This is God's holy, inerrant, infallible word. May we be most attentive to it. Blessed is the one who considers 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 sick bed. In his illness, you restore him to full health. As for me, I said, O Lord, be gracious to me, heal me, for I have sinned against you. My enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name perish? 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. Even my close friend and whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up, that I may repay them. 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. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Thus far, the reading of God's word to us this morning. May he add his blessing to the reading and to the proclamation of it. Beloved, we gather to hear God's word for the content, for the conviction, And for the consolation, that is comfort. And Psalm 41 is a psalm of comfort. It generally falls under the sub-genre of lament. And if we want to further categorize the psalm, it goes into a sub-sub-genre of an individual lament. And like most psalms, we can see at least three times when the psalmist pivots his tone. In verses one through three, David speaks of a comforting communion. In verses four through nine, we hear of a cannibalizing civilization where people turn on each other, particularly turning on the psalmist. And in the final four verses, 10 through 13, we experience a climaxing conviction, a most wonderful conclusion. So this psalm of comfort, albeit a lament, begins, Blessed is the one who considers the poor In a 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. Beloved, this is a declaration of the goodness, of the grace, of the mercy of our God. What it's not is a guarantee that the ailing saint will be fully restored on this earth. David appears to be physically down and out. Again, we don't know the full context of his malady, but we have enough to go on in the psalm to know that he is deeply troubled and that he's down and out. We've had those in our extended church family succumb to cancer after many prayers have been offered up for healing. So what are we to make of this? Well, David is addressing his own situation. And so while the psalm is somewhat individualistic in that David speaks of his own experience, the Spirit of God is breathing these words so that what is being said speaks to the church today. That is to us, to us right now in this very place, as it did even before David's time. We hear in verse two regarding the saint being blessed in the land. The voice of Genesis 12 is unmistakable. The Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." We find here in David's words is that God protects and preserves His people. And those who trust in God will prosper. They will not be defeated. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth in his first epistle, O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, he continues, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. So we're not defeated, just the opposite. Again, David is not saying that the body will never fail. But the promise is this. God will send his Spirit to enable them to bear their affliction with patience. And yes, even to be of good cheer as the saint endures unspeakable pain, as David had been experiencing. One of the blessings of doing chaplaincy work is being on the front lines of death. I know that seems a bit unrhymic. How could that possibly be a blessing when you're seeing death stare right back at you, or soon to be death? But hearing the saints, in great physical agony, speak of the great comfort to come, the earthly tenfolds, And the saint feels every pain in that collapse. You know, when camping season is over, we take down the tent, the tubes, we put everything away gingerly, but in this illustration, the tent is being crumbled, the bones are coming together, the life is coming out of the person. This is grievous. This is a consequence of sin. This is not a Hallmark or Dayspring greeting card moment, but this is a Word of God moment. Beloved, the communion we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ sustains us, and I have witnessed this. As the Apostle John says in his first epistle, these are things that I have witnessed, we have witnessed as his apostles, the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now today, seeing a passing saint being filled with joy, our soul shall, by His grace alone, can dwell at ease even as the body lies in absolute pain, because we are blessed in the better promised land of Christ. And that's what these dying saints are holding on to. Not a, I hope so, I hope this is going to be true. No, I know it to be true. I've confessed it all my life. And it's not me, it's not I. It is Christ and Christ alone. So what did David know that we now have in the redemptive record? How about Revelation 21? He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Did you catch that? For the former things have passed away. All of our tears will be gone. Death shall be no more, no mourning, no crying, no pain." Beloved, we have a desire, or we should anyway, to grow in this communion with God. And we grow through prayer and we grow through meditation in our private exercises of worship, but also today in this corporate exercise of worship. This is what we do. We want to grow in this communion because this is what gives us hope. This is what gives us strength. Well, the psalmist goes from a comforting communion to something a little bit different. a cannibalizing civilization. And verse 4 is a transitional verse as David pleads with God. As for me, I said, O Lord, be gracious to me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you. David is throwing himself at God's mercy, knowing how he had egregiously sinned against God. Have we prayed something similar to this? O Lord, be gracious to me. Heal me. Do we hear anything from the New Testament that's eerily similar to this? How about from Luke 18.13, "...but the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner!" That's awfully close to Psalm 41, isn't it? I tell you, our Lord says, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. And that's one of the beautiful things about dying, is that we become a little bit more humble, don't we? We don't have the strength and vigor of our youth anymore. Our eyes open like they have not opened before. Again, this psalm echoes the sacred scripture past and whispers of the glorious news to come, as we have in the New Testament canon. And this passage from Luke 18.13 testifies to that. Well, back to our psalm. My enemies say of me in malice, when will he die and his name perish? When one comes to see me, he utters empty words. He flatters. He says nice things while his heart gathers iniquity. And 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. And that's not bad enough. It gets even worse. Even my close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread," in other words, came to his table, to his home, ate my bread, "...has lifted his heel against me." David is addressing his enemies, but he cites a dear friend who backstabbed him. It's one thing when we deal with those who hate the church and plan ill will against those who follow Christ. But what do we make of the enemy within? What do we make of the one who flatters us most sweetly and then conspires against us? The devil delights when we cannibalize each other in a fellowship that professes Christ. He just loves it. Read C.S. Lewis Screwtape letters, and you'll get a wonderful dialogue between the devil and his underling about how to go and work the church and to get people to turn on each other. An old Reformed pastor, who is now with the Lord, once told me when I was in seminary, to be wary, to be on the guard of those in the flock who offer sweet nothings. For they will be the very ones who will conspire against the preacher. And I've had those who did just that in a previous charge. But that old Reformed pastor told me, the only statement that should ever satisfy you is four words. Four words. The word was preached. The word was preached. Not good job or anything like that. The word was preached. and leave out the superlatives, the adverbs, the modifiers. The Word was preached. No doubt we have those in our families and in our churches betray us in some manner, shape, or form. And I might dare say, no doubt, we too have been agents of gossip and slander. So ugly, beloved, is this sin that the Apostle Paul lists them in Romans 1.29. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanders, haters of God. And these are people who profess to know something and don't know anything at all. And Paul rightly calls them foolish because they hold the truth in unrighteousness. And sadly, we have those who are in the church like this. But beloved, you can't profess to love God if you hate your brother or your sister in Christ, or you hold something against them. Well, I'm not yet ready to forgive them. Maybe in time, I will. Well, what if that were to be said of you by God? I'm not ready. Maybe in time, let me think about it. Maybe I won't forget you. No, our Lord has forgiven us, and we need to forgive one another. Again, to verse 9, Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. This is especially poignant when you think about Judas Iscariot and how he had betrayed Jesus. How can someone from the Lord's inner circle turn on the Master, the Messiah, the Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ? Someone, Judas, had witnessed before many a great miracle, and only have that trumped by greater teaching. He saw it. He heard it. And yet he betrayed his Lord. He betrayed his Lord. So to think, I don't know. I'm not sure if God understands my situation. I know our Lord has understood. And of course, God has understood because He's the Father. And our Lord endured it. He endured the trail. And what did He say on the cross for those who put Him there? Forgive them, Father, for they do not know what they have done. We come now to the final four verses that take us to a climaxing conviction. So we see this wonderful communion. We see what happens when civilization turns on each other, even within the church. But now we conclude with this great, great conviction. But you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up that I may repay them. 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. And then this. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Is David saying in verse 10 that he wants God's graciousness in order to pay retribution? Is this what David is asking God to do? Help me out here, Lord, so that I can get some revenge. Well, understand this, David is a magistrate and he's seeking justice for the sake of good. He's king. He's king of Israel, after all. And while this verse has a vindictive ring to it, David is not operating out of personal vendetta. but from the duty of a king. And some commentators have argued that David is speaking consistently with Romans 12, 20, and 21, where we have these verses. If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So was David going to repay them with good? No, I don't think so. It's more likely that David is drawing from his office as king, and in doing so, wanting good to be rewarded and evil to be punished. Because that's what kings are called to do. David wants to be assured of God's favor. And thus it follows that God's approval over the king of Israel would mean that the enemy would not triumph over him. Remember, remember that David is God's anointed king. 1 Samuel 16 31 bears this out. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. David confidently in his conviction, as he should be, but you have upheld me because of my integrity and set me in your presence forever. And this is not to say that David, because of his quote-unquote works righteousness, is saved. No, as we read elsewhere in the Psalms, David credits God and God alone for His righteousness. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have given me relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Those words from Psalm 4.1. And then from Psalm 7.17, I will give to the Lord the thanks due to His righteousness, not mine, to His righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the Lord, the Most High. And then maybe perhaps one more example Psalm 11, verse seven, for the Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his face. Beloved, we don't have to go much further than just the last verse of Psalm 41 to know that David is not exalting himself. It's not his own righteousness. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen. David's climactic conviction has so filled his heart with joy and his mouth with praise that he breaks into doxology. A fitting conclusion to the first book of the Psalter, don't you think? The psalmist is giving his covenant God all the glory. It is all you, O Lord. The God who was and is and ever shall be is everlasting in his being and in his doing. And he punctuates that with an amen and an amen. and invites us to declare with Him that God is to be blessed in good days and in days that are not so good, in days of celebration and in days of mourning, in days of rain and, yes, in days of drought. One of the liturgical liabilities, if I may put it that way, is when the doxology is sung. Because of its familiarity, it's often sung out of habit or tradition. But we need to sing it with great adoration and praise, because it is a declaration like no other, based upon Psalm 41 and other places. We are confessing, beloved, the everlasting God as one God in three persons. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It's a privilege to sing that. We don't generally think about the implications of our being singled out in singing just that. But think about this. We are brought into the corporate presence of our God. And that means you have been brought out of darkness and into his marvelous light. You who were once estranged because of your sin, and deemed unholy and unworthy are now gathered in this assembly to meet with God because you have been made holy and righteous through the Son. This is why, as I said last week, I don't understand why people don't want to gather to come into the presence of God, into a corporate presence where God meets with his people and that we can praise him, not just individually as we do in our private exercise and worship, but in this public exaltation, in this corporate activity. This is a privilege like no other. And for those who think, nah, I'm a Christian, but I do things my way, or I don't need the church. Well, how is that going to work out in heaven? You think there's going to be a private room for you in heaven where you can just be by yourself all the day long and not be part of the church triumphant in praising God? No. That's just plain silly. Verse 12. You have set me in your presence forever. We're going to go back to that verse. You have set me in your presence forever. Do we want that? Do we want to be set in his presence forever? I hope so. I hope so. As David says, because he has delivered, so must we, as we've been delivered into the promised land. And so may we bask in this corporate communion of Christ. Let's pray.