Psalm 41:9-12
9Even my close friend,
someone I
trusted,
one who shared my bread,
has turned
against me.
10But may you have mercy on me , LORD;
raise me
up, that I may repay them.
11I know you are pleased with me,
for my
enemy does not triumph over me.
12Becuase of my integrity you uphold me
and set me
in your presence forever.
Observation:
This Psalm
of David starts with a note of praise for those who uphold the weak. The praise
really is that God will deliver those who do so, in their time of trouble. The
Psalmist here is in a time of trouble. He begins his search for help through
confession. He may or may not have had a specific sin in mind; nevertheless,
the Psalmist has a clear understanding that his own personal sin may be
involved.
He then reminds
God of their relationship. He suggests that ultimately what his enemies say
about him, they are saying about his God as well. This is the covenant
relationship. When an enemy comes against the covenant partner does battle with
or on behalf of the other. David is clear on this fact. He knows that God will
sustain, defend, and heal him.
The worse
part is not when enemies treat him bad. Rather, it is when his friend treats
him unjustly. One cannot help but remember Job’s friends and their not so
encouraging words. Here, David realizes that God is still with him. His
rational is that he would have been overcome already if God were not pleased
with him. Perhaps at this point David has realized that it is not his own sin
that is keeping him in this poor estate. There may be no greater ‘I Told You
So’ than getting better when everyone counted you out.
Application:
The people
that hurt us most often are those who we are closest to. A possible reason for
this is that we tend to put expectations on those who are our friends. After
all the best kind of friend is one who always responds the way I think they
should. When it comes to very close friends, maybe a spouse, we expect that
they will always defend us, always drop what they are doing to run to us, and at
the least defend our character before our enemies.
Unfortunately,
this is an unrealistic expectation. We can bemoan the fact and say this
shouldn’t be so; however, it is so at times. If we place to much value in our
friends opinions of us we become grossly unbalanced and we will find our value
and emotional state fluctuating with their behaviors toward us.
David
teaches us a very valuable lesson. Our value, the defense of our character, and
how we respond should rest solely in how God feels about us. Now I am a pleaser
personality so I struggle with this. Nevertheless, I must commit myself to the
Lord hand what he has to say. He has reminded me, that I am created in His
Image. That he sees me as a good creation. He judges me not on the outside appearance
that the world sees, but the true nature of my spirit. Therefore, I must draw
close to him and allow him to transform the broken image within me back to the
holy image he desires.
Many years
ago, I attended a retreat where Dr. Jerry Porter explained that, “If God will
not defend your character, you can’t.” Those words have freed me time and
again. In those simple words, I learned that I could not wrestle with every bad
statement made about me. The innuendos that fly around, and the good friends that
feel I need to know what has been said about me, no longer capture my focus.
Like David I will focus on the one who loves me, the one who saves me, the one
who speaks the truth about me, Jesus!
Prayer:
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