Psalm 41. I titled this message,
God will make all His bed in His sickness. He that considers
the poor is the one He's talking about. You notice in Psalm 40, it ended
with David saying, And he's speaking in the Spirit of Christ. I am
poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. I am poor and
needy. And then this psalm starts out
with blessed, blessed, happy. That's the way the first psalm
starts out, Psalm 1. Blessed is the man. Happy is
the man. This psalm is said to end the
first book of the psalms. And it starts with, Blessed is
He, and it ends with, Blessed be the Lord. Blessing God. And we know that this psalm concerns
first and foremost the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 9, he says,
"...yea, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did
eat of my bread, and hath lifted up his heel against me." That's
Judas. That is a prophecy of Judas betraying the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's a psalm of Christ in
his consideration of the spiritually poor, those who are poor in spirit.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. And it concerns his treatment
by his enemies and his victory over them, his victory over the
grave. And we'll see this here in just
a little bit. Now it says here in Psalm verse
1, Blessed or happy is he that considereth the poor. the Lord,
and that is Jehovah. And he's speaking here, I believe,
first of all, of Jehovah the Father. We'll deliver Him in time of
trouble. The first person spoken of in this verse is Jesus Christ. Doug said it right when he said
that no one was more poor than the Lord Jesus Christ. No one
on this earth has been any more poor than he was. But our Lord considered the poor
in spirit before the world was. I was thinking about this today.
Before the world was, He considered the poor. David said in Psalm 40 verse
5, His thoughts to us cannot be reckoned up in order. He's
always been considering the poor, the poor in spirit. His people
are a poor people in themselves. We are as poor as anybody on
this earth in and of ourselves spiritually. He considered our
lower state lost. Scripture says, He came to save
that which was lost. One of the best places that you
could ever find yourself is to be lost. Getting people lost
is a work of God. It takes a work of God, a powerful
work of God to get a man or woman lost. And our Lord considered our lost
estate. And then our poverty of dress.
He considered our poverty of dress naked. Naked. No righteousness. None good. No, not one. Not one. Our Lord considered this. And
our Lord considered our poverty of education. Ignorant. Ignorant of God. Ignorant of
God. Isn't that what Paul says over
here in Romans chapter 10? They being ignorant of God's
righteousness. Let me look at that in verse
1 of Romans 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I bear them
record. They have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness. And because of
that, they go about to establish one of their own. Our Lord considered
our ignorance. that we don't know God. We do
not know God. And here's what's sad, we do
not know God, we don't know that we're lost, and we don't know
that we're naked. And we don't know that we're
poor. Poverty stricken, spiritually. And then considering the poor
in spirit, he did something about it. He became poor that we through
His poverty might be made rich. That's what it tells us over
in Philippians. The Lord Jesus Christ, and we cannot begin to
even imagine when we talk about rich, His riches, where He came
from. Paradise. He said to that thief
on the cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I can't
even begin to imagine what paradise that he's speaking of is like. But he came from there, wherever
there is. He came from above. He came from
heaven. And he became poor. He became
poor. He came into this world and became
a very poor man. He became a poor carpenter. He was born to a poor family.
You know that the house of David was all but forgotten. at the
time he was born. Like a root out of dry ground
there in Isaiah 53. Like a root out of dry ground.
That family had almost been forgotten. He came to a poor family. He came where we were and assumed
our poverty. That he might take it away and
make us rich. Rich. Everyone who's in Christ,
everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, you are rich
beyond measure. You are infinitely rich, it can't
even be counted. It can't be counted. And by His
work, He wove for us a righteousness to cover our nakedness. We stand
before God covered, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And He gave His life, that we
might have life. And He said, have it more abundantly. We have life right now. We have
natural life, that's obvious. And we have spiritual life. If
we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's evident God has
given us spiritual life. But we are going to have it,
listen, more abundantly the second we close our eyes in death. The
second we close it. The conversation I had with my
father here over a week ago, we were talking about dying and
death. And I told him, I said, you know,
I said, the Lord said, he that believes in me shall never die.
I said, I'm not going to die. I said, you believe in Christ,
you're not going to die. You're just changing places. You're
just going to change places. And listen, you're not only going
to change places, you're going to have life, and you're going
to have it now, more abundantly. More abundantly. And that's what He came for.
He came to save us, to clothe us, to put away our sins, and
to give us life, and that we might have it more abundantly,
without end. We won't have to worry about
dying again. Whenever I have to be concerned
with this matter of dying, I was with Henry one time at a funeral,
and he and I was walking away. As we were walking away from
it, Henry looked at me and he said, I'll be glad when we quit
dying. All the tears and all the sorrow and all that pain,
it's finally over. And now it's just life upon life
upon life forever and ever and ever. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
considered the poor. Listen to Matthew 8, 16, 17.
When the evening was come, they brought unto Him many that were
possessed with devils. He cast out the spirits with
His word. He healed all that were sick, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself took
our infirmities and bear our sicknesses. He took my sins to Himself and
put them away and healed me. Healed me spiritually. And then
second of all, here's a second application of this. Remember this, as He is, so are
we in this world. Happy is he that considers the
poor. This is speaking here of the
believer. It shows a work of grace in the
heart. It shows a real conformity to
the Spirit of Christ. When you consider the poor, it
shows gratitude toward God for mercy received. How can you be
hard-hearted and say that God has saved you and be hard-hearted
toward others? How can that be? How in the world
can that be? If the love of God is shed abroad
in the heart, how can I not love others? How can I not be gracious
to others? How can I not want to help others
instead of turn my back and hope He doesn't come my way? It shows gratitude toward God
for His mercy. The Scripture says, To whom much
is forgiven, he loves much. And then it's evident that you
have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Gracious. Therefore, you want to do good
to other poor sinners. I don't know who God's elect
are. Jesus Christ knows. He knows. I don't know. I don't know. Therefore, when I preach the
gospel, I preach the gospel to everyone that's sitting in front
of me. And I look to them as though they're poor sinners who
need mercy. Every one of them, every one
of them. And it may be, it may be that
I'm preaching to one of God's poor sinners, to one of God's
children. That happened to me one day.
That happened to you one day. One day you heard the gospel.
Others sitting by may not have heard anything, but you heard
it, and you believed. Listen to this in Galatians 6.10,
As we have therefore opportunity, now listen, let us do good unto
all men, all sorts of men. All sorts of men, especially. He says, do good to all men.
Like I said, you and I don't know, first of all, who God's
elect are. And secondly, it's just in you
to want to do good to all men. It's just in you, by the grace
of God, to love your enemies. To love your enemies. To do good
to them who despitefully use you. That takes the work of God
down. But I tell you what, God's work
is in you. It's in you. And He says, as we have therefore
opportunity, Let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith." Those who belong to Him, those
who believe. Especially do good when you have
the opportunity to them. Listen, where there is grace
in the heart, there will be grace in the life. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall obtain mercy. There is nothing more unchristlike
than a stingy spirit." Nothing. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul taught this throughout all
his epistles. 1 Thessalonians 5, look in verse
14. That word poor, used back in
the Psalms, is speaking of the weak, the feeble-minded, those
who are cast down, those who are broken. He says to consider
them. Comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak. And he's speaking here of the
household of God especially. And be patient now toward all
men. Be patient. Now look over in
Acts chapter 20. In Acts 20, verse 35, "...I have shown you all things,
how that so laboring, working, you ought to support the weak,
and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said,
It is more blessed to give than to receive." What a blessing! First of all, to have a heart
to do so. to have a heart to give, that
you want to give, and then have the means to give. That's of
God. That's of God. James said, Pure
religion and undefiled is to visit the fatherless and the
widows, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. But here's the real blessing.
Here's the real blessing here. Blessed is he that considers
the Lord Jesus Christ in His poverty and His humiliation. He considers Christ's humiliation
in His humanity. He considers the poverty of the
Lord Jesus Christ as He walked through this life in the flesh.
He considers the Lord Jesus Christ in His doing and dying in His
place. Christ died for me. I believe that. I believe that.
Sure as I'm standing here, I believe that Jesus Christ died for me. I believe He became poor for
me. I believe He worked out a righteousness for me. I believe that. Blessed
is that man. Happy is that man who believes
that, who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. You consider Him.
It's more than just a passing curiosity. You're going to read
about Him a little bit, get some little historical facts. No,
He's your life. He is your life. He's your all
in all. You wake up in the morning and
you consider Him. You consider Him throughout the
day. You consider Him before you go to bed. You consider Him
in every decision you make. He's the pinnacle of your life
because you know He is your life. That man is blessed. You're blessed.
I'm telling you, you're blessed of God if God has enabled you
to consider His Son in His humiliation, in His work, in His offices.
You're blessed. You know, out of seven billion
people, how few people on this earth ever even think of Jesus
Christ? It don't even cross their mind.
The vast, vast part of the human race hate that man. I'm talking about the one the
Bible teaches. I'm not talking about this one
that false religion has come up with. I'm talking about the
one revealed in the scriptures. You consider how that He became
poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. You're blessed. You're blessed of God. And note the promises that follow.
And these promises, they not only belong to the Lord Jesus
Christ, they belong to us in Christ. We are His body. What
belongs to the head belongs to the body, right? So when you
reach something that belongs to Christ and the blessing that
belongs to Christ, it's ours also. The Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble. Just as our Lord was delivered
in times of trouble, constantly, every time He turned around,
He was wanting to kill him. Every time they turned around, they
were after Him. They sought how they might destroy
Him, but He kept being delivered. Jehovah the Father kept delivering
Him in times of trouble. And He will deliver us also.
I can look back, and I'm about to turn 65, and I can look back
and I can tell you that God Almighty has delivered me in times of
trouble, time after time after time. He's delivered. And the Lord will preserve him
and keep him alive. The word preserve means to hedge
about, protect. We are the most protected people
on earth. We are. I know because of sin
we forget that and we fear, and I know that. But we are the most
protected people on earth. We are hedged about with angels,
just as our Lord was hedged about with angels. When He was in the
garden, who came and ministered to Him? Angels. When He was in
the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights, and after the meeting
with Satan, who came and ministered to Him? The angels. Christ as a man was preserved
as He walked in this sinful world, and so is His body, the church. The church. You are hedged about
by the promises of God, the warnings of God. You and I are hedged
about, protected, taken care of. And He shall be blessed upon
the earth. I'm blessed. You're blessed. You are blessed
of God. It doesn't matter what you have
materially. What matters is this, you know
God. In Christ, you know God. You have the riches of glory.
You have all the riches that belong to Jesus Christ. You have
all that you need to stand before God accepted. I tell you what, I was thinking
about this today, because I can see more of this right now. I
can see that when you come up to die, when you get ready, God
puts you on the bed, and you're ready to die, that's when all
these promises, and all these messages you've heard, and all
this story of the preaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's
when it's going to really, really mean something. It means something
to us now, but not like it's going to when we get ready to
shut our eyes and we are about to see God face to face. That's
when these promises are going to come alive, really alive. And we get ready to see Him and
leave this world. The Lord will preserve Him, and
listen, and keep Him alive. As I said, I'm not going to die. You are not going to die. You're
going to be kept alive. You're not going to experience
that second death. We all will experience that first death of
the body, if the Lord doesn't come back right now. The body
will experience that death. But we will never experience
that second death, where He casts body and soul into hell. You will be kept alive, for your
life is here with Christ and God, it can't be touched. And you'll be blessed upon this
earth, You'll have all that you need. I have everything I need.
You have all you need. You and I, we have, I know we
all have our troubles and our trials and there are times we
go through difficult times. Some go through financial difficulties,
but we have all we need. The Lord, He puts us through
what we need and gives us all that we need. and thou wilt not
deliver him over to his enemies." Boy, Satan would just, I tell
you, there's nothing Satan would love more than to get a hold
of you and have you. But God's not going to deliver
us over to our enemies. Even though our Lord was delivered
into the hands of sinful men, it was only for a moment. And that was so that He might
redeem us from our sins. It was only for a moment. And you and I are blessed in
Christ as we walk through this life. And the Lord will strengthen
him, and listen, this is such a beautiful verse. The Lord will
strengthen him upon the bed of languishing, and thou wilt make
all his bed in his sickness. Now, for all you that are healthy,
and all you just feel, you know, you just, you don't get this
verse right now. You probably just don't get it
right now, but I tell you what, when you are laying on that bed
languishing, and it's coming, it's coming. It may be tomorrow,
it may be years down the road, but if you live long enough,
I can tell you, if you live long enough, it's coming. And then
you can take this verse, and it'll mean something. What we see here, first of all,
we see here that as Christ was not exempt from suffering, we
will not be exempt from suffering. See, we're going to lay on that
bed. You're going to go through the
water. You're not going to go around it, you're going to go
through it. And you're going to lay on the bed of languishing. But what we have here, we are
promised by God strength to go through them as they come our way. He has
given us promises. He said here that the Lord will
strengthen him. He strengthened Christ, Jehovah
the Father strengthened Christ, the man, the mediator. He strengthened him. He was a
real man. He needed to be strengthened
by God just like we need, except he knew no sin. And then, I thought
this was beautiful, "...Thou wilt make all his bed in his
sickness." It portrays God here as being a nurse. Kind, loving
nurse, like a mother. Kind, loving mother. Just as
the father took care of his son, this image went through my mind
as I was reading this. He will fluff our pillow, change
our sheets, and put a warm blanket of love over us in our sickness,
in our bed of languishing. Let me read you a story I've
read. this week. There was a man, his
name was Paxton Hood. He was visiting his dying friend,
Benjamin Parsons. And he asked him how he was doing.
His friend replied, my head is resting sweetly on three pillows. Infinite power, infinite love,
infinite wisdom. Later on, Mr. Hood mentioned
that in a sermon, and a young lady heard him. And sometime
later, she had to go through a cruel surgery. Back in that
day, surgery was pretty rough. And she was laying her head on
some pillows, and a surgeon came in. He came in to take the pillows. And she asked him, she said,
can you leave me the pillows? And he said, no, I have to take
them. I've got to take the pillows. And she replied, well, you can
take away my pillows, but you can't take away Benjamin Parsons'
three pillows. I can lay on them. I can lay
on infinite power, infinite love, and infinite wisdom. Those are
three good pillows to lay your head on tonight. Thou will make all his bed in
his sickness. We have that promise. We have
that promise that when we are laid in the bed, he will take
care of us. He will take care of us. I tell
you, right now, there are seven of us kids in the family, and
we're all having to take turns taking care of dad right now.
And it's wearing. It's wearing. I'll tell you the
truth, it's wearing. But you know it's not wearing
to our God to take care of us. in all of our sickness, in all
of our pain, in all of our suffering. It's not wearing to Him to fluff
our pillow, change our sheets, and cover us with a blanket of
love every night. Every night. Or that we could
get that image in our head. No, that we can get it in our
hearts. We can get things in our head that we can't get in
the heart. I said, Lord, be merciful to me, heal my soul, for I have
sinned against Thee. Now, as far as Christ is concerned,
He's speaking as our surety, our substitute. This is how He
identified with us. He so much identified with us,
He calls our sins His. He is a real substitute. He completely identified with
us. But as for us, as for us, We know sin. And we know that
we've all sinned against God. We've all sinned against God.
And our great desire is for the Lord to have mercy, mercy, mercy,
mercy, and heal our soul. Someone says, Saul and Judas
each said, I have sinned. But David says, I have sinned
against Thee. That's all the difference. It's not that I have
sinned. We've all sinned. We've all sinned. But when God brings you to know
that you have sinned against Him, that's real repentance. That's a real work of grace.
That is God at work in you. When you realize you sinned against
God, And heal my soul. Our Lord felt
our sins. I can't explain that. I cannot
enter into that transaction. I can't enter into that. Only
God the Father and God the Son can enter into that transaction.
But I do know this. As Matthew Henry said, He felt
everything He took away. Everything He took away. Heal
my soul. But as for us, The body of Christ. Heal my soul of unbelief. It's still way too rampant in
me. Heal my soul. Bring my lust under control. It's still there. And destroy the power of indwelling
sin. Lord, bring these things under
control. And heal my soul. Restore to
me spiritual health. You know, we worry about, we
should be, and I'm talking to believers, we should be many
more times concerned about spiritual health than we are physical health.
You know, we start to get a little this or that going on with the
body, for the doctor. And go ahead, go run to the doctor,
go ahead. But we ought to be so concerned
and in, with our spiritual health, our relationship to God. We ought to be. And then verses
5 through 9, we see here the sufferings of Christ. My enemies
speak evil of me. When shall he die? And his name
perish." Speaking here of the Jews who hated the Lord Jesus
Christ, they sought to destroy Him. In Matthew 12, 14, then
the Pharisees went out and held a council against Him, how they
might destroy Him. Destroy Him. I thought of this
as I read that. The righteousness of Christ brought
out the unrighteousness of men. His holy presence brought out
their ugliness. His goodness brought out their
badness. When He healed, it made them
mad. It upset them. They accused Him of doing miracles
by the devil. It says there in Matthew 9, but
the Pharisees said, He casteth out devils through the prince
of devils. He cast the devil out, then they charged Him of
being in league with the devil. Christ... Now listen. And I gave this some thought.
Christ in you will bring out the worst in the unbelievers. It won't take long. If Christ
in you... If Christ in you, it's going
to come out. It's going to come out. And they're not going to
enjoy your company. Not that you're mean, not that
you're ugly, You know what it says in Genesis? Like begets
like. And you're not like them. They're
not like you anymore. And it'll bring it out. Listen.
I've got Scripture for this. In Luke 6.26, Woe unto you when
all men speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the
false prophets. He said, when all men speak well
of you, you got a problem. There's a problem. There's a
problem. When the unbelieving world loves
you, speaks well of you, it's because you're like them and
you're not like Christ. The Jews wanted to even stamp
out his name, that it be forgotten. That's how much they hated him
in this world. I'm telling you what, the world
and the Satan, they hate true Christianity. They hate true
Christianity. Nero tried to stamp that name
out years ago. Those who bore the name of Christ
were hated for it. It hasn't changed. It hasn't
changed. And if he come to see Me, he
speaketh vanity. His heart gathereth iniquity
to itself. When he goeth abroad, he telleth
it. When the Pharisees came to see
Christ, they only wanted to entrap Him. You can see that over in
Matthew 22. They tried to entrap Him in His words. Not everyone that came to see
the Lord Jesus Christ liked Him. Even though they called Him Master.
Over in Matthew 22 they said, Master, we know you're a teacher
come from God, we know you tell the truth. Well then, why don't
you believe me? Why didn't they believe Him?
Because they hated Him. All they wanted to do was entrap
Him. He said, if he comes to see me, he speaks vanity, he's
in there bragging on me, he slapped me on the back, you know, teacher,
teacher, master, they call him master. He said, in one place, if I'm
your master and lord, where's my fear? Where's my respect? His heart gathers up iniquity
to itself. It is the Jews gathered up what
Christ said and went out and twisted it. An example is, they
said, He said, destroy this temple and in three days He'll raise
it again. They were pointing at that big
old temple building. He was talking about His body. He's talking
about His body. Our Lord can read the heart.
He's telling us the thoughts of the unbeliever. He's telling
us their motives. And all that hate Me, they whisper
together against Me. Against Me do they devise My
hurt." He's telling us, we're reading right here what our Lord
went through. And all the hatred, all the hatred that He felt when
He came into this world, He felt the hatred of men. He felt the
hatred of the human race against Him. He felt that. And evil disease, say they, cleaves
fast to him, and now he lies and shall rise no more. Being
put to death on the cross, they thought him to be a criminal,
a blasphemer, like one of the sons of Bilal. They thought that he was an imposter,
and he was cursed for hanging on a tree. Well, he cursed everyone
that hanged on a tree, but he was hanging there for our curse.
It was our curse he took away. He took it away. And they said,
he shall not rise. They said, now he lies and he's
dead. He's in the grave and he shall
rise no more. They rejoiced at that. What do
you rejoice at? That he's risen. That he's risen. They thought when Christ died,
that was the end of him. They even put a watch over the
tomb to make sure nobody went in there and stole him, but they
put a watch over the tomb because they said, he's dead, he's an
imposter, he's got what he deserved. Oh, but that's not how it ended,
is it? That's not how it ended. He said, even my own familiar
friend in whom I trusted, he did eat of my bread and lifted
up his heel against me. That's the prophecy of Judas.
That's the betrayal of Judas. Nothing happened that was not
ordained of God. That was ordained of God. Satan
didn't slip one hand on him. He knows every false prophet. He knows every false believer.
He knows every true believer. I know my sheep and them known
of mine. I know them and they know me. But we see here how it ends.
In verse 10, But thou, O Lord, be merciful unto me. Raise me
up that I may requite them. Lord, be merciful to me. and raise me up." This speaks
of the resurrection of Christ. You know, in one place it is
written, Rejoice not over me, O my enemy, for though I fall,
yet shall I rise again. I'll rise again. The Lord Jesus
Christ is alive and well. He's seated at God's right hand.
But this also speaks of Christ as the judge. He said, Raise
me up that I may requite them. See, David's speaking here as
the king of Israel. And he wants to deal with the
enemies of Israel. He knows who the enemies of Israel
are. Jesus Christ knows who the enemies
are. He knows them that are His and
them that are not. He knows them that love Him and those who love
Him not. He knows that. And as a judge, he speaks here,
I will repay them, I'll give them what they deserve. And that's
what a judge, that's what a fair judge does. A righteous judge
gives you what you deserve. And by this, he said, by this
I know that thou favourest me, because my enemy does not triumph
over me. By not letting his enemies have
the victory over him, and raising him from the dead, he says, it's
evident, it's evident that you favour me. It's evident that
God's well pleased with him. And if God's well pleased with
Jesus Christ, He's well pleased with everyone that's in Christ.
He's well pleased with me too, and you too, if you believe the
gospel. The very fact that God does not
let sin reign over us as it once did, that Satan's power is broken,
is evidence that God is for us. He's for us. And as for me, thou
upholdest me in mine integrity and settest me before thy face
forever. Our Lord knew no sin. He's the
wisdom of God. Where is he seated right now?
At the right hand of God, Jesus Christ. That man, Jesus Christ,
who is God in the flesh, is seated at God's right hand. Right now. Forever. Forever. And he closes with verse 13 with
this, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting into
everlasting. You know why? You believe. You're going to be there in that
everlasting. That everlasting to that everlasting, we're going
to be in it. We're going to be right there praising God, blessing
His holy name from everlasting to everlasting. And then he says,
Amen and Amen. This is the close of the first
book of the Psalms in Psalm 41. The best way to end the first
book of the Psalms is giving the Lord God all the glory and
honor that belongs to His name. Blessed. Blessed. Maybe I'd change the title to
that. Blessed be the Lord God from everlasting to everlasting.
Amen and Amen.