WWUTT 1014 As the Deer Pants for Streams of Water?

Sometimes, you may have to preach to yourself, reminding yourself of the promises of God, the gospel that saves. Just take a cue from the psalmist, who also preached to himself, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Psalm 41 and the Blessing of Considering the Poor

Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Psalms, beginning with Psalm 41, and this happens to be the last psalm of Book 1. If you remember back to our Introduction of the Psalms course, this was months ago now, but I mentioned that Psalms is broken up into five books, and Book 1 goes from Psalm 1 through 41, and if I had planned this out a little bit better last week, I would have gone ahead and tried to finish up 41 so that we could start Book 2 today, but that's all right.

We'll go ahead and make the transition in this episode. So let me start here with Psalm 41, again, a Psalm of David. 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 sickbed. 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? And 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 in 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. And that verse 13 there happens to be a doxology that closes out book one. But let's go ahead and come back to verse one here, where David says, Blessed is the one who considers the poor.

In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers him. Now, these first three verses here in this psalm talk about the Lord's favor upon the person who considers the poor. Now, why would that be? Well, it's because it's not because doing kind deeds to somebody merits God's favor.

It's because the king, in this case being David, recognizes the poor as being fellow members of the covenant with him. He treats them with love and consideration and kindness because they are recipients, fellow recipients of the promises of God.

They're part of God's covenant people. So therefore, this demonstrates that God's favor is even upon the one who considers the poor, since they're all part of the same covenant together. So it's not a person meriting the favor of God.

It's demonstrating the favor of God is upon them since they consider one another. And this word poor doesn't necessarily mean a person who has no money or someone who's living out on the streets, because in Israel, in Jerusalem in particular, no one was living out on the streets.

They were giving what they had to help others. And this is the way it should be within the body of Christ. We should be helping one another. Let no one go homeless or without food or without clothing.

But we care for one another within the body, within that covenant people building one another up. This was in the Old Testament, as well as the command that's given to us in the New Testament that we give to one another.

We share what we have and let no one take advantage of the kindness and generosity that should exist in the body of Christ. Paul even confronted this in second Thessalonians chapter three, that if there's anybody who won't work, he doesn't get to eat.

But everybody needs to do their own work with their own hands, minding their own business. And then they have something not only that they've earned for themselves, but something that they can now give to somebody else that is in need.

So we must do our work as we are able to work, providing for ourselves and then also with what we receive, we provide for others. So this especially needs to go for the household of faith. As Paul said in Galatians chapter six, let us show charity to everyone and especially to the household of faith.

So in the in the covenant people of God, we take care of one another. And like I said, the poor is not necessarily the person who has no money or doesn't have a place to live or has no clothing. But the poor in this case is simply a person of weak influence, like helping this person is not going to better you in any way.

You're not going to get they're not going to be able to pay you back, especially when it comes to the king helping a person who has little. They're not going to make the king greater than he is. This is the king's consideration for those who are lowly, who are of less regard than he is.

And his consideration is for them because they're part of the covenant people of God. Now, let me state here, I've already said this, but just to make the point plain, this doesn't mean we only help Christians and we don't help anyone else, but we have a greater obligation to the household of faith than we have for those who are not of the household of faith.

We're still going to give kindness and charity to those who are not believers, but we especially look out for those who are believers. So the Lord sustains the one who is part of his covenant people, even when he is on his sickbed in his illness, you restore him to full health.

David says here in Psalm 41, three, and we should not consider that as a matter of God giving us physical health. Although he may, we may receive a healing of that kind. God can certainly do as he wills, but we will definitely receive a spiritual healing.

If we are exercising love as the as the keeping of the law, all of the law and the prophets summed up in this word, love your neighbor as yourself. Paul says that in Romans chapter 13, we see it also in the book of Galatians.

Jesus said, this is the whole of the law and the prophets to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. So we demonstrate that we are of the people of God when we do as he asks.

And for this, we receive spiritual healing, most definitely mental healing, perhaps as well, because we know in our hearts that God is not holding our sins against us because of what Christ has done for us.

And so, therefore, being part of that covenant people by the blood of Christ, we also have peace in our minds. And this will therefore also strengthen our bodies. So there's no guarantee of physical healing, although God can certainly do that.

But we will receive spiritual healing. David goes on to say, as for me, I said, oh, Lord, be gracious to me. Heal me, for I have sinned against you. And again, the promise of spiritual healing is most definite for all those who believe in Christ.

Now you see that David's vexation comes from the gossip even that he receives from his enemies, not just the threat to his body, but even the fact that he has no rest in his spirit because of all the gossip that's being said about him.

The words that are being said about him. He doesn't have peace in his heart. He's constantly vexed in knowing that my enemies say of me in malice. When will he die and his name perish? And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words while his heart gathers iniquity.

When he goes out, he tells it abroad. So anytime they talk might even be it seems like a friendly conversation, but his enemy, they're storing up in their heart some things they can say ill about David whenever he goes out from his presence.

Verse seven, all who hate me whisper together about me. They imagine the worst for me. And this is most definitely not the way we are to be with one another in the body of Christ. We are to have grace toward one another, speaking kindly to each other, not being tit for tat with one another.

So somebody brings a fault against you. Will you just throw another fault right back at them? Oh, yeah. Well, you do this. OK, that is not exercising the grace that God has for us because no one could be singling out all of our faults more than God could.

Right. He knows the thoughts of every man. He knows what you have thought in your mind, which even what maybe you don't even think you've cognitively thought something, but he would be able to tell it to you.

He would say in your heart, you feel this. You would go after this. You think this about this person. You have even said this about this other person. God could lay out all of our sins in abundance. He could just make a list and we would be crushed under the weight of them.

But he doesn't do that. He is gracious to us. In fact, in his word, he says, I've blotted out your transgressions in Psalm 103. I've taken your sins. I've thrown them as far as the east is from the west, and I will remember them no more.

If God is going to do that for us, shouldn't we, as the people of God, be doing that for one another, not counting one another's wrongs against them? You and I, we could sit down and you could go through all my faults and I could go through all of yours.

And boy, we would be we would come out of that conversation just absolutely miserable. Nothing would be accomplished in that conversation. And very unfortunately, I have had conversations like that with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, and I feel miserable about it.

I don't I don't feel like I won anything. We just come out, you know, disliking one another worse than we did before we came into that conversation. So we certainly should not be that way with one another.

But speaking kindness, grace to each other, as Paul said in Colossians three, if anything as if anyone has anything against you, forgive each other. If someone has something against you, you have a wrong against another person.

Forgive each other as the Lord has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. So these this unforgiving, ungracious way about people, that should be the way of the world. That should not be the way of the people of God.

We should demonstrate grace toward each other, not imagining the worst of one another. David goes on in verse eight. They say a deadly thing has poured out on him. He will not rise again from where he lies.

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me. And of course, that is a reference to Judas, who was going to betray Christ. That very same passage, Psalm forty one nine, is repeated again in the Gospels that Judas would betray Jesus, my close friend in whom I trusted.

Verse ten, but you, O Lord, be gracious to me and raise me up that I may repay them. And this is talking about that. I may have my vengeance upon them. You know, in Acts chapter seventeen, it says that God raised Jesus from the dead to show that he was going to be the one who was going to judge the nations.

So even that prophetic statement in verse nine continues on into verse ten as well. God has raised up the son who is going to be the judge of the living and the dead. Verse eleven. 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. Now recognize here the the eternal claim of this. You have set me in your presence forever.

So we have to receive what we read here in verses eleven and twelve in light of eternity, not in light of our present circumstances, because people will take advantage of you and you may not get your comeuppance or or justice on this side of heaven.

But ultimate justice is coming and it will be at the hands of Christ who will have vengeance. Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. So the instruction is given to us in Romans chapter twelve that we not take revenge on our enemies, but let the Lord be the avenger.

So God will uphold us because of our faith in Christ and he will set us in his presence forever. Our enemy ultimately will not shout in triumph over us, though you may have people who will take advantage of you and tear you down in this life.

In the end, the Lord will have the final say. Put yourself and your faith and trust fully in the hands of God. And then, of course, this doxology that closes out book one. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen and amen. Well, I spent more time on that than I intended to, but I think we can still knock out Psalm 42 here right at the beginning of book two. This is not a psalm of David. If you'll notice, it is a mask of the of the sons of Korah.

There will not be as many David Psalms in book two as there have been in book one. Book one was almost exclusively David Psalms. But here we'll have some other writers mixed in. So here we go. Psalm 42, starting in verse one.

Longing for God Like a Deer Thirsts for Water

As the deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

These things I remember as I pour out my soul, how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. Before going on here, this is a very familiar psalm, I'm sure, to a lot of you might be the second most familiar psalm after Psalm 23, although most people probably don't remember the number.

They don't recognize Psalm 42, but you certainly recognize as the deer pants for flowing streams, right? You might even have a t-shirt with that on it. Some some kind of happy verse calendar. You've got it on a coffee mug, you've had it in some sort of a greeting card you picked up at the Christian bookstore, even though bookstores are becoming obsolete now.

But anyway, and you've passed it on to somebody else. It's got a picture of a deer standing by a stream of water, and you've got the Psalm 42 one reference right underneath that, right? But this is about an animal that is panting across a an arid land and it's longing for water.

And so likewise, the psalmist here is panting for God in such desperation for God that it's like crawling across a spiritual barren wasteland. My soul pants for you, oh God, they they feel spiritually empty.

They're needing to drink from the water of life. My soul thirsts for God for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Now, what is it that the psalmist is asking for here in Psalm 42? What are they anticipating?

What is it that they want to go and do? They want to go to church, right? Of course, that's not what you're calling it in the Old Testament. They had the temple. There was the throng they would celebrate in praise on the Sabbath and things of that nature wasn't like going to church.

But but this is essentially what it is that the psalmist wants. They want to be with the people of God. Consider consider verse four, where it says how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival.

If their soul is dried up, the only water that they've received is their tears, tears dripping from their eyes down into their mouth. My tears have been my food all the day and all the night while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

Well, I'll show you where my God is. Let me go with the people into his presence. We're going to praise his name and you will see God among his people. That's what it is the psalmist wants. Very often I get asked the question, do I have to go to church?

Like, is it a requirement if I don't go to church? What's God going to do to me? You know, the way that I want to answer that question most often when somebody says to me as a Christian, do I have to go to church the way I want to reply to that?

I don't do it this way every time, but most of the time I want to respond. Why would you not want to? Like, what is the reason why in your heart you don't want to go be with the people of God, singing songs together, reciting the Psalms together, partaking of the Lord's supper together, hearing the word of God preached together, growing in sanctification together, loving one another?

Why would you not want to go and do that? Why would you not want to be with the people of God? Shouldn't you want that? As Christians, that should be our desire. I've now been reconciled to God and to his people.

I want to be with the people of God. I know God is here in the presence of others. And when I feel like I can't find God, like my soul is lacking, I am thirsty, I am panting in a spiritual wasteland. Well, I'm going to go be with my brothers and sisters in the Lord who are going to help me up, who are going to encourage me and uplift me and will be my accountability.

And they will show me, God, where I am struggling right now. This is what the body of Christ is supposed to be doing for one another. And this is what the psalmist is longing for in this psalm. They want to go be with the people of God to worship God together.

This, they know, is going to be the comfort to their present vexation in their hearts, in their spirits. If I go be with the people of God to praise God, how uplifting that's going to be for me. Verse five.

Why are you cast down, oh, my soul? And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God. Take a take a tip from the psalmist here. Take a cue from the psalmist.

Preach to yourself. Preach the gospel to yourself. Why are you downcast, oh, my soul? Hope in God. You can say that to yourself. You're not wasting words by telling yourself and reminding yourself of the gospel of God that saves our hope for anything and everything in this life.

And the next is Jesus Christ. Remind yourself of that. My soul is cast down within me. Therefore, I remember you from the land of Jordan and of Hermon from Mount Mazar, remembering the past, looking at the past to see how God has shown himself to you in the past.

When you're struggling in the present, look to see how God has demonstrated his faithfulness to you and to his people in the past. You will find that in your own testimony. And you'll certainly find that in the scriptures.

Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls. All your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day, the Lord commands his steadfast love. And at night, his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning? Because of the oppression of the enemy, as with a deadly wound in my bones, my adversaries taught me while they say to me all the day long, where is your God?

Same question we had presented in verse three. Now, verse 11, the close of Psalm 42. Why are you cast down? Oh, my soul. And why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God.

The psalmist has reminded you today of God's faithfulness to you. Do you need to remind yourself of that, of the gospel that you heard that has saved, that by believing in Christ, you have been brought from death to life and are now in his presence forever, secure in the hand of God for all eternity.

Remind yourself of these things. For as it says in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study in the Word of God that we may be conformed to the image of Christ. Visit our website at www .tt .com. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study when we understand the text.