Psalm 41:1-3 (NKJV)
Blessed is he who considers the poor; The LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him and keep him alive, and he will be blessed on the earth; You will not deliver him to the will of his enemies. The LORD will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.
It is indeed a wonderful and powerful thing to be blessed by the Lord. To know that God is pleased with you and loves you and has great things in store for you brings tremendous peace and security into your life. But with our desire to be blessed comes the commandment to be obedient. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). In Luke 11, a well-intentioned woman yells out to Jesus, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you,” to which he replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” God’s general grace rests upon every Believer, and his general blessings go with it, but the more obedient you are, the more blessed you are.
Throughout the Scriptures, God makes much of not only the materially poor, but also the poor in spirit as well as those who are simply weak in one way or another. In today’s psalm, David is relying on God’s heart for not only for “the poor”, but for those who “consider” the poor. To consider means to do far more than just notice. To consider means to do far more than just feel bad about the situation or express some pity. To “consider” means to contemplate…to examine…to appraise…to review, study, or ponder. In context, it also implies to take the next step and actually do something to help. The Apostle James said it rather plainly when he remarked, “If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” (Jas. 2:16).
Rarely have I met a Christian who regularly considers the poor in a serious way that leads to consistent action…myself included. Spurgeon presses this point when he says, “The sick and the sorry are poor company, and the world deserts them as the Amalekite left his dying servant. Such as have been made partakers of divine grace receive a tenderer nature and are not hardened against their own flesh and blood; they undertake the cause of the downtrodden and turn their minds seriously to the promotion of their welfare. They do not toss them a penny and go on their way, but enquire into their sorrows, sift out their cause, study the best ways for their relief, and practically come to their rescue: such as these have the mark of the divine favor plainly upon them, and are as surely the sheep of the Lord’s pasture as if they wore a brand upon their foreheads.” Do you have this brand upon your forehead? Do you have God’s divine favor “plainly upon you” because of your efforts to help the poor people in your life?
David goes on to list – and not exhaustively – what God’s divine favor looks like for those who consider the poor. The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble…preserve him and keep him alive…and he will be blessed upon the earth. God will not deliver him to the will of his enemies, but He will strengthen him on his bed of illness and sustain him on his sickbed. When we are kind and generous towards “the poor” in our lives, be they poor materially or poor in terms of station in life or lack of power or influence or just lack of a social network of friends and family…then you can bank on the fact that God will be generous and kind towards you, as well. Who might you “consider” today?
