Psalm 41:1-13

Sickness is both frightening and frustrating.  When we are sick it is easy for us to become fearful because we tend to project our present circumstance onto the future so we fear that an illness may just get worse and worse until we die.  Nobody plans on getting sick.  We all plan our lives assuming that we will have good enough health to be able to perform the tasks that we have planned.  When illness prevents us from doing what we have planned to do we tend to get frustrated by our lack of productivity.  The thing that we want the most when we are sick, besides healing, is compassion.  We long for someone who will help to encourage us, comfort us so that we are not overcome by fear or overwhelmed with frustration.  God is compassionate and He is honored when His children imitate His character by showing compassion to others.  Unfortunately, not everyone is like that and there are many people who are inconsiderate and only make things worse for those who are suffering.  However, God knows how to respond to both the compassionate and the inconsiderate.

GOD REWARDS THOSE WHO ARE COMPASSIONATE: God is always faithful to reward those who reveal His character through their actions.  Those who imitate God’s compassion will receive God’s compassion when they need it the most.  God will deliver, protect, refresh, heal, sustain and restore us when we are sick as a means of rewarding us for showing compassion to those who are poor or ill.  When those around us get sick or have other needs it is almost always an inconvenience to us.  We are all busy and taking time out of our schedules to go visit someone in the hospital or nursing someone back to health in our homes is not usually our preferred priority.  We must learn to set aside our pride and develop compassion in our lives because this pleases the Lord, it ministers to His children and it will be richly rewarded by God.  When the roles are reversed, the compassionate are usually the ones who receive the most compassion.


GOD REPAYS THOSE WHO ARE INCONSIDERATE: God also knows exactly how to repay those who are inconsiderate of the ill and needy.  There are people who take pleasure in the pain of others because it inflates their own egos.  It seems that David is sick when he writes this Psalm but instead of receiving the comfort that he had shown to others when they were sick; he is being criticized and even plotted against.  Those who come to visit him are not going to keep him company and bring comfort to him; but are just looking for news in hopes that his condition will get worse. He feels like they are hoping for his death.  David recognizes that his illness is as a result of his own sin and he asks the Lord for forgiveness and restoration.  Not all sickness is a result of sin.  However, if a person is suffering because of his own sin; we are not to use that as an excuse to be inconsiderate and fail to show compassion, especially when the person has shown repentance.  God’s compassion is not dependent upon our merits.  Those who are inconsiderate of the sick can expect harsh repayment from God.

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