Psalms 41:3

3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.

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 Happy are those who consider the poor; the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
2 The Lord protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies.
3 The Lord sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, "O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you."
5 My enemies wonder in malice when I will die, and my name perish.

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Heb [you change all his bed]
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.