Jehovah will sustain him upon the bed of languishing thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.
Psalm 41 opens with a blessing on the person who takes thought for the weak. Verse 3 shows how far that blessing reaches: right into the sickroom, where God Himself attends the bed. Does the promise mean a believer never dies of illness? And how does a psalm about a sickbed connect with Christ, who was never sick?
The Promise Belongs to the Merciful
The verse is not a general guarantee to everyone who falls ill. It belongs to the man described in verse 1, and its logic is return in kind:
Psalm 41 — the poor man's place. Verses 1-3: whoever acts toward the weak in the mind and way of Jehovah, Jehovah will act the same way toward him.
God is not rewarding a giving habit. The man blessed here understands the place of the lowly and takes it himself:
Psalm 41 shows the blessedness of the man who understands this position of the poor of the flock and enters into it (compare Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20). It is spoken in the person of one of the suffering remnant — doubtless with the psalmist's own experience.
Enemies Outside, Weakness Within
Verse 2 deals with hostile people. Verse 3 deals with a body that is failing. One writer sets the two side by side:
Whatever the evil is, grace will show that it is enough. The world may be hostile and the enemies many. Still they cannot prevail against him: "Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; and You will not give him up to the will of his enemies." And if the attack comes from within, against the very forces of life, the promise still holds: "Jehovah will sustain him on the bed of languishing: You will make all his bed in his sickness."
Sustained, Not Always Spared
The verse promises strength on the bed, not always removal from it. The picture assumes things have gone wrong:
The positive assurance follows in verse 3. Surely this pictures a state of things that brings afflictions such as illness. Circumstances may be far from favourable. But in those circumstances God promises the believer His sustaining grace.
The same writer notes a limit. In the psalm the sufferer is kept alive and blessed on earth. Believers now have their inheritance in heaven. So they may not be kept alive on earth — but they will be kept alive in heaven.
Making the Bed
The second half of the verse is tender. Older translations render it as God turning or making the sick man's bed, where the ESV reads "in his illness you restore him to full health."
Written to a suffering friend, one letter takes the verse as something already tested and found true, and names what God uses to soften the bed:
How well you must know Him! How often He has strengthened you on the bed of languishing! How He has made all your bed in your sickness! How often He has enabled you to carry your weak soul in the arms of faith and lay it down on this resting place — His precious word! It is a bed of comfort stuffed with sweet and precious promises.
Why God Lays People Low
Sometimes God is the one who puts a person on the sick-bed. There is a purpose in it:
Often God has to put us on a sick-bed to show us in practice what He can do. It is surely a blessed thing to see how He works this way — to see how He proves that He is enough for those whom He lays low. But the blessing of a sick-bed is often just this: God takes away everything else to show us that we have really lost nothing. Before that, we did not quite believe it.
The Psalm and Christ
Commentators differ over how directly this psalm speaks of Christ. One reads the sufferer as Christ Himself — "the Weakened One," whose glory faith sees under His sufferings. Another marks a limit. Christ took this place, but not the sickness:
The point of the psalm is this: blessed are those who understand the position of the people Jehovah is dealing with, and who enter into it themselves. This place Christ fully took, though He was not chastened with sickness.
Summary
- Cause — the promise follows the man of verse 1: as he treated the weak, so God treats him.
- Care — God does not just visit the sick bed. He holds the sufferer up and turns the bedding Himself.
- Comfort — His word softens that bed. It is a resting place filled with promises.
- Content — the promise is sustaining grace in the illness, not always removal of it. God shows He is enough by taking everything else away.
- Christ — He fully took this place of the lowly, though He was never chastened with sickness.