Title: Blessed is He that consider The Poor
Scripture Reading: Psalms 41:1-6
Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.
2 The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
3 The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
4 I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
5 Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish?
6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.
Three words that are mentioned in the first verse of Psalms 41.
A. Blessed
Psalms 41 opens with ‘blessed’ and closes with ‘blessed.’
The word blessed means ‘happy.’
The Amplified bible says, ‘Blessed [by God’s grace and compassion].’
B. Consider
To ‘consider’ is to ‘tenderly regard’. There is considerate sympathy as far as you can to assist the poor and afflicted. To sum it up, it would mean ‘he who takes a kindly, continuous, intelligent interest in, and who cherishes a tender sympathy for them that are poor’ would be blessed.
C. Poor
In the Amplified Version, the word ‘poor’ is replaced by the word ‘helpless.’ The idea behind the word here, translated, poor, of course, include economic poverty, but it is broader. It has the idea of weak or helpless. But then those in economic poverty are often the weak and helpless.
Psalms 41:1 utters a divine promise of double blessings that awaits those who consider the poor. They will have blessings of heaven above, and a blessing of the deep that lieth under (it literally means blessings on earth). The ERV version translates it as ‘those who help the poor succeed will get many blessings.’
- The Identification of the Poor
The type of persons described by this term (Job described himself in these terms. David too identifies himself in these terms)
A. Widow
B. Orphan
C. Alien
D. Blind/Lame
E. Socially powerless (landless)
F. Bereft of worldly provisions (no necessary things for life – food, shelter, work, etc.)
James 1;27 says, ‘Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
“Pure” religion is defined as caring for those who are in need, and avoiding the sins of the world. When the New Testament speaks of “the world,” it usually means the “world system.”
- The reasons of the blessing
Firstly, you have considerate sympathy. You demonstrate helpful compassion for the needy, weak, or suffering. You will be blessed because it is a feature of likeness to God.
The two main forms of human suffering are specially set before us in these words – poverty and sickness.
Secondly there is justice as well as mercy in this claim, enforced not only by Christ’s example, but by His Law.
Thirdly you are doing something that really matters to God.
Jesus said, ‘When you have a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed.’
Deuteronomy 15:4 says, ‘There should be no poor among you.’
Deuteronomy 15:11 says, ‘There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be open handed toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land.’
Helping the poor is not an option but a command.
Fourthly It is in reality helping their God.
- The Nature of this blessing
The nature of the blessing here is pronounced here in Psalms 41.
- One of the greatest of all blessings is to be like God. Matthew 5:45 says, ‘That ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’
- It is blessed by God’s almoner. You function and act as the distributor of alms on behalf of God.
- The sweetest happiness is to make others happy. Try it.
- The tangible blessing
You will notice all the imperfect verbs, that are used in this Psalms. It denotes ongoing actions by God throughout life. That means that if you consider the poor, God will continue to bless you and bless you and bless you until you are at your death bed and in the world to come, it will continue.
God says that for this person, He will keep him alive.
God will deliver him in time of trouble.
John 16:33 says, ‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’
God will preserve him and keep him alive. A bible commentator on ‘keep him alive’ says, ‘continuance in life is always regarded as a blessing in the Old Testament.
You will be blessed upon earth. The word ‘earth’ is ‘land’. The word ‘land’ can mean
- Field
- District
- Country
- Area
- World
You will not be delivered unto the will of your enemies.
God will strengthen you in the bed of languishing.
YHWH will be merciful to him.
