A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM XLI.
_God’s care of the poor.—David complaineth of his enemies’ treachery.—He fleeth to God for succour._ To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Blessed _is_ he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; _and_ he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness. I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. Mine enemies speak evil of me; when shall he die, and his name perish? And if he come to see _me_, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; _when_ he goeth abroad, he telleth _it_. All that hate me whisper together against me: against me do they devise my hurt. An evil disease, _say they_, cleaveth fast unto him: and _now_ that he lieth, he shall rise up no more. Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lift up _his_ heel against me. But thou, O LORD, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them. By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.
And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever. Blessed _be_ the LORD God of Israel, from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen. This Psalm is a prophecy; where, after the manner of the Psalms, Christ himself speaks, and with a wonderful feeling, complains of his domestic traitor Judas, and of those cruel dogs which vented their fury on the poor; by which dogs, he means those that crucified him. He prays that God would judge his cause, and set him before his face: that is, that God his father would comfort him in his suffering, and raise him from the dead; that, being exalted, through the cross and death, to the right hand of God, he might be glorified with eternal life and victory. This is a great and unspeakable consolation to all the godly; where, in the fourth verse, the Son saith, “heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.” He confesses himself to be a sinner before God his Father, whereas he was without sin, and no guile was found in his mouth. Here, therefore, he stands as our priest, as a victim and sacrifice for sin, bearing and suffering for our sins, as if they were his; and he bore the guilt of them.
In the beginning of the Psalm he comprehends the sum of the whole matter, in a very powerful expression. “Blessed (saith he) are they who consider the poor and needy:” that is, blessed, yea, eternally blessed are they, who are not offended at the once weak, crucified, and condemned Christ, but who believe the Gospel. For the preaching of the cross is to the Gentiles foolishness, and to the Jews a stumbling-block. And it is the greatest of all offences to the world to preach, teach, or confess, that the once poor, crucified, and condemned Christ, now sits at the right hand of the divine Majesty, and that he is on high, the Lord of all, both in this world, and that which is to come. For with this Christ, that people of the Jews were so offended, and they so ran upon and stumbled on this rock of offence, that, to this day, they remain cast out and scattered, and wander about over all the face of the earth, without a priesthood, and without a kingdom!
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.