas] immediately went out. And it was night” (John 13:30).

Most remarkably, Jesus chose to suffer this betrayal. He did not need to be falsely accused and slandered by his own people. He didn’t even need to come as a man upon this earth. Yet he humbly chose this path—to save us by his gracious mercy. So, if we’ve ever been betrayed by friends, Jesus knows our sorrow. He intimately knows our pain, but also his Father’s redemptive plan. For once the betrayer left him, Jesus then declared, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him” (v. 31). Our God marvelously works through sorrow and accomplishes his plan even through our pain. He compassionately cares for us who are poor in spirit, for in Christ Jesus he has made us rich (Eph 1:3). Blessed be the God who will surely heal the humble.

C.     Raise Up the Righteous (vv. 10–12)

The third cry of the believer’s heart is for the Lord to raise up the righteous. Verse 10 repeats David’s desperate plea for grace and mercy: “But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!” At first, this sounds vindictive: “God give me strength to take revenge!” It doesn’t quite have the ring of Christ-like forgiveness. Yet David prays not only as God’s child, but also as the covenant king. He prays for justice to be restored for the kingdom’s sake and for Yahweh to give his verdict as the ultimate Judge (1 Sam 25:33; 2 Sam 3:39). David prays for wrongs to be righted—for eternal shalom—for peace, even if that requires God to silence his enemies.[6]

He then proclaims his confident standing in the Lord: “By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me. But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever” (Psalm 41:11–12). David, here, does not claim to be absolutely blameless, for he has already acknowledged his sin (v. 4). Rather, he declares his integrity of purpose and commitment to the Lord. He’s not a hypocrite like those who have betrayed him, but trusts that the Lord will raise him up because of his integrity.

We too receive great confidence when we confess our sins. Shame and guilt may persuade us to hide from God. But when we enjoy a right relationship with our heavenly Father, we can go to him for anything: “Lord, I desire to do your will and seek to live a righteous life. Consider the integrity of my actions and my words.” In Christ, our sins are fully forgiven. In Christ, we are declared righteous and are made more like him every day. In Christ, we rest our living hope in his resurrection from the dead. Therefore, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again” (1 Pet 1:3). He will raise up the righteous just as surely as he raised up Jesus from the dead.

D.    Delight in Doxology (v. 13)

Book I concludes with an explosion of praise: “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen” (Ps 41:13). The Hebrew title for the entire psalter is Tehillim, which means, “Praises,” for each of the five books of the psalms will end in praise to God (Pss 72:18, 19; 89:52; 106:48; 144:1; 150:6). Doxology delights in God for the goodness we have received.

Such whole-hearted worship fell from the lips of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, as he quoted Psalm 41:13 to celebrate the fulfillment of God’s promises to David: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant” (Luke 1:68–72). Through Zechariah’s son, John the Baptist, came the message of hope, redemption, deliverance from enemies, and forgiveness of sins. Through God’s fulfillment of his holy covenant came gracious mercy, healing for the nations, and eternal delight in the praise of our King.

So, with Zechariah, we praise the Lord. And with John, we also point the way to Jesus. As we worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, the focus must never be on us. Doxology delights our hearts in the God who deserves all praise: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Ps 115:1). He alone is “from everlasting to everlasting,” the ultimate promise-keeper, Yahweh of the covenant. Therefore, we bless our God and worship him as we gather with his people.

Apply Psalm 41:

1. In what situations might helping the poor actually hurt them? Decide on specific ways that you and your church can minister both wisely and compassionately to those in need.
2. Read the account of Judas’ betrayal (John 13) and relate it back to David’s context in Psalm 41. Was Jesus wounded even though he already knew what was in Judas’ heart?
3. Read Zechariah’s Spirit-filled prophecy in Luke 1:67–79. Describe the many different ways he delights in the Lord God of Israel. How would Zechariah’s son, John, carry on this proclamation of God’s covenant promises?
4. Take time this week to review the major themes in Psalm 41.
   • The Lord shows mercy to the merciful (vv. 1–3).
   • He heals you from sin and all its consequences (vv. 4–9).
   • He raises you up as surely as he resurrected Christ (vv. 10–12).
   • Therefore, delight in the worship of your God (v. 13).

Counsel Psalm 41:

Our counselees are crying out to the Lord for many reasons: mercy for the poor or for themselves, freedom from sin and all its consequences, peace for the righteous or justice for the wicked, a desire for God to receive all praise. We can direct their hearts to cry out in godly ways using the language of Psalm 41.

Projects for Growth (Psalm 41)

1. How does our Savior’s mercy toward you impact the way you care for others (Rom 5:6, 8)? How did Jesus become poor for us (2 Cor 8:9; Phil 2:3–8)?
2. Have you been wounded by conflict, betrayal, or sin? Ask God for healing as you confess any ways you have wronged others as well.
3. When others wrong you, do you pray to God for justice? What would earthly justice look like in your situation? Eternal justice?
4. Read John 13 and consider how Jesus loved Judas as a close friend. What does Judas’ betrayal of Jesus teach you about your own broken relationships? How is Jesus the only one who can heal your emotional wounds?
5. How is Psalm 41:13 a fitting end to both the Psalm and also Book I of the psalter? How is it a fitting prayer for your life today?
6. Pray Psalm 41:
   • Lord, help me to wisely care for the poor (v. 1).
   • Protect me from difficult people and situations (vv. 2–3, 5–11).
   • Forgive my sin, Father, and be gracious to me (vv. 4, 10).
   • Establish me in your holy presence forever and ever (v. 12).
   • Blessed be your glorious name for all eternity (v. 13).

[1] This inclusio of the “blessed one” places bookends around Book I (see also 32:1, 2; 33:12; 34:8; 40:4). The same verb, “blessed be,” is often found at the seams between each book in the psalter (see 72:17–19; 89:15, 52; 106:3, 48).

[2] “A Psalm of David. This title has frequently occurred before, and serves to remind us of the value of the Psalm, seeing that it was committed to no mean songster; and also to inform us as to the author who has made his own experience the basis of a prophetic song, in which a far greater than David is set forth. How wide a range of experience David had! What power it gave him to edify future ages! And how full a type of our Lord did he become! What was bitterness to him has proved to be a fountain of unfailing sweetness to many generations of the faithful” (Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David [Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, n.d.], 1:255).

[3] Here, we observe the connection with Psalm 40, in which the psalmist declared himself “poor and needy” (40:17). Psalm 41 picks up the theme with a call to help the poor (41:1).

[4] Maskil is the same word used in Psalm 2:10 calling kings to be “wise” (see 14:2; 32:1, 8; 36:3; 41:1; 1 Chr 22:12). According to Spurgeon, who did much to help the poor in London, “They do not toss them a penny and go on their way, but inquire into their sorrows, sift out their causes, study the best ways for their relief, and practically come to their rescue; such as these have the mark of divine favor plainly upon them, and are as surely the sheep of the Lord’s pasture as if they wore a brand upon their foreheads” (Spurgeon, Treasury of David, 1:255).

[5] Giving to the poor who cannot reward you is like giving to the Lord himself (see Prov 19:17; Matt 25:34–36). So, God blesses those who care for the poor.

[6] The verb, “to repay” (shalem) is derived from the word for “peace” (shalom).