February 10, 2017: Day 41 – Psalm 41

It seems like we are all over the map in this psalm.  It begins on the note that I stressed before which I consider the most important part of my ministry outside of preaching Jesus Christ, and that is the cause of the poor and the marginalized.  The psalm begins with the authors stating that God will give preference to those who look out for the poor.   This is nothing new, we have seen it before.

He then transitions to another theme which we see in a lot of psalms which is: Woe is me because I have a lot of enemies and they are all coming after me.  One difference in this psalm is the honesty of the statement in vs.10: But you, O Lord, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.  What a statement.  Make me healthy and strong so I can crush my enemies.  Again, some of these psalms are so honest and raw and yet at the same time antithetical to Jesus’ words and message.  Jesus said that in order to rule over all we must be a servant to all.  A psalmist perspective would be in order to rule over all you must crush all your enemies.  I don’t really see Jesus saying that.  

But we need to be comfortable with the contextual differences and be able to say that Scripturally the words of our Savior fulfill the Old Testament approach of an eye for an eye by given a new commandment.  Do you remember Jesus’ new commandment which is why celebrate Maundy Thursday?  Look up John 13:34 and you will see Jesus’ new commandment.

In the end, however, we are able to say: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel.