Psalm 41.
Blessed are those who have regard for the weak;
the Lord delivers them in times of trouble.
2The Lord protects and preserves them—
they are counted among the blessed in the land—
he does not give them over to the desire of their foes.
3The Lord sustains them on their sickbed
and restores them from their bed of illness.
The following portion of psalm 41, speaks directly to my heart as a Christian living in a difficult world. My perception of reality can be skewed at times and whenever I read the above three verses of psalm 41, it brings joy to my heart. I have been a born again Christian since my 21 year, where I repented of my sins and received God's free gift of salvation. This great portion of scripture really came alive for me during a time where I was looking for the justice of God, in my world which seemed to be filled with the injustice of men, at the time.
I have struggled with why God allows evil in this world, and I am currently struggling as to why God allows evil in His own people. The Gospel really comes alive when we are suffering, and despite doctrinal arguments within the body of Christ, this psalm seems to end some of them.
When the bible says "Blessed are those who consider the weak" it is not just a caring attitude towards the poor, but the eternal condition of our hearts to the weak. It is true, that we are saved by faith alone, but we are justified by our works. (James 2:24 ESV) You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. It is not just giving money to the poor that this psalm is talking about, it is our faith attitude for those who are mentally ill, who have disabilities, or are poor.
The bible is clear that it is the outcasts in our society that are close to God. It is my belief, that God in the person of the Holy Spirit lives in our poor. There is a blessing when we bless these people, and when we oppress them, it is not good. The purpose of this psalm is not to create a theological doctrine around showing compassion to the needy, however in today's church that would be desperately needed. It speaks to the Christian and no one Christian is alike, when they are blessed with blessing the poor. We need not go out of our way, to receive this kind of blessing. There are people poor and suffering all around us.
When we bless the poor, we are remembering that God loves the poor and broken, and it is his desire that the gospel in action would go out to them. I take this very seriously, because as a Christian where there is a lack of compassion for the poor in our society we are lacking a Christian virtue that is required to go to Heaven, humility. When Christians oppress the poor they lack vision, and sin greatly against God. It is my desire, to see this world become just in the sight of God and the church to live in it true calling. This is Mike.
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