Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS 15 July 2018
The phone rang in the church office in Carbondale, IL, one afternoon while I was interning with Pastor Wyatt George. Even from where I sat, I could hear that the woman on the other end sounded pitiful as she poured out her heart to the pastor. Her son was handicapped and they were homeless, she didn’t have any food to feed him, could we spare a few dollars to help them buy groceries? Now, if you know Wyatt, he has the biggest heart for the needy that you can imagine, so right away, he promised to write her a check. The woman replied that she would stop by the church building soon to pick it up, so Wyatt handed a check to me and told me to run it out to her. As I emerged from the door of the church building, I saw a gleaming-new conversion van with fancy trim and tinted windows parked in the church parking lot, and a well-dressed woman in the driver’s seat was hanging up her cell phone. She got out and asked me if I was delivering her check and I said, “Yes.” She snatched it out of my hands and jumped back in her van and cruised off. I went back into the church building to tell Pastor Wyatt what happened, and he just looked at me with a rueful grin and said, “Well Nate, I think we’ve been had! But at least it was only $25!”
Psalm 41 took me by surprise after all these psalms about salvation because it starts out with a proverb about the poor and needy.
· This last psalm in the first book of the psalter opens with a list of seven blessings[2] which come upon theמַשְׂכִּ֣יל אֶל־דָּ֑ל - one who thinks/understands/considers/regards/acts insightfully toward the poor/needy.
· The Hebrew word maskiyl denotes both wisdom and successfulness, so it is not merely the man who thinks about the needs of others, but who achieves success in helping those who are needy.
o “He takes thought of the best way to help the person in need” ~A. Cohen
o “maskil is a term associated with the wisdom tradition and reflects a perceptive ability to know the right response in a given situation – here the treatment of the weak.” ~Gerald Wilson
· Who are the dal/needy?
o The last verse of the previous psalm[3] (Psalm 40:17) said that David himself was “poor and needy” and that the Lord was the one who had consideration toward him.
o This adds a layer of real complexity to this psalm which allows it to contain several kinds of applications,
§ one of which was just for people who lived at the same time and place as David did,
§ and one of which is related to Jesus as both the “blessed one” and the “suffering servant,”
§ but the introduction of Psalm 41 also reads like a Proverb with general application to all of us.
o We first encounter this Hebrew word דָּל in Leviticus 14:21-22[4] where it describes someone who has had leprosy and whose “employment does not provide sufficient earnings” to be able to provide three sheep or goats for all the animal sacrifices required for his purification, so God provides for the poor to substitute two of the three sheep with a much-less-expensive dove.
· This illustrates the principle that God blesses those who reflect His own character. God has consideration for the poor. For instance, Psalm 113:7 states, “He [Yahweh] raises the poor out of the dust, And lifts the needy out of the ash heap…” (NKJV)
· The Proverbs also add to our understanding of how to act wisely toward the poor:
o Proverbs 14:31 “He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, But he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.” (NKJV) Mercy ministry is a way of worshipping God!
o Proverbs 19:17 “He who has pity on the poor lends to the LORD, And He will pay back what he has given.” (NKJV) This is speaking of no-interest loans that can even be forgiven.
o Proverbs 21:13 “Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor Will also cry himself and not be heard.” (NKJV)
· A common practice in Bible times was to give a needy person work to do around your property and to provide free room and board in exchange - as well as free mentoring in how to be successful in work. The goal was for the poor person to go off on his own after a few years and start his own business with capital you provided when it was time for him to launch out (Deut. 15). That, I think, is a fuller understanding of what it meant to “act with insight toward the needy.”
· The word for “poor/needy” was translated into Greek as the word πτωχὸν, and this word appears in the New Testament many times:
o Among the proofs that Jesus gave for being the Messiah was that, “Blind men are seeing again, and lame men are walking around, lepers are being cleansed… and πτωχοὶ/needy men are getting good news…” (Matt. 11:5, NAW) Preaching the gospel should go along with meeting physical needs.
o Furthermore, Jesus informed the rich young ruler, "If you want to be perfect, go on, start selling your possessions and giving to needy men, and you will have a treasury in heaven. Also, here, keep following me." (Matt. 19:21, NAW) Faith is not mature if it does not have a component of ministry to the poor.
o Mark 14:7 "For you have the poor with you always, and whenever you wish you may do them good...” (NKJ) Poverty will never be eradicated.
o Jesus also said, "When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." (Luke 14:12-14, NKJ)
o He also said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7, KJV)
o And so, helping the poor was part of the practice of those who followed Jesus[5].
§ For instance, Peter, James, & John reminded the Apostle Paul to “remember the poor,”
§ and Paul took up collections everywhere he went to send to poor people and persecuted Christians in Jerusalem,
§ Paul also exhorted the gathering of elders in Acts 20:35, “I have shown you in every way, by laboring like this, that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that He said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'” (NKJV)
§ The Apostle James also exhorted believers to provide special care for the two main classes of needy people in his day: “orphans and widows,” and warned that “judgment will be merciless to the one who shows no mercy.”
· So how can we today “act insightfully toward the needy”?
o In his commentary on the Psalms, Gerald Wilson suggested a couple of good applications which I will quote at length: “The first element of having regard for the dallim is to know how to offer the right and appropriate response in our contacts with them… Often concerned people fail in their attempts to minister to others because they do not take the time to know whom they are trying to serve and what their needs really are. This kind of understanding requires time in order to build relationships…”
o I was in the parking lot babysitting my kids while my wife was grocery shopping, and a bum shambled up to my window and said he was hungry – hadn’t eaten all day, and could I give him a couple of dollars so he could buy a meal at that fast food restaurant over yonder. One compassionate response would have been to give him a ten-spot, but most likely he would have gone to the liquor store on the other side of the parking lot with that money rather than the restaurant. When I was in college, my pastor, Randy Nabors, at New City Fellowship Church, gave me some mentoring, and one of the things he taught me was that if I encountered a situation like that, I should offer to go to a restaurant with the person and pay for a meal and eat it together and talk. So I tried this bit of wisdom on the bum that approached me in the parking lot. I said, “I can’t give you cash, but would you like me to buy you a sandwich?” Suddenly he wasn’t very hungry any more. He just said, “Nevermind,” and walked off to ask somebody else. Now, there have been occasions when a panhandler has taken me up on the offer and we’ve had a good conversation at a coffeeshop.
o Here is another application from the NIV Application Commentary, “If we are truly committed to those we consider ‘poor’ or ‘weak’ and if we truly want to labor together with them in redemptive ways, we must acknowledge our essential unity with them. This is the message communicated by Psalm 41 when it moves immediately from encouraging… regard for the weak to an exposition of the psalmist’s own weakness… We are not so different from those we are called to serve.”
o I am not the solution to their problems. Jesus is. This is an easy principle to ignore because it feels good to be able to give something we have to someone who needs what we have to give. But if we create a co-dependent relationship, where they just keep coming back to us to cover their need because we’re an easy touch, and we keep giving it to them because we want to feel important and needed, that robs God of glory and just complicates the problems. Bryant Myers, in his book, Walking With The Poor, advocated empowering needy people in a certain location by helping them put their heads together to solve their own problems. It challenges them to ask God rather than rich people for help, it encourages them that they can be successful in solving a problem, and it helps them identify unique community resources they have which they can share with more privileged folk who often don’t have those resources.
o The need that most of us have that is even more basic than money and food is community. We need accountability, we need outside input into our lives, and we need a safety-net of friends that can step in when we’re not making it, and that all comes from community. Most of the needy people I have interacted with have been very resistant to coming to church to enter into that kind of community, although most have them have been very receptive to me spending time with them as a friend. Figuring out how to bridge the needy with community is a way of acting insightfully. That’s one thing I like about the “Circles” program that was recently started in one of the mainline churches downtown. It connects needy people with a circle of stable friends dedicated to helping them.
o Beware of cynicism. If you spend any amount of time reaching out to needy people, you will get lied to and taken advantage of so many times that you will want to shut down and paint all needy people as pathological liars and thieves and stop even trying to help them. You can’t fix all the problems in the world, but you can (and must) obey God with the few opportunities He places before you.
o Some needs are not immediately discernable to the eye. John Calvin commented: “it is no uncommon thing for those who are sorrowful and grieved in their minds to throw themselves upon their bed, and to seek repose; for the hearts of men are sometimes more distressed by grief than by sickness.” How can we minister to those with mental weakness or emotional distress? Once again, I think time investment in discipleship is key, and, because it is so time-intensive, I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect to impact large numbers of individuals with these needs.
o Another principle is simply to be slow to form judgments about needy people we encounter: “…let us learn to guard against a too precipitate judgment. We must therefore judge prudently of our brethren who are in affliction; that is to say, we must hope well of their salvation, lest, if we condemn them unmercifully before the time, this unjust severity in the end fall upon our own heads... The Scriptures in many places plainly and distinctly declare, that God, for various reasons, tries the faithful by adversities, at one time to train them to patience, at another to subdue the sinful affections of the flesh, at another to cleanse, and, as it were, purify them from the remaining desires of the flesh, which still dwell within them; sometimes to humble them, sometimes to make them an example to others, and at other times to stir them up to the contemplation of the divine life.” ~J. Calvin Be gracious.
o Finally, remember that the needy are also in your own family. An infant that is unable to feed itself, a sick child who is unable to clean herself up, a spouse who is suffering mysterious pain, an elderly parent who is losing mental faculties, all these are needy people. Don’t feel like you have to go across town or around the world to serve the needy if God has placed them right in front of you!
· That is going to require a lot of work and self-denial and some uncomfortable things. Is the work of helping the needy worth the trouble? Absolutely! Let’s review the seven benefits which the Psalmist lists for those who help the needy:
· #1 starts at the end of v.1 “During a bad/evil day/of trouble, Yahweh will deliver him.”
o The evil in this world can be so overwhelming, the injustice and violence and pain and heartache touch every one of us - and often it’s not just a touch, it’s like a gang of thugs beating you to a bloody pulp, and there seems to be no way to get away from it. In the face of evil, we need a God who stands outside of this world system, who is not corrupted by it, and who and has the power - and the desire - to intervene on behalf of His people on those “bad days,” and this is what we have in Jesus!
· #2 (v.2) Yahweh will shamar/keep/protect/preserve/guard him [יִשְׁמְרֵהוּ]. We’ve seen this already many times in the Psalms:
o Ps. 12:7-8 “As for you, Yahweh, You will take care of them; You will protect us from this generation forever. Wicked men are all around...” (NAW)
o Ps. 17:8-9 “Protect me like You would [the] apple of [your] eye. In the shadow of Your wings You will hide me from the presence of wicked men which have devastated me. As for my enemies, with aspiration they form a circle over me.” (NAW)
o Ps. 25:19-22 “Look at my enemies because they have become many, and they have hated me [with] violent hatred. Please guard my soul and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, Because I have taken refuge in You.” (NAW)
o Ps. 34:19-20 “Some amount of evils happen to one who is righteous, but Yahweh will give him deliverance from all of them. Tending/keeping[6] all his bones; not one from among them gets broken.” (NAW)
o Psalm 37:28 “for Yahweh loves justice, and He will not forsake His godly ones forever; they have been preserved, but the offspring of wicked men have been cut off.” (NAW)
· #3 Yahweh will revive him [יחַיֵּהוּ]. The root word here is chayah – to live.
o Death and dying are all around us as the consequence of human rebellion against God.
o But God is the life-giver. God is alive Himself, often[7] uttering the oath, “As surely as I live, I will do such and such;” God also created physical life, and He also gives eternal life which is not confined to the physical.
o “There is no objection to making the clause include the promise of a resurrection and of a happy life beyond. Good things given in covenant love here are pledges of better things to come.” ~William Plumer, Studies in Psalms
o John 3:14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” (NKJV)
o John 10:28 “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.” (NKJV)
o John 17:2 “You have given Him [Jesus] authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.” (NKJV)
o Rom. 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJV)
o You want revival? Be considerate of the poor!
· #4 He will be made blessed [יֶאְשֹּׁר] in the land
o The ESV followed the NASB interpretation of this phrase as saying that people who live in your community will speak blessing upon you, and, while I wouldn’t rule that out as a possibility, I think they (as well as the NIV) stepped a little beyond what the Hebrew text actually says.
o I’m with the KJV on this one that God will cause the person who acts insightfully toward the needy to experience blessing, and that could include all kinds of happy providences.
· #5 and He [Yahweh] will not give him over to the aspiration of his enemies. [וְאַל-תִּתְּנֵהוּ בְּנֶפֶשׁ אֹיְבָיו]
o All living things have desires, and all sentient beings express this through their will.
o Satan, our supernatural enemy, has a will and desire to “steal, kill, and destroy.” Jesus has a will that His sheep “may have life abundantly”[8]. The one who acts insightfully toward the needy is not going to be left guessing which of those two wills is going to win out!
o When demons whisper into our thoughts that they’re going to kill us, or when human adversaries say they’re going to bury us, we can continue obeying God without fear because the will of our enemies is irrelevant because they have no control over our life; we are in the Lord’s hands.
· #6 (v.3) Yahweh will sustain [יִ֭סְעָדֶנּוּ] him when he is on a sickbed…
o All the previous uses of sa’ad in the Bible have to do with providing food, and that’s certainly a need for someone who is too sick to get out of bed. Bread “sustains” us[9].
o But there’s more than just the physical component; when we’re sick we often also become depressed emotionally and we lose ground vocationally and financially. This word “sustain” is also used throughout the Psalms to describing “holding us in place,” “supporting/stabilizing” so that we stay where we’re supposed to be: Psalm 94:18 If I say, "My foot slips," Your mercy, O LORD, will hold me up.” (NKJ, cf Ps. 199:117) Psalm 18:35 You also give me the shield of Your salvation. With Your right hand You sustain me... (NAW, cf. Ps. 20:2)
o Forget Obamacare, this is the kind of healthcare I want!
· #7 all his lying-down during his illness You will turn around [הָפַ֥כְתָּ]
o The KJV and some commentators like William Plumer and Gerald Wilson[10] seem to have interpreted this verse as God changing the sheets on your sickbed, but that doesn’t make sense to me.
o Most other modern versions interpret this verse as God healing the sick person and getting them out of bed. This is something which God does, but it is not something that God always does.
o I think that there is a nuance in the Hebrew language of this verse which is easily missed. It doesn’t say that the person will not experience sickness; what it says literally is that God will “change” things “in/during” his sickness. The word for “change” in Hebrew hapak is often used to describe the overthrow of a city by foreigners[11].
§ Now, the turnaround could well be a miraculous change from sick to healed,
§ but sometimes the change is a change of thinking that redeems the time spent on the sickbed through a new perspective on God and life that we gain during that down-time.
§ Sometimes it’s the redeeming of the sick-time and loss of pay in terms of a financial change where God provides for our physical needs.
§ The Hebrew word for “sickness/illness” chaliy occurs in Deuteronomy 28 as a curse which God could lift off his covenant people or impose on His people who were unfaithful, and the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea all used this word to describe the trials that the Israelites faced when they were unfaithful and God was using sickness as a discipline to shepherd them back into a right relationship with Him. So we could also be looking at God’s work of discipline to turn our hearts back to Him.
o Whichever purpose God has for allowing sickness into your life, He is a God who brings changes that improve our relationship with Him and with others. Psalm 30:11 “You changed my mourning into a circle-dance for me! You untied my sack-cloth and girded me with happiness…” (NAW)
· In the Hebrew text, almost every one of these seven reassurances has a pronoun at the end that emphasizes God’s care in particular for this person: deliver him, protect him, revive him, give him, sustain him, and turn around his sickness.
· But is this just an Old Testament thing? Is helping the poor still something God wants us to do?
· Consider what Jesus said in Matthew 25:31ff: “So, whenever the Son of Man shall come in His glory and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit upon His throne of glory and all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He separates them from one another, just like a shepherd separates his sheep from his goats, and He will stand the sheep off to His right and the goats off to the left. Then the King will say to those off to His right, "Come here, you who have been blessed by my father! Start inheriting the kingdom prepared for y'all from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and y'all gave me [something] to eat; I was thirsty, and y'all gave me a drink; I was a stranger, and y'all gathered me in; I was naked, and y'all wrapped me up; I was sick, and y'all watched over me; I was in prison, and y'all came to me!" Then, in reply, the righteous will say to Him, "Master, when was it that we saw you being hungry and we provided nourishment or you being thirsty and we gave drink? And when was it that we saw you to be a stranger and we gathered in, or naked and we threw a wrap around? And when was it that we saw you being sick or in prison and came to you?" And, in answer, the King will say to them, "Really, I'm saying to y'all, as much as you did it for one of the least of these brothers of mine, it was to me that you did it." Then he will speak also to those off to His left, "You who have been cursed, continue to conduct yourselves away from me into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels, for I was hungry, and y'all did not give me something to eat; I was thirsty, and y'all did not give me a drink; I was a stranger, and y'all did not gather me in; I was naked, and you did not wrap me up; I was sick and in prison, and you did not watch over me." Then they also, in reply, will say, "Master, when was it that we saw you being hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and we did not serve you?" Then, in answer, He will say to them, "Really, I'm saying to y'all, as much as you did not do it for one of the least of these, neither did you do it to me." So as for these, they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous ones into eternal life! (NAW)
· So yes, I think we can conclude with the classic Bible commentator Matthew Henry: "Liberality to the poor is the surest and safest way of thriving; such as practise it may be sure of seasonable and effectual relief from God."
· “Lest we think of the psalmist as engaging in tit-for-tat theology (‘I do, therefore I get’), we should remember that the ashre blessing is regularly employed to encourage… desired behavior rather than to reward it. That is why ashre is so often used in the proverbial literature… Such statements are not simplistic rewards but are teaching models marking out the path of righteousness…” ~Gerald Wilson
· But here’s an important question. What if you haven’t really been practicing this stuff? Are you doomed to hell
o just because you haven’t ever run across anybody who was so poor they were naked?
o or just because you are under age and aren’t allowed visit anybody in the prison,
o and most indigent strangers seem like they would be kinda dangerous to approach,
o and well, there have also been times when you could have helped somebody but you just were selfish and didn’t.
o None of us have perfectly fulfilled God’s will in this area, and surely David didn’t either. Do we just give up, or is there mercy for us too? I think that’s why we have v.4:
· If we think that David was saying that God should have mercy on him because he had shown mercy to others, we make nonsense of the word “mercy.” As James M. Boice pointed out in his commentary, “[T]his is not… claiming a right to mercy because one is merciful. By its very definition, mercy is undeserved. In fact, is it God’s favor shown to those who deserve the precise opposite. So when David asks God for mercy, he is acknowledging that he… can be blessed only if God, for His mercy’s sake, chooses to be merciful. In fact… he is a sinner, which he makes clear in v.4…”
·
How do we get mercy/grace from
God when we have blown it in regard to the needy? We simply confess it as sin
to Jesus and ask Him to graciously forgive you and heal your soul which has
been distorted by your faithlessness. Since the early church, Christians have
understood this to apply to Christ Jesus. In the 300’s AD, Augustine paraphrased
Psalm 41 by saying, “‘Understand then upon the needy and poor One,’ that is,
Christ… For thereby in the evil day shall He deliver thee.” That is our only hope
to be made right with God, and then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can walk
in Christ’s footsteps and act with insight toward the needy.
|
LXX (Ps.40) |
Brenton |
DRB |
KJV |
NAW |
HWSG |
|
1
Εἰς τὸ τέλος· ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυιδ. |
1 For the end, a Psalm of David. Blessed is the man who thinks, on the poor [and needy]: the Lord shall deliver him in an evil day. |
1 Unto the end, a psalm for David himself. 2 Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy [and the poor]: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day. |
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. |
1 {For the concert-master, a psalm by David.} Blessings of the one who acts insightfully toward the needy. During a bad day Yahweh will deliver him. |
1 לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד: 2 אַשְׁרֵי מַשְׂכִּיל אֶל-דָּל[B] בְּיוֹם רָעָה יְמַלְּטֵהוּ יְהוָה: |
|
3
κύριος [δια]φυλάξαι αὐτὸν καὶ ζήσαι[C] αὐτὸν καὶ μακαρί |
2
May the Lord |
3
The Lord preserve him and |
2
The LORD will preserve him, and |
2 Yahweh will protect him, and will revive him. He will be made blessed in the land and He will not give him up to the aspiration of his enemies. |
3 יְהוָה יִשְׁמְרֵהוּ וִיחַיֵּהוּ יֶאְשֹּׁר[F] בָּאָרֶץ וְאַל-תִּתְּנֵהוּ בְּנֶפֶשׁ אֹיְבָיו: |
|
4 κύριος βοηθήσαι[G] αὐτῷ ἐπὶ κλίνης ὀδύνης [αὐτοῦ]· ὅλην τὴν κοίτην αὐτοῦ ἔστρεψας ἐν τῇ ἀρρωστίᾳ αὐτοῦ. |
3
May the Lord help him upon the bed of [his] pain; thou |
4 The Lord help him on [his] bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness. |
3
The LORD will strengthen[H]
him upon the bed of languishing:
thou wilt |
3 Yahweh will sustain him [when he is] on a sickbed; all his lying-down during his illness You will turn around. |
4 יְהוָה יִסְעָדֶנּוּ עַל-עֶרֶשׂ דְּוָי כָּל-מִשְׁכָּבוֹ הָפַכְתָּ בְחָלְיוֹ: |
|
5 ἐγὼ εἶπα Κύριε, ἐλέησόν με· ἴασαι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ὅτι ἥμαρτόν σοι.[I] |
4 I said, O Lord, have mercy upon me; heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. |
5 I said: O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. |
4 I said, LORD, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. |
4 As for me, I said, “Yahweh, be gracious to me; heal my soul for I have sinned against You.” |
5 אֲנִי-אָמַרְתִּי יְהוָה חָנֵּנִי רְפָאָה נַפְשִׁי כִּי-חָטָאתִי לָךְ: |
[1] Calvin maintained that it was the needy person which the Lord would deliver, not the one who considers the needy, but that doesn’t make sense to me in light of the ensuing six statements.
[2] The first book of the Psalms (ch. 1-41) begins and ends with Psalms that begin with the word “blessed.” (Boice)
[3] Ps. 40:17 “I, on the other hand, am lowly and needy. My Master will have consideration [יַחֲשָׁ֫ב] toward me; You are my helper and my rescuer. My God, do not be too late.” (NAW)
[4] But if he is needy and his employment does not provide sufficient earnings, then he shall take one lamb as a guilt-offering to be waved in order to make atonement over him, together with one bag of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain-offering, and a pint of oil and two pigeons or two juvenile doves which his employment can earn (so one will be a sin-offering and the other a whole-burnt-offering). (NAW)
[5] Galatians 2:10 They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.
Romans 15:26 For it pleased those from Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem.
James 1:27 “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world… 2:13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” (NASB)
[6] That was an alphabet acrostic psalm.
[7] Numbers 14:21,28; Deuteronomy 32:40; Isaiah 49:18; Jeremiah 22:24; 46:18; Ezekiel 5:11; 14:16,18,20; 16:48; 17:16,19; 18:3; 20:3,31,33; 33:11,27; 34:8; 35:6,11; Zephaniah 2:9; Romans 14:11.
[8] John 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (NKJV)
[9] Genesis 18:5 "And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts.” ~NKJ, cf. Judges 19:5, 1 Ki. 13:5, Ps. 104:15
[10] Plumer wrote: “It represents God as exercising the office of a nurse, smoothing the pillow and making the bed of his sick and distressed servants.”
[11] Genesis 19:21, Deuteronomy 29:22, Judges 7:13, 2 Samuel 10:3, 2 Kings 21:13, 1 Chronicles 19:3, etc.
[A] My original chart includes the NASB and
NIV, but their copyright restrictions have forced me to remove them from the
publicly-available edition of this chart. I have included the ESV in footnotes
when it employs a word not already used by the KJV, NASB, or NIV. (NAW is my
translation.) When a translation adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does
not indicate it has done so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put
the added words in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which
is different from all the other translations, I underline it. When a
version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either departs too far from
the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs too far from the grammar form of
the original text, I use strikeout. And when a version omits a word
which is in the Hebrew text, I insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a
word if the original word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between the various
editions and versions when there are more than two different translations of a
given word. There are no known Dead Sea Scrolls containing Psalm 41.
[B] The Targums also insert “and needy” like the LXX does. It does not change the meaning, through.
[C] All of the 2nd century Greek versions read “save” instead of “keep alive” but the LXX is closer to the MT, which uses חיה=zaw=live as a root.
[D] 2nd Century AD translators Symmachus, Aquilla, and Theodian all went with the MT reading here nephesh=yuch=soul/desire. While there is some difference between giving the enemy what his “soul desires” and the enemy actually getting his “hands” on the victim (as the LXX reads), the practical upshot is the same.
[E] NAS give him over, ESV give him up, NIV surrender him.
[F] What is “written” in the Hebrew text is a Pual passive causative “He will be caused to be blessed,” but Masoretic scribes added a note that there should be an “and” added [וְאֻשַּׁר], so the NASB and KJV added an “and” too. The LXX (followed by the NIV) goes a step further and makes the verb active and adds a direct object “and he will bless him,” an alternate reading which basically means the same thing and which is also found in a couple of Hebrew manuscripts as well as the Syriac and Targums. J. Calvin translated it “prosperera.”
[G] Jewish translators Aquila and Theodotian from the 2nd century AD translated this verb as a simple future (-sei)
[H] NAS,NIV will sustain, ESV sustains.
[I] Symmachus used the synonym oikteiron (have compassion)