PSALM 41:10-13

We will conclude our Psalm 41 study this week.  Our theme has been, “A Psalm With Meaning For Then And Now”.  Let us look this week at verses 10-13, which says, “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.”

            Those like David who have experienced the faithfulness of God in times of extremity will have no problem seeing this as ‘A Persuasion Of Supplication’.  What better place to go in a time of trouble but to the Lord in prayer.

            In verse 10 we see there is ‘A Prayer For Mercy’.  It seems from the text that David is abruptly going into God’s presence.  The phrase is “But thou, O LORD…” I feel that David doesn’t go in and out of God’s presence but lives in His continual abiding presence.  The request is for God to be merciful to David.  The Bible teaches that mercy is God withholding from us what we deserve.  David knows he deserves, without question, this sickness that seems to be unto death.  He asks the Lord to raise him up off this bed of death because of His mercy.  David makes a bold promise to God in this prayer for mercy.  He promises the Lord that if He raises him up that he will ‘requite’ the Lord.  It means to reciprocate, to make amends, and to give oneself again and again.  It seems David is talking about his reasonable service of my life, my soul, and my all.

            In verse 11 David tells of his ‘Prayer For Maintenance’.  He says if you show me mercy I will know by that, that thou ‘favourest’ me.  We see in this word the ‘Maintenance Of Grace’.  Mercy is God withholding from us what we deserve but grace is God giving us what we do not deserve.  How often we need to spend time in our prayer closet thinking upon the times God has shown us His marvelous grace. We see in this prayer the ‘Maintenance Of A Garrison’.  How can it be that David’s enemies could not get victory over him?  Why, he is lying on his deathbed and would be easy pickings for the weakest of his enemies.  God has a garrison, a hedge, about David.  Satan spoke of this when speaking to God about Job.  Satan said that if God would lift that hedge and let him at Job then Job would curse God.  I thank God for maintaining a garrison about me at all times.  Even when it was lifted from around Job and Satan went in like a flood, Job’s response was ‘The Lord giveth, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord’.

            In verse 12 we have the ‘Prayer Of Manifestation’.  David tells us God has shown Himself as the one that ‘upholdest’ him.  The word means to sustain while holding fast to.   David tells us he doesn’t uphold us while we live any life style.  He upholdeth us only in a life of ‘integrity’.  This word means trustworthy, dependable, and one who doesn’t need to be checked on.

            In verse 13 we find the ‘Prayer Of Might’.  This Psalm began with blessings upon David.  He ends the Psalm with returning blessings unto God.  David adores the ‘covenant name’ of the ‘LORD God Of Israel’.  He is the great ‘I AM’ who makes all things from nothing.  He sees also the ‘continuing nature’ of God.  David says our God of might is from everlasting to everlasting.  There is not a time when He began neither will there be a time when He will end.  This Psalm certainly ends in a doxology of praise.  David ends the prayer with the words, ‘Amen, and Amen’.  This phrase gives the ending thought of so let it surely, firmly, and eternally be.

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