Psalm 41

Has anyone ever told you a riddle that you couldn’t get the answer to but as soon as you heard the answer you were like, “of course! It’s obvious!”

If you were here this past Sunday, Pastor Luke showed us one of these moments the disciples experienced from John 12. The Apostle wrote of the triumphal entry that the disciples didn’t understand until after Jesus’ death the meaning of that event and many others. In fact, Jesus spent 40 days after his resurrection, teaching “them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27 ).

After his ascension, the disciples then used this knowledge to reread the Old Testament through the lens of Christ. We can see throughout their writings that they use many scriptures, Isaiah being a favorite, to show people that the writer was prophesying about Jesus. Matthew in his gospel says over and over again that this was done to fulfill this scripture, this was done to fulfill this prophesy, etc.

Another favorite text that the Apostles used, were the Psalms, including Psalm 41 which we just read. And this is a great Psalm to start off our Holy Week meditations, because even though it was written by David almost a thousand years earlier, it foreshadows what his greater son would experience through out this week. Starting in verse one.

Verse one says, “Blessed is the one who considers the poor.” The Hebrew word used for “Poor” is the word dal which means “low, poor; helpless; powerless; insignificant; downcast; sullen.” In a collective sense, this means an unimportant people.

In the series of events of this week, the triumphal entry would have just happened yesterday. Who was coming and shouting “hosanna?” Who was shouting “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord” (Lk. 19:38)? It was the insignificant, the helpless, powerless, the unimportant. Very few of the elite of Jerusalem acknowledged Jesus. In fact, according to Luke’s account of the triumphal entry, the religious leaders told Jesus to rebuke his followers for saying these things. They did not recognize him, but the crowds did because Jesus for 3 years had been fulfilling verse 1 of Psalm 41, among them. He had considered the poor. He noticed them, healed them, he had compassion on them, and so they worshiped him, at least in that moment.

But we see the posture of the religious leaders in verses 5-9. Throughout the rest of this week leading up to his betrayal and eventual crucifixion, Jesus contends with the anger, the malice as verse 5 says, of the religious leaders. They plotted his death (Lk. 22:1-2), they tried to trap him with empty words about paying taxes to Caesar (Lk. 20:19-26), or arguments about the resurrection even though it was a sect of leaders who didn’t believe in the resurrection (Lk 20:27-40), they imagined the worst of him to the point that on Friday they could boast “a deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not rise again from where he lies” (v. 8).

Jesus not only had to endure the ire of the religious elite, but by Thursday, he would also endure the betrayal of one of his closest companions, and the abandonment of all his followers. Both John and Matthew in their gospels say that Jesus quoted verse 9 of Psalm 41 during their last supper together to show that this scripture was fulfilled through Judas’ betrayal. In John 13:18, Jesus says, “

English Standard Version Chapter 13

I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

It’s no wonder that by Thursday night or in the early hours of Friday morning, Jesus is weeping in the garden! He endures all that the middle part of Psalm 41 lays out before he even gets to the worst part! He still has to bear the weight of the sin of the world on himself through a gruesome death. In light of this, Jesus’ prayer that if another way could be found, if the Father could take the cup away from him, makes a lot of sense. He’s already exhausted and the real trial hasn’t even begun yet.

And yet, Jesus does endure. The end of that prayer is “not my will, but yours be done.” Maybe he can boldly pray that prayer because he knows that the rest of Psalm 41 will be fulfilled in the end.

He knows that the Lord will be gracious to him and raise him up (v. 10). He knows that the Father delights in him and through his resurrection the enemy can not and will not shout in triumph over him (v. 11). He knows that the Lord will uphold him because of his integrity (v.12a). Jesus did what David could not, what Israel could not. He was the greater son and fulfilled the requirements of the law perfectly so that he was the only one who could be the perfect sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin once and for all. And because of this, because Jesus endured what would happen through this week culminating with his death, the Father would set him in his presence forever (v. 12b) by raising him from the dead thereby defeating sin and death forever.

Why did Jesus choose to do all of this? Was it just the prize of being in the presence of the Father forever? According to Paul in Philippians 2, Jesus already enjoyed that privilege, yet he choose to forsake it. Why? Love.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Jesus endured the highs of the triumphal entry to the bitter lows of betrayal and death because he loves you. He wants to be with you. He does not want to abandon you to sin and death, but through faith in what he accomplished through his life, death, and resurrection, he wants to give you new life, his life.

As we journey through the rest of this week, and we read again the stories of what Jesus went through, I encourage us to personalize them. Jesus did this for me. If not for him, my voice would be the one crying out with the rest of the crowd, “crucify him.” But because he was gracious toward me, and he drew me to himself, by faith I can sing a different song, “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting!” Because he has accomplished these things through his son.

Let us pray.