Psalm 41 Struck Down But Not Destroyed

Daily Bible Study for Wednesday August 24, 2016

By: Hanny Lynn Stearns

Fish N Loaves Ministries, Inc.

“Multiplying God’s Word Around The Globe”

Chapter Reading for Today: Please read in your Bible before proceeding. Note that most translations are considered paraphrases. The Young’s Literal Translation provides a more accurate translation since he is the one who authored a concordance. Others are helpful for seeing a different perspective, but we cannot always depend on their wording. I hope this is helpful to you. If you are studying in another version, that is fine. I am studying from the KJV, but for the purpose of this study, I will keep it with the New King James Version.

One final note: I will put the scripture in italics to differentiate from my own writing. I am adding red to the letters when it is Jesus talking – just like the Bible. Thank you.

Bible Gateway Verse of the Day

Psalm 116:1-2

I love the Lord, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

Psalm 100:4

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,

and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

Song: I Will Bless The Lord    By: Eddie James

Psalm 41

Knocked Down But Not Destroyed

Talk about kicking a man when he is down! Can anyone relate here? I know I can. The Psalms are filled with prayers. It doesn’t matter what the situation is we are facing, or why we are facing it. If we know our God, we can know that we have hope. All we have to do is ask and He will be there. Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father;

Thank You for Your faithfulness to the sons of men. Lord, no matter what mess we seem to get ourselves into, You are so merciful when we call on You for help. Father, I ask You to speak to us today. Show us what we can learn. Use me as Your chosen vessel to speak Your word with all boldness as I ought. Cause this message to reach Your children all over the known world. Make it go out unhindered and unchecked by any outside force or my flesh. Show us the true meaning of trusting in You at all times, no matter what we face. Father, we give You thanks for always watching over Your word to perform it in our lives when we place our trust in You. We will make it our purpose and aim to be doers of Your word and not forgetful hearers. Thank You in advance for what You are bringing to us. Thank You for changing us and helping us to be more like Jesus every day. We give You all the praise, honor and glory in Jesus precious and mighty name! Amen.

While reading this through a couple of times, I saw a few things that seemed to jump off the page. One thing I saw was that David knew that God blesses those who help the poor. Obviously he had done plenty of that. As we have looked at his life in the scriptures, we have seen his kindness to people in need. David was a compassionate man. He deeply cared for those who were poor. Praise God. One couldn’t be considered a man after God’s own heart if they did not care deeply for the poor and needy. David began to list the blessings that he knew were available to people like this. He knew the Lord would do the following for such a man:

1.    The Lord will deliver them in times of trouble

2.    The Lord will preserve them and keep them alive

3.    The Lord will not deliver them to the enemy

4.    The Lord will strengthen them in sickness

Before we even get to David’s personal situation as documented in this Psalm, we see how God sets the stage for the people of God who show compassion to the poor. These are rock solid promises that a person can stand on. David knew he was in trouble, once again, and would need to rely on the promises of God. How about you? Do you rely on His promises when you are in trouble? Do the promises of God set the stage for how you can approach Him in faith based on who you are in Him and what He has promised He will do for you as His child?

When we go to the Lord, regardless of what the situation is that we are facing, we need to be firm on who He is, what He can do, what He has promised He would do, and finally, who we are in Him as His children. This was how David began his approach in today’s Psalm. It was given to us as a wonderful example of how we also can approach the Lord based on these factors – hallelujah! If we really do know the Lord, then we know before we go to Him that we can go to Him. We have looked at 40 Psalms prior to today, and in every one of them we see the Psalmist recognizing the Lord for who He is. We see him calling on the Lord in faith that He will help – even if the writer of these verses has sinned.

Do you know the Lord this way? If not, there is no time like the present to immerse yourself in His presence and in His word so you can come to know and understand beyond any doubt whatsoever that God is real, He is faithful, He is able to help you and He will not ever let you down when you place your trust in Him. If some of what is said in these studies in the Psalms seems repetitious to you, bear with it. We humans can often be slow to hear. That’s why hearing it again and again can be so helpful. When we see repetition in the Bible, it is the same thing. God’s hope is that we will get it. Smile!

Even when I have blown it and sinned, I have come to know that I can go to God and confess and come clean in a “New York Minute.” In other words, real quick. I do not have to delay. I know He will forgive me and restore to me the joy of my salvation. When we lose our joy – there is a problem. When there is no song in our heart, we need to find out why and the quicker the better. I have used that as a measuring line. I always have a song in my heart from Holy Spirit – night and day. When the music stops, it means that I have broken fellowship with the Lord and I need to find out why. I cannot stand that feeling and I have to get back to that secret place in the shelter of the Most High immediately.

In the next several verses of this Psalm, verses 4-10, David was praying to the Lord. He was laying out the situation before the Lord. How many know and understand that even though the Lord already knows everything about us and what we are dealing with, there are spiritual laws that we need to abide by in order to get things done. God requires us to ask. He said we do not have because we have not asked. Today He reminded me of the time I was going through that terrible crisis. I was sinning and living like the devil, even though I was a born again Christian. My sin had brought physical sickness and I was suffering quite intensely. He reminded me today that He took no pleasure whatsoever in seeing me suffer like that. It breaks His heart. It is not His will. But why didn’t He just swoop down and make it all better and the problems just disappear?

Because I had not asked Him for help. He will not cross the boundary lines that are set in place. We have a free will. If we choose to sin, or do life our way rather than God’s, we are free to do it. The Lord has to stand back and watch us suffer – the last thing He wants for any of us. Disobedience and sin brings sickness and suffering. The Lord despises it, but we render Him helpless to get the problems solved when we do not repent and turn to Him for the solutions and help.

Today we see David asking God for mercy – he was asking the Lord not to punish him by giving him what his sin deserved. He needed help and he needed healing in his soul. Remember that the soul is the part of us (Spirit, soul, body) where our mind, will and emotions exist. He needed healing in his soul. He was asking the Lord to do that for him. Why? Because he knew he could. By the time we are finished reading this lesson together, my heart’s desire is that everyone who reads this will have the same assurance of faith in the Lord’s ability to help. We must ask Him…

James 4:2

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.

If I were stranded on the side of the road with an empty tank of gas, and someone stopped to see what I needed, I would be a complete fool not to ask for help with gas to be able to reach my destination. The same rule applies with asking God. There are times, of course, that He helps us in our ignorance. But we need to be growing up in our understanding of the spiritual principals in all areas of life so we can excel and prosper and be an asset to the Lord for His kingdom work.

Ok - so David asked for mercy and then he asked for forgiveness. In order to get anything done with the Lord, he had to start there. We all need to start there. We need to approach Him with a humble heart and be willing to admit we were wrong, be willing to ask for His forgiveness and then be willing to ask for His help to straighten things out. As we mature in Him we will begin to wise up and start to pray for wisdom and protection, guidance and protection in situations we are going into before we sin and mess things up. That way we can handle life’s circumstances successfully, with God’s help and come out on the other side unscathed. Glory to God!

David was obviously struggling with a serious illness. He had people coming around to see him – maybe to mock at him. His acquaintances and even those who were close to him came to gawk at him and then turn around, walk away and go say unkind things about him and predict his death behind his back. Maybe some of you can relate to this. I know I can. When I was at my worst, in my soul and in my body (due to sin in my life) the people around me said unimaginable things about me behind my back. I would hear of some of the things that people were saying about me and it was deeply painful. I imagine it to be a pain far greater than the physical discomfort of the sickness itself.

When I was going through my crisis many did not think I was going to come out alive. (Neither did I!) They acted as though I were a lost cause. Even my own children gave up hope in me. None came to just be there for me and walk with me through it to the other side. They all turned their backs. From those who were closest to me to the many acquaintances and work friends I had, no one was there for me. But God was. He was watching and He was waiting.

He waited for quite some time for me to come to the end of trying to handle things on my own and ask Him for help. After all the bad stuff I did and the way I had turned my back on Him and gone back into the ways of the world, He had tremendous mercy on me the minute I asked for it! He is so worthy of all my praise! Let’s look at a woman in the Bible who fits well with this illustration today. She is known as the woman with the issue of blood…

Mark 5:25-34

²⁵ Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, ²⁶ and had suffered many things from many physicians. She had spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment. ²⁸ For she said, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.”

²⁹ Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. ³⁰ And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

³¹ But His disciples said to Him, “You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’”

³² And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. ³³ But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.”

The Bible does not indicate if this woman had sinned or not. The focus in this scene was the fact that she had done everything she could in her own effort to try to solve her problem. She spent every penny she had on Doctors who could do nothing for her. That sounds a lot like me. No matter who I went to they couldn’t help me. When we keep trying to solve the matter ourselves, we render the Lord helpless to come to our aid. But this woman, finally exhausted from all her effort and completely out of options went to Jesus. She had faith that if she could just touch Him, she would be healed. She finally placed her faith in the One who really could make her well. And her faith paid off. Jesus commended her faith and because she had that faith, she was made well.

It was the same for me. I didn’t even know how sick I was in my soul. Nor did I understand the magnitude of all my sins before the Lord. But once I decided to turn to Him and seek Him, ask for mercy and forgiveness, He was right there to bring me the help only He could offer. Praise His name forever! Maybe you know something about this too. Maybe you have messed up and turned away from the Lord and don’t how to find your way back. Maybe you have exhausted every resource you have trying to figure your way out of a mess you are in. Perhaps, like the woman in the Bible you have used up every resource to try to get healed. 

But friend, that’s behind you. Right now you can go to Him, in the mighty name of His Son Jesus Christ, and You can ask Him to have mercy on you too! You can confess your sin (remember that He already knows everything you have ever done) and you can ask Him to forgive you. When you do that with a sincere heart, He will forgive you just that fast. Then you will be healed. Jesus is not only our Savior – He is our Healer. But we must have faith in Him. Without faith we cannot please Him and things will not happen without it. Faith is key!

Let me reiterate an example of sickness due to sin in my own life and how fast the Lord restored me. The last time I went off the “wagon” so to speak and ate a bunch of food I shouldn’t have (for me it was sin because it was against what God had told me to do) I became sick. The spirit of infirmity, (weakness) had returned because I had opened a door to the enemy by sinning. My body was attacked and I knew I needed to repent and confess my sin. I had to ask the Lord to forgive me and He did. And do you know what happened right after that? The spirit of infirmity was gone! Just that fast. It left me. The pain and overall bad feeling I had just vanished! Praise God!

David asked the Lord for mercy and to raise him up off the bed of sickness. He also said in verse 10, “that I may requite them.” To requite means to repay. But by now we all know David well enough to know that he would not repay them with evil. That was never David’s intention. He proved that when he had a chance to take king Saul “out” yet chose to honor him instead. That’s the way we need to repay our enemies. We leave any and all vengeance to the Lord and just do what Jesus said where our enemies are concerned…

Matthew 5:43-48

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?⁴⁷ And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? ⁴⁸ Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

In verses 11-12, we see David’s assurance that God is for him and favors him. When the Lord is our God, we have favor from Him. And when we have the favor of God on us saints, we truly are blessed! Look at this…

Proverbs 12:2

A good man obtains favor from the Lord, but a man of wicked intentions He will condemn.

There is so much in the Bible about how the godly man (and woman) have favor from the Lord when they walk with Him – hallelujah! The enemy does not get the victory over one who has favor in the sight of the Lord…

Psalm 5:12

For You, O Lord, will bless the righteous; with favor You will surround him as with a shield.

There is so much blessing and protection for those of us who choose to walk uprightly with the Lord. If I had gone on trying to do things my own way, I could have really been destroyed. I am so grateful for the favor of the Lord on me. How about you? David knew that the Lord would maintain his integrity. Just because he had sinned does not mean that he was lost forever and there was no hope. Until people reach the place of maturity and stop sinning (and we all can – Jesus said so Himself!) God has mercy on us as long as we go to Him for forgiveness. He will maintain our righteous cause. I have seen Him do this in my own life and as a result I have faith and confidence that He will do this for me going forward. Do you know this for yourself? Is this a reality to you?

We can read these things until we fall asleep, but if it isn’t real to us, then it becomes meaningless. We must apply the word of God to our own lives and our own circumstances. Every day He is looking to communicate things with His beloved children. The problem is, many do not want listen or receive what He has, whether correction, training or instruction. And He always has something. But we have to ask. We have to seek, and we have to knock…

Matthew 7:7-11

⁷ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

David was very confident that he would be in the presence of the Lord forever. Isn’t that where we all want to be saints? There is no place that can compare. There is no help that can do the job like our God can. There is no healing like His, no love like His, no mercy like His. David may have been knocked down for a moment but he was not destroyed! Praise the Lord forever!  Finally, David ended this piece with blessing the Lord. Did you know that we too should be blessing the Lord? Let’s look at this…

Psalm 103:1-5

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
² Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
³ Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
⁴ Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
⁵ Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Psalm 34:1

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Remember, it isn’t just the Lord who blesses us in this relationship. We are to bless Him – continually!

Questions:

What are the blessings God provides for those who care for the poor?

What must we do if we want God’s help?

Where do we start if we have sinned before seeking the Lord’s help?

How can we avoid sinning and messing things up?

What did the woman with the issue of blood do before she approached Jesus?

What did Jesus say that made the woman well?

How important is faith when we approach the Lord?

How should we treat our enemies?

Explain what the favor of God means to you.

What situation are you facing right now that you can take to the Lord?

There are three main points to consider from today’s study…

God blesses those who help the poor

God is merciful at all times

God gives favor to His children

 

Let’s pray…

Heavenly Father,

Thank You for Your unfailing love and Your unending mercy and grace! Thank You for always being available to help me when I call on You. I am so grateful to know that when I seek You I will find You. Father, I ask You to show me if I have been trying to do anything on my own. Show me what to ask You so I can get the real help I need that only You can provide. Father, I thank You in advance for what You will show me and I give You all the glory and I bless Your name forever! In Jesus name! Amen.

Have you turned to God instead of your own ways for help in your current situation?

And God Said… You fill in the blanks.

2 Corinthians 4:8-9

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—