How blessed is he who considers the helpless

Psalm 41 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

How blessed is he who considers the helpless;
The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.
² The Lord will protect him and keep him alive,
And he shall be called blessed upon the earth;
And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.
³ The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed;
In his illness, You restore him to health.

⁴ As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me;
Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”
⁵ My enemies speak evil against me,
“When will he die, and his name perish?”
⁶ And when he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood;
His heart gathers wickedness to itself;
When he goes outside, he tells it.
⁷ All who hate me whisper together against me;
Against me they devise my hurt, saying,
⁸ “A wicked thing is poured out upon him,
That when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”
⁹ Even my close friend in whom I trusted,
Who ate my bread,
Has lifted up 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 are pleased with me,
Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.
¹² As for me, You uphold me in my integrity,
And You set me in Your presence forever.

¹³ Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
From everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.

The psalmist says:  How blessed is he who considers the helpless;
The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.  The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.  The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.  As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.”   Our nation is on a sickbed. We are on the verge of being given over to our enemies. Like the psalmist we need restoration. We need healing for the soul of our nation and it begins with the recognition of the truth that we have sinned against God. In Psalm 51:1-4 the psalmist says:  Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.  Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.  For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me.  Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.  All sin is against God. It is doing what is evil in His sight. Our society and culture; we as individuals are not who decides what sin is. In Isaiah 5:20 God says:  Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!  Look again at what the psalmist, the one who God said was a man after His heart says about being blessed by God. How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The Lord will deliver him in a day of trouble.  The Lord will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies.   One of the greatest sins against God which has infected the soul of our nation is that we have not considered the most helpless. We have not considered the lives of millions of helpless unborn babies. In Psalm 139:13 it says:  You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.   In Jeremiah 1:5 God says:  "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you.”   Yet, we as a nation have not considered those whom God formed. We acknowledge and even sell for profit the delicate inward parts, but we don’t consider their lives.  “O Lord, be gracious to us; Heal our soul, for we have sinned against You.” 

The psalmist says:  Even my close friend in whom I trusted, Who ate my bread, Has lifted up his heel against me.   Even in much of the church, those who say they are friends of God; even those who eat the bread of Christ, have tolerated and embraced this sin against God. Even those who say they don’t, have participated in this sin if only by the politicians they support and vote for to make our laws; the very laws that call evil good and good evil; the very laws that substitute darkness for light and light for darkness. Those who vote to elect politicians who are against God, are complicit in the sin of our nation. They call it choice, but they choose death rather than life. They call it freedom, but they choose lawlessness disorder over law and order. We cannot as a nation, or as individuals continue to sin against God and expect anything but woe. Our sin is ever before us.  Against God, only, we have sinned And done what is evil in His sight, So that He is justified when He speaks And blameless when He judges. 

But You, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up, That I may repay them.  By this I know that You are pleased with me, Because my enemy does not shout in triumph over me.  As for me, You uphold me in my integrity, And You set me in Your presence forever.  Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, From everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.