First Sunday After Trinity (B C P). Series

A). THE BLESSING OF THE COMPASSIONATE.

Psalm 41:1-4.

This is a Psalm of David. It is quite possibly about David. It is also about our Lord Jesus (except that Jesus has no personal sin to confess, unlike Psalm 41:4).

Psalm 41:1. “Blessed is he who considers the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.” This is the outworking of a Biblical principle (cf. Proverbs 19:17; Matthew 5:7).

To “consider” the poor is not simply to throw a coin at him, but to look at his afflictions not so much as a thing he must somehow have deserved (a common error, cf. John 9:1-3), but to recognise him as a fellow human being who has fallen on hard times. It is interesting to notice that our Lord Jesus ‘became poor that we might become rich’ in Him (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9). And He taught, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ (cf. Acts 20:35; Luke 14:12-14).

The Psalmist goes on to develop the thought of the LORD’s deliverance:

Psalm 41:2. He shall “preserve” his soul (cf. Psalm 121:7). He shall “keep him alive”: an abundance of life in the here and now (cf. John 10:10). “He shall be blessed in the earth”: the widow’s cruse of oil did not dry up ‘for many days’ after she had fed the prophet - not until the drought was over (cf. 1 Kings 17:14-16)! “Thou wilt not deliver him unto his enemies” (cf. Psalm 37:32-33).

Psalm 41:3. “The LORD will strengthen him in all his languishing” and, literally, “make his bed” in his sickness. The tender bedside manner of the Great Physician (cf. Psalm 73:26), who died on a Cross on our behalf! It is in such times of affliction that we find ‘grace sufficient’, and ‘strength in weakness’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9).

Psalm 41:4-10 takes the form of a lament. Even Jesus had to go through the dark night of Gethsemane. But Jesus had no personal sin to confess: He ‘knew no sin’; He ‘did no sin’; and ‘in Him is no sin’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5).

Psalm 41:4. The first stop for David (and us) was confession of sin. ‘Against you, you only have I sinned’ was his former plea (cf. Psalm 51:4). All sin is against God, but He stands ever ready to “heal” all our ‘backsliding’ (cf. Hosea 14:4).

B). THE ADOPTION OF MEPHIBOSHETH.

2 Samuel 9:6-13.

David the son of Jesse, and Jonathan the son of king Saul, were the best of friends. When they parted ways they entered into a covenant in which David vowed to show kindness to Jonathan’s family “for ever” (cf. 1 Samuel 20:14-16). After David became king, he remembered this promise (cf. 2 Samuel 9:1), and summoned Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth from Galilee to Jerusalem.

We can imagine that Mephibosheth came to David with a certain amount of uncertainty. As a member of a fallen dynasty in the Ancient Near East, what could he expect from this new king? Mephibosheth prostrated himself, and paid obeisance to his King (2 SAMUEL 9:6).

“Fear not,” David reassured him. Then king David promised to restore to Mephibosheth all the land of his grandfather Saul, and to give him a seat at the king’s table (2 SAMUEL 9:7; 2 SAMUEL 9:10-11; 2 SAMUEL 9:13). In other words, David gave Mephibosheth a royal inheritance (2 SAMUEL 9:9), and effectively adopted him as his own son (2 SAMUEL 9:13; cf. 2 Samuel 19:28).

Mephibosheth’s response (2 SAMUEL 9:8) echoes the humility of David’s earlier attempt to reassure king Saul that he was no threat to him (cf. 1 Samuel 24:14).

David further determined to ensure that Mephibosheth would be properly provided for (2 SAMUEL 9:10-11). As well as eating at the king’s table, Mephibosheth would have provision for his own household: his wife and son (2 SAMUEL 9:12).

APPLICATION. This passage serves as an adequate illustration of the Christian doctrine of Adoption: what it means to be adopted into the family of God.

In the New Testament, the Greek word translated ‘adoption’ means ‘a placing in the condition of a son’ (cf. Romans 8:15; Romans 8:23; Romans 9:4; Galatians 4:4-5; Ephesians 1:5). This is not gender specific, as there is (literally) ‘not male and female’ in Christ Jesus (cf. Galatians 3:28). The Lord says, ‘I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters’ (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:18).

Mephibosheth was born into a rebellious house, whom God had rejected. So were we: as a certain rhyming couplet says, ‘In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.’ Consequently, the Bible says, We were born ‘dead in trespasses and sins’ (cf. Ephesians 2:1).

Mephibosheth was effectively ‘adopted’ into David’s family on the basis of a historic covenant between David and Jonathan. All he had to do was believe it, and receive it.