Psalms 41:3

3 Whenever we're sick and in bed, God becomes our nurse, nurses us back to health.

Psalms 41:3 Meaning and Commentary

Psalms 41:3

The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing
When on a sick bed, or a death bed, where he lies languishing, and ready to expire; when his natural strength, spirits, and heart fail him, then the Lord strengthens him with strength in his soul; and is the strength of his heart, and his portion for ever. The Targum is,

``the Word of the Lord shall help him in his life, and shall appear to him on the bed of his illness, to quicken him;''

thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness;
or "all his bed thou hast turned" or "wilt turn in his sickness" F20; meaning not the recovery of him from a bed of sickness to a state of health, which is the sense given by many; much less a turning him from a state of ease and rest into trouble and distress; but making him easy and comfortable on a bed of sickness; which, in a literal sense, is done when a sick person's bed is turned or made, or he is turned upon it from side to side; so the Lord, by the comforts of his Spirit, makes a sick and death bed easy to them that believe in Christ, and often puts that triumphant song into their mouths in their dying moments, "O death! where is that sting?" &c. ( 1 Corinthians 15:55 ) ; and this is the peaceful end and blissful state of such who wisely consider Christ and believe in him; low estate, through the sins of his the insults of his enemies, and the treachery of one of his disciples, is described in the following verses.


FOOTNOTES:

F20 (tkph) "versasti", Pagninus, Montanus; "vertisti", Vatablus; "ita vertes", Michaelis; so Ainsworth; (demnia oi meteyhken) , Apollinarius.

Psalms 41:3 In-Context

1 Dignify those who are down on their luck; you'll feel good - that's what God does.
2 God looks after us all, makes us robust with life - Lucky to be in the land, we're free from enemy worries.
3 Whenever we're sick and in bed, God becomes our nurse, nurses us back to health.
4 I said, "God, be gracious! Put me together again - my sins have torn me to pieces."
5 My enemies are wishing the worst for me; they make bets on what day I will die.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.