Sermon(Ps 41): The faithful God (2)

The original Korean text: https://blog.naver.com/stevision/50025286639

 

>> 1 Blessed is he who considers the poor! The Lord delivers him in the day of trouble; 2 the Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies. 3 The Lord sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness thou healest all his infirmities. 4 As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against thee!” ... 6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers mischief; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. .... 9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me. ... 11 By this I know that thou art pleased with me, in that my enemy has not triumphed over me. 12 But thou hast upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in thy presence for ever. 13 Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. (Ps 41) <<

 

One day, David lay sick in bed. Perhaps several people paid a visit to him. One of them was his close friend (v. 9). He came to David on a consolation visit (v. 6). This man pretended to be very sad outwardly and told of words of comfort to David. "Tut, tut! How did you get a serious illness like this, man! Come on, cheer up. We would happy if you got over the illness soon. By the way, God is so coldhearted, for he should have healed a good man like you already. What a pity!" But hardly had he departed David's house when he began to gossip about David to others (v. 6). "I've known of this man David for a long time. He has lived such a sinful life, so he's got such serious illness. I visited him to comfort him today. But all is over with him. He'll never rise from his sickbed alive (v. 8). He deserves such punishment of God considering his wicked life. Really he does!"

 

However, if you say by day, birds hear you; if you say by night, rats hear you. (Walls have ears!) David heard what the friend was saying about him. David lamented. "Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me. (v. 9)" My brethren, how would you feel if a man whom you loved, cared for and helped materially and mentally said, "I hope he (you) will die soon," when you got sick? Our proverb says, "You can pay the debt of a lot of money by a decent word." Words that disparage and insult others are like a dagger, so they will pierce their heart forever. My brethren, please do not say anything that hurts others, but words that save others. Please say words that encourage others. A man recognizes his like. (And man can judge another man.) If you slander a good person, you are telling the world that you are an evil person. If you say of a wicked man that he is a good man, you're saying that you are his man. If you say of a good man that he is a good man, you yourself are showing that both he and you are good.

 

This is the human psychology: people tend to blame others to justify themselves. For example, among several brothers, there is one who is very poor. However there can be another brother who, whenever seeing the poor brother, criticizes and insults him, saying, "You live like that because you're so lazy and hate working." Furthermore he always criticizes the poor brother to people when he is not there. Maybe he behaved so because he wanted others to know that he did not help the poor brother to correct his bad thought and his lazy life. The closer in relationship, the stronger the criticism, when there was no help. The heartless brother seems to think that he can be free from the blame that he didn't help his brother as the closest brother when he slanders his brother to others. In the Old Testament, however, the responsibility to pay off a relative's debts lies closer on the nearer relative. If a man sold his land to another man, his closest relative is obliged to restore the land first. If you are a close friend or a close relative of a man, you should think of helping him rather than slandering him. If you have no money to help others, you can just stay quiet.

 

In today's text, Ps 41, David said of the most important thing, in verse 1. It is "Blessed is he who considers (is mindful of) the poor!" This means that he, who thinks of the mind of the poor and does not say anything that hurts their self-esteem, is blessed; that he, who thinks of the situation of the poor and relieves their debts, or relieves interest if he does not relieve the debts, or postpones the repayment date if the debtors can't repay now, is blessed. This means that he, who, having merciful heart and eyes on the poor and the poor relatives, willingly try to help them who are in bitter trouble, is blessed. David said about such a merciful man, "The Lord protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land. (v. 2)" In the sight of God, the most beautiful hand in the world is the hand that helps others. He who helps others is an angel of God. When a man prays to God for help, God sends him another man who is merciful. My brethren, be an angel of God. Jesus also said, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. (Mt 5:7)" And Jesus, quoting a verse from the Old Testament, "I desire mercy, and not sacrifice (Mt 9:13, Hos 6:6)," warned those who served God for the sake of formality but were merciless to others.

 

Humans are unfaithful. People say, "You can see into a deep water, but not into the human mind 30 centimeters deep." (Men and melons are hard to know.) This means that even a best friend can't be trusted absolutely. People made such a proverb because humans are insincere. But David says of God, "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. (v. 13)" The God David discovered is One who gladly grants forgiveness and love to him who confesses his sins honestly and seeks forgiveness of God. >>As for me, I said, “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against thee!” (v. 4)<< The God David discovered is One who gives victory to the righteous. "By this I know that thou art pleased with me, in that my enemy has not triumphed over me. (v. 11)" The God David discovered is One who keeps the righteous to the end and gives them eternal life. "But thou hast upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in thy presence for ever. (v. 12)" In short, the God David discovered is 'the faithful (sincere) Lord'. The worst thing this trustworthy God hates most is 'to return evil for good'. If a man is indebted to God and betrays him, he will certainly be destroyed. If a man is indebted to others and betrays them and hurts them, God will never let him go unpunished. Because such a universal crime violates the universal justice.

 

If a man who keeps sincerity is betrayed, his heart will be so painful. David was a man of sincerity. When Saul was pursuing David's life, David didn't kill him when he could kill him, because he thought Saul was a king God appointed. When David said to Saul that he could have killed him, Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David? You are more righteous than I; for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. ... If a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. (1 Sam 24:16-19)" David kept faith with Saul to the end, and Saul, who is David's enemy, blessed such a man David. My brethren, Can a man whom even his enemy blesses not be blessed with good things? As Saul continued to try to kill David, David fled to Philistine, an enemy country, to sojourn there. The king of Philistine said of David at that time, "I know that you are as blameless in my sight as an angel of God. (1 Sam 29:9)" In the days of peace with the enemy, David never broke faith with even the enemy. My brethren, stay away from double tongue, betrayal, or lies. If you like such things, you'll be abandoned by God and man.

 

From today's words of God, we learn that we should not rely on people but only on God. People can't take responsibility for me. Even close people can't guarantee my safe life. However we can always rely on God because he is sincere and compassionate to the poor. All who come to God must wear proper robes, the robes of righteousness. We should love the words of God. We become righteous ones when we live the life of obeying God's words. And we must wear the robe of Jesus' righteousness. My righteousness is insufficient righteousness. When we sin and become filthy, we can stand before God by virtue of Jesus' righteousness. Jesus' blood makes us clean. Our sins are too wicked to be washed away with the soap of the world. Only by the blood of Jesus can our sins be washed out. If you believe that Jesus' blood shed on the cross was for the forgiveness of our sins, you will be forgiven sins and become clean and righteous to God. We are so precious to God that he uses not soap but the blood of his begotten Son whenever he washes us clean. He loved us so much that he used the blood of his begotten Son to remove the dirtiness of our sins. Shouldn't you live a noble life before God, for you are so precious? Thinking of the love of God the Father and God the Son for us, we are encouraged to go boldly to the throne of grace and to make our wishes known to God. Would the God who has given us even his Son ignore our prayers in order to withhold something good from us? He whom we must believe, follow and trust is God the Father who has given the Son gladly to us.

 

And we should not be afraid of enemies, because God loves and takes delight in us, so that he makes our enemies defeated by us and give in to us (v. 11). My brethren, don't be discouraged or angry because of what your enemy says. The enemy's words are not truth. You need not be offended by the words that are not truth. My brethren, don't be threatened or tremble at the threat of enemy. If we consider the sincere God, we can be as strong and bold as David who was strong and bold before Goliath and king Saul. The foes I must fear are my unbelief, my indolent life of prayer, and my pride. God said to Joshua, "Be strong and of good courage. (Josh 1:6)" God is with you and me. Be strong and brave, and achieve victory in the Lord.

 

Therefore we should always give thanks and praises to God. "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. (v. 13)" The book of Psalms has 150 psalms and consists of 5 volumes. Today's psalm 41 is the last of the first volume. The first volume is David's poems. The last word of the first volume is "Bless the Lord from everlasting to everlasting!" The conclusion is "Praise the Lord!" You should praise God because he is good. You should praise God because he is merciful and forgives sins graciously. You should praise God because he is righteous and gives the righteous the final victory. All who have been loved by God, who are honest and clean in heart should praise him. Those who praise God are so precious to God that they never fall into the hands of the enemies but are always in the hand of God holy and strong. Who can abolish God's love for us in Christ Jesus!

 

May all of you who love Jesus receive love, mercy and victory from God!

 

Chong Tack Kim

                                    - Dongtoma Sunshine Church -