Psalms 41:1 - Homiletics

Considerate sympathy.

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor." A double blessing waits for those who are worthy of it, in these words—a blessing of heaven above, and a blessing of the deep that lieth under. As Holy Writ,-they utter a Divine promise; as the voice of human experience, they breathe heart-felt gratitude. They are "the blessing of him that was ready to perish." This word "poor" is not to be restricted to what we specially call "poverty." It sometimes has that sense (e.g. Exodus 23:3 ), but also means "weak, miserable, downcast." The psalm expressly refers to bodily sickness and weakness, aggravated by the heartless cruelty of false friends. Consider

I. THE REASON OF THE BLESSING .

1 . Considerate sympathy , helpful compassion for the needy, weak, or suffering, is "blessed," because it is a feature of likeness to God. it is "the mind which was in Christ Jesus." See the Divine example and the practical inference ( 1 John 3:16 , 1 John 3:17 ). When our Lord rebuked the hypocrisy' of Judas (" not that he cared for the poor ), he took care to add, "The poor always ye have with you" ( John 12:8 ). St. James keenly satirizes the mock charity in which words are not coupled with deeds ( James 3:15 , James 3:16 ). Compassion for the poor runs through the Bible. Care for the poor, for widows, etc; was one of the earliest and most sacred cares of the primitive Church. Our innumerable hospitals and asylums of all kinds receive munificent support from many who lay no claim to Christian faith; yet they rove their deep and sure root in Christian sympathy. They arc among those blessings which "Religion scatters on her march to immortality" (Robert Hall). Two of the main forms of human suffering are specially set before us in these words— poverty and sickness . Poverty begins where plenty ends. A man is not to be counted "poor" because he dwells in a cottage, lives simply, dresses plainly, earns his children's bread by the sweat of his brow, as long as his work is healthy, his food plentiful and wholesome, and he can keep out of debt, and have a little to give to God's work and to a needy neighbour. But when strength is overtasked, when toil and thrift cannot keep the wolf from the door, and work fails or health breaks down, and the question has to be faced how long the home can be kept together,—then, indeed, poverty is felt to be one of the bitterest forms of the curse which sin has brought into human life. For though this cruel form of suffering often falls on those who have not themselves to blame for it, somebody is to blame, or society is to blame. Trace it to its deepest root, and you shall find sin. And then it is that the pitiful eye of the All-giver rests on that darkened home, and his voice says, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor." Sickness often comes as the direct fruit of poverty. Often they terribly aggravate one another's burden. It would be a heart-rending sight to see all the sick-beds in a nation, or even in a single city; but a blessed and heavenly sight if we could see all the tender sympathy, self-sacrificing love, sleepless, patient labour, self-devoted skill, which sickness is hourly calling forth. None tread closer than the nurse and the physician in the earthly footsteps of him who "went about doing good." What a hard, selfish world, one imagines, this would become, were there no self-denying ministry to the helpless and suffering! So God brings good out of evil, and "blesses him that considereth the poor." Note the tender promise, verse 3, Authorized Version, which, I doubt not, is the true sense.

2 . There is justice as well as mercy in this claim, enforced not only by Christ's example , but by his Law ( Galatians 6:2 ). True, both poverty and disease are largely the direct result of sloth, intemperance, dishonesty, neglect, or other vices and follies—sin's wages. Yet even in these cases the heavy end of the burden very often falls on innocent shoulders. And in multitudes of cases these calamities come on those who have done their best. They fought bravely, but the battle of life went against them. The causes may lie far back in the past—in bad laws, misgovernment, wars, wasteful expenditure; or in trade disputes; or in far-off lands, by the failure of a crop or the origin of a pestilence. Then, since the poor and the sick are so largely the victims of the mistakes, follies, or crimes of society, nations, mankind; nay, even suffer often from the very causes by which others grow rich,—is it not simple justice that those for whom the great wheel of life is spinning a smooth and golden thread should step in to lift their burden," as good stewards of the manifold grace of God"?

II. THE NATURE OF THE BLESSING HERE PRONOUNCED .

1 . One of the greatest of all blessings is to be like God ( Matthew 5:45 ).

2 . It is blessed to be God ' s almoner ( Matthew 10:8 ).

3 . The sweetest happiness is to make others happy.

4 . it is blessed to have a place in the prayers of God's afflicted children. Perhaps, if the balance could be struck, it would not be always where the giver expects; he may be more a debtor to their prayers than a creditor by his gifts.

5 . After all this, it seems an over-measure of repayment to speak of any future recompense; yet our Saviour does ( Luke 14:14 ; 1 Timothy 6:17-19 ; Matthew 10:42 ).