The Bible Study Podcast, episode 382. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of

Psalms with Psalm 41.

Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen. I will admit to you that I

almost skipped Psalm 41 this week, and not because I have anything against this Psalm, but I really like the next one. So you'll have to come back next week to hear Psalm 42.

Psalm 41 is again a Psalm of David, and it starts this way. Blessed are those who have regard for the

week. The Lord delivers them in times of trouble. The Lord protects and preserves them. They are

counted among the blessed in the land. He does not give them over to the desires of their foes.

The Lord sustains them on their sick bed and restores them from their bed of illness.

As David talks about Blessed of those who have regard for the weak, that's that theme that we

keep coming back to, that sometimes gets expressed in the Bible, as we've said, as the care

for the widow, the orphan, and the stranger for those who are powerless. But here it's expressed as a regard

for those that are weak, a regard for those who have no power, a guard for those who need protection.

And that part of the role of the righteous, the role of the people of God, the role of the people

that God calls, you and I, is to have regard for the week.

Whoever that week would be in our situation, whoever that week would be in our community.

We would start with the widow and the orphan and the stranger, so we would have to add

into that the homeless, the immigrant, possibly the illegal immigrant, would start to get a little

more uncomfortable, but basically

for those who are in a situation where people can prey upon them because of their lack of power,

where they need for people to speak for them.

And so David, in this particular Psalm, though, is not addressing that so much as he's addressing

the character of the people

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