In 1520 Martin Luther published a short treatise entitled The Freedom of a Christian. His purpose in this treatise was to explain and defend these two theses: “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” It sounds like a contradiction. But it is entirely biblical. Luther’s point is that a Christian is perfectly free in Christ. Joined to a Christ, a Christian possesses all the riches of Christ, and in him is free from bondage to sin, death, the devil, and the law. A Christian reigns with Christ and so is not a slave to anyone. And yet, just as Christ the Lord willingly made himself a servant, so is a Christian free in Christ to do the same, to live not for the good of himself, but in joyful service to his neighbor. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all, not because the law tells him to and threatens him with punishment if he doesn’t, but because the gospel has freed him to live in joyful, spontaneous service to others.
I believe that is the idea that lies behind Jesus’ fifth beatitude in Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” It is all too easy for us to misread the beatitudes as entrance requirements for the kingdom. Read in this way, we are inclined to view them as threats meant to stir up guilt in us over the fact that we have not been very poor in spirit, that we have not hungered and thirsted as much for righteousness as we should have, that we have not been as merciful as we could have been, etc. To read them in this way is to read as a slave. But the beatitudes are not guilt-inducing warnings. They are not “entrance requirements” for the kingdom. They are celebratory blessings upon those who already belong to the kingdom. They are words of comfort and praise for disciples of Jesus whom the world has marginalized. Jesus is not saying, “Go be merciful so that you can get into the kingdom.” He is saying, “You who show mercy to others do it because your heart has already been transformed by the mercy of God. And that means the greatest mercy is still yet to come. Blessed are you!” We should read the beatitudes, not as slaves to the law, but as free men in Christ, free from the law, and therefore free to love our neighbors.
I believe Psalm 41 moves in the same orbit as the beatitudes. In fact, where I normally try in a sermon to work up a summary statement that expresses in one sentence what my whole passage is about, for this passage I have decided that I cannot improve on Jesus’ own words. So here is a summary of the meaning of Psalm 41: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Those famous words of Jesus find in David’s experience and reflection an Old Testament exposition. So let us receive these words today as they were meant to be received: not as guilt-inducing threats that proceed from the law, but as celebratory blessings that flow from the gospel.
As we work through the text today, I want to show you how the various sections of this psalm form a chiasm, that is, a structure whereby the first and last sections parallel one another, and the sections in the middle parallel one another. In this case, we have an ABBA pattern of benediction, prayer, prayer, and then benediction. We will begin with the first section:
In some translations the word “blessed” is rendered “happy.” I don’t think that quite gets to the meaning. In modern English, happiness is a subjective state of mind, but to be blessed is an objective reality, for it is to be under the favor of God. When you see that word “blessed,” think “favored by God,” a reality that certainly does lead to happiness, but is not quite the same thing.
The book of Psalms is divided into five different books. Book I consists of the first 41 psalms, making this one the last in that book. It is interesting to note that the very first psalm in Book I begins with a benediction: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD; and on his law he meditates day and night.” Here the final psalm in Book I begins with a benediction: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!” There is only one other psalm in Book I that begins in a similar fashion, and that is Psalm 32: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.” We should think of these three blessings, not as blessings pronounced on three different kinds of people, but as different perspectives on the same person. The one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked is the one whose sins are forgiven, and he is the one who considers the poor. Taken together, these blessings, like the beatitudes of Matthew 5, give us a more holistic picture of the one who stands under God’s favor.
So from the perspective of this psalm, who is the one who is blessed by the Lord? It is the one who “considers the poor.” In David’s context, considering the poor often meant protecting them from exploitation, especially in the legal sphere, where the wealthy and powerful used their influence to bend the legal system in their favor. This is why the ideal king, according to Psalm 72:2, is one who judges the poor with justice, regarding them as fully human participants in society, worthy of the same protections as everyone else. Israelites were forbidden from charging interest to their poor Israelite neighbors; they were forbidden from keeping the cloak of a poor man as pledge overnight; and they were commanded not to reap to the extreme edges of their fields in order to allow the poor to come and glean, so that the poor were given the blessing of food but also the dignity of having to work for it themselves.
Note that it does not say, “One who gives handouts to the poor,” but “one who regards the poor.” It is often easy to give handouts as a way of soothing our consciences, without taking any real interest in another person’s life. But the Hebrew word translated “considers” communicates having a wise regard, one that takes a genuine interest in the well-being of the poor and takes wise action to help them. And I would contend that in our context, most of the time that means not giving a handout. Handouts often do more harm than good. It is much more costly, but also much more loving, to look for ways to get involved in someone’s life and walk alongside him or her. Of course, if we are going to approach it this way, we will find that it’s not terribly efficient. We won’t have the time, energy, or resources to invest in the lives of hundreds of people at a time. But I don’t see anywhere in Scripture where Jesus’ followers are known primarily for their efficiency. To “consider” the poor may not always be efficient, but it is merciful and loving, as we learn to live, not for ourselves, but for the good of others, especially those who have nothing to offer us in return.
What are the blessings that the one who considers the poor will receive? They are the blessings of deliverance, long life, and prosperity. In verse 1b we read of deliverance: “In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him.” In verse 2c we see a similar thought: “you do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” In verse 2 we see long life: “the LORD protects him and keeps him alive.” And in verse 2b we see prosperity: “he is called blessed in the land.” We have a total picture of well-being in these two verses. But when we come to verse 3, we see David move from the general to the particular as he applies this blessing to the specific trouble that he is currently facing, illness: “The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness you restore him to full health.” Like Psalm 38, this psalm was written when David was facing a serious illness, perhaps even on the same occasion as Psalm 38.
By pronouncing a blessing on the one who considers the poor, David reflects the theology of the Sinai Covenant, wherein blessing was promised for obedience and curse for disobedience. As it pertains to the poor, this idea comes to expression in Deuteronomy 24:19: “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.” The theological rationale behind this command to remember the poor was found in the Lord’s remembrance of Israel in her poverty, as Deuteronomy 24:22 reads, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this.” Each Israelite was to look to his poor, weak neighbor and see himself. He was to remember the mercy that he had received as a slave in Egypt and then mirror that mercy by demonstrating it for his neighbor. David himself says in the last verse of the psalm just before this one, “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me.”
As Christians, we have a similar responsibility. Just as we are commanded to forgive because we have been forgiven, so are we expected to show mercy to the needy because of the mercy shown to us in our time of need. As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:9: “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.” It is the gospel that motivates us to consider the poor, for in the gospel we hear the good news of the one who regarded us in our poverty.
What does this look like in your life? To have regard for the poor does not include only those who are materially poor. It would include anyone who is in a weaker position than you are in any sphere of life. It looks like a hundred different things that you are already doing. When you go out of your way to pick up an elderly church member, you are showing concern for one unable to drive himself or herself. When you give up your right to participate in some aspect of the church’s life in order to care for children, you are having regard for those who cannot care for themselves. When you volunteer to lead Bible studies at the Care Center; when you take an hour or two a week to meet with a fellow church member help him figure out how to live on a budget; when you willingly give your hard-earned money, money that represents a portion of your life expended to earn it, over to a ministry organization that can use it to bless people in ways that you could not—in all of these ways and more, you are showing wise regard for the poor and the weak. Blessed are you. May you abound more and more in it.
So having seen the opening benediction, we now come to the next section of the psalm:
As I have mentioned, David is sick. We know that because he begins and ends this section with a prayer for healing in verses 4 and 10. In verse 4, David writes, “As for me, I said, ‘O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!’” Here we see that David recognizes that he is not entitled to the Lord’s blessing. Though he may have shown regard for the poor, he recognizes that his actions do not earn the Lord’s mercy, for mercy, by definition, cannot be earned. That is why David prays, “Be gracious to me!” In fact, David even acknowledges here that he has sinned, seeing a connection between his sin and his current illness. David prays, not from a sense of entitlement, but from a profound sense of trust in the Lord’s grace and mercy.
Verses 5-9 are a lament, not over David’s illness per se, but over the effects of it. It had given his enemies the occasion to plot against him in an attempt to gain the upper hand. We know that David had enemies from the time he became king, as remaining members of the household of Saul continued to oppose him. Later in his reign, David was forced out of Jerusalem by the treasonous acts of his own son, Absalom, who gathered quite a force in opposition to his father. Whether it was either of these specific occasions, we do not know. But the description here certainly fits well with what we know of David’s experiences as king. The lament follows a progression from bad to worse in three steps. The first step is his enemy’s expressed desire for his death in verse 5: “My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die, and his name perish?’” His enemies want him dead and his name obliterated from the earth. The second step is the secret plots of his so-called friends in verses 6-8: “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.” Though these professed friends visit David and exchange pleasantries with him before his face, they secretly harbor ill-will against him, and the moment they are out of his presence, they speak openly of their desire for his death, and even (if you take the alternative translation of verse 7) plot his overthrow. They seize upon his weakness as an opportunity to get rid of him. But worst of all is the third step of the lament in verse 9: “Even my close friend [literally, “a man of my peace”] in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.” This verse raises the stakes from mere acquaintances who exchange pleasantries to a trust friend who ate at David’s table. Of all the turmoil David faces from his illness and his enemies, the betrayal of a close friend must have carried the greatest sting. It is quite possible that David referred to Ahithophel, one of his trusted counselors, who betrayed David and aligned himself with Absalom in 2 Samuel 15:12.
In John 13:18, Jesus says to his disciples, “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.’” He spoke these words in reference to Judas, one of the twelve, who had just shared the Passover meal with Jesus. The betrayal and sufferings of David are, therefore, one aspect of his role as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. David’s betrayal prophetically foreshadows that of Christ.
And so, having lamented his condition before the Lord, David prays again for healing, only this time he adds a new thought in verse 10: “But you, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them!” Is David reducing himself to a petty prayer for personal vengeance? No. There are at least two other ways to read this verse. On the one hand, we could say that David is simply praying to be healed, so that in the very act of being raised up from his sickbed, he might be vindicated and his enemies might be put to shame. On this reading, David does not intend to take personal vengeance, but he views his healing as the Lord’s way of paying back his enemies. That is certainly possible, but I lean toward the view that David does intend to act against his enemies once he is healed. Nevertheless, this is not petty personal vengeance, because David envisions himself acting in his capacity as king, an agent of God’s wrath against those who are guilty of treason. It is not personal vengeance that he seeks but public justice for the opposition of his enemies to the Lord’s anointed one.
Once David lifts his petition to the Lord, he offers another prayer in the next section:
David is confident that the Lord has heard his request, that he will heal him, and that he will vindicate him over his enemies. Verse 11 reads, “By this I know that you delight in me: my enemy will not shout in triumph over me.” In faith David looks to the time when, by the Lord’s mercy, he will rise from his sickbed and put to shame those who seek his demise.
Then he says in verse 12, “But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.” That phrase “because of my integrity” causes an apparent tension with verse 4. In verse 4, David has acknowledged his sin, but here he speaks of his integrity. How can these two things go together? We must acknowledge that, while all people are sinners, some sinners are people of integrity. Clearly, David is not claiming to be sinless in verse 12, but he is claiming that the direction of his heart is toward obedience. He may sin, but he also confesses sin and fights against it. He may be a sinner, but he is a repentant sinner, and therein lies all the difference.
David’s integrity most likely has reference to the fact that he has been a man who has regarded the poor, so the blessing of verses 1-3 applies to him. Does that mean that we can merit God’s mercy? Does Jesus mean in Matthew 5:7 that the merciful are blessed because they have earned God’s mercy by showing mercy to others? Of course not! Mercy, by definition, cannot be earned. The idea, rather, is this: mercy comes to us in stages. First, God takes the initiative by showing us mercy. The gospel is proclaimed to us, and upon our faith we are forgiven of our sins. Then, in response to the mercy shown to us, we show mercy to others. The fact that we show mercy to others then becomes public evidence that we have received mercy from God, and that we in turn stand to receive an even greater revelation of his mercy in the consummation of his kingdom. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. We do not, and we cannot, earn God’s mercy. We can only receive it from a posture of need.
When David says in verse 12 that God has “set” him in his presence forever, the word translated “set” is a Hebrew word that indicates “causing one to stand.” God has caused David to stand in his presence. What a contrast with the image of David on his bed of illness! The verb implies that David expects that he will be healed and raised up to stand again. But we who read with eyes enlightened by the New Testament, especially in view of David’s role as a type of Christ, can recognize here a subtle allusion to the fact that Christ was also raised up and caused to stand in God’s presence. Only Christ was not raised up from illness. He was raised up from death itself. Psalm 41 points us ultimately to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, when he was vindicated over the enemies who had plotted against him and condemned him to death. When Christ says that the merciful are blessed, what is the ultimate blessing they will receive? It is the blessing of resurrection with Christ and participation with him in triumph over all who oppose us in this present age.
There is just one more thing I want to note from verse 12. Did you notice the tense of the verbs? “But you have upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in your presence forever.” David writes as though his healing and vindication are already accomplished facts, even though his actual situation is one of illness and opposition from friends and foes alike. In other words, David holds on to the hope that he stands under God’s favor, even when his circumstances tell him otherwise.
A few weeks ago, when I preached on Psalm 102, I made the point that we cannot read God’s heart toward us from our circumstances. I want to reiterate that point today, but this time I want to stress that we who are believers in Christ cannot read God’s heart toward us from our circumstances, even when our circumstances are the result of our sin. David has already acknowledged his sin in verse 4, indicating his recognition that what he is suffering right now is, in some sense, his fault. But he does not allow that realization to turn his heart away from God. He cries out to the Lord in lament, and he expresses confident hope that the Lord will answer. So confident is he that he prays as though the Lord has already answered! He prays in line with the words of the personified Jerusalem in Micah 7:8-9: “Rejoice not over me, O my enemy; when I fall, I shall rise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD because I have sinned against him, until he pleads my cause and executes judgment for me.” The same God who destroyed Jerusalem for her sins is the God who will plead the cause of Jerusalem. The God who judges in wrath is also the one who justifies the ungodly. The God who kills us with the law is also the same God who raises us to life again with the gospel.
And so we come to the final section of the psalm:
The verse reads, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen.” This verse concludes, not only Psalm 41, but also Book I of the Psalter. And just as both Book I and Psalm 41 begin with a benediction, so now do both Book I and Psalm 41 end with a benediction.
But the opening benediction focused on man: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor.” This benediction focuses on God: “Blessed be the Lord.” Because the word “blessed” indicates approval, it can be applied to both man and to God, though in different ways. When applied to man, it indicates divine approval through the condescension of God’s grace. When applied to God, it indicates man’s approval, and so it becomes synonymous with praise.
And so, looking back, not just over Psalm 41, but over all 41 psalms that have preceded, this benediction ends appropriately by giving glory to God. It is not ultimately our mercy toward others that takes center stage, but God’s mercy toward us. And so may God’s mercy take center stage in our lives, in our church, and in our worship. May it take center stage for us now as we come to this table to receive, once again, the body and blood of the Lord.
There is a wrong way to respond to this message today. It would be to say, “Well, if the merciful shall receive mercy, I need to go out and start showing mercy so that I can receive it.” That would be to read the benediction of Psalm 41 (and that of Jesus in Matthew 5:7) as a guilt-inducing entrance requirement. It would turn a benediction into a law and miss the whole point of it.
The right way to respond is to receive the Lord’s mercy now. It is right here for you in the gospel. Receive it, and then in your joy you will go from here and show mercy to others. If you have never confessed faith in Christ, receive his mercy now by believing that he died in your place, bearing the wrath of God for your sins, that he was raised on the third day, and that by trusting in him you receive the forgiveness of sins. And then come and be baptized as a public declaration of your faith in him, showing the world that you have died with him, and that you one day will be raised with him in triumph over his enemies.
If you are not a believer, or if you do believe but are not under the authority and oversight of a local church where the true gospel is proclaimed, we ask you to abstain. It is not because we do not like you. It is because we love you, and we want you to avoid eating and drinking condemnation on yourself. You cannot eat and drink this meal properly if you do not believe the gospel, and you cannot eat and drink it properly if you are not walking in fellowship with a local church as a member in good standing. So please abstain today, and take whatever step of obedience you need to take first. We look forward to welcoming you to the table when you have done so.
If you are a believer in good standing with a church, we invite you to come. Come and receive the mercy of the Lord as you direct your hearts once again to the gospel. The Lord has set this table for you, so come, you who are blessed of the Lord.