Healing For Body & Soul Psalm 41:3-4

Text: “The Lord will strengthen him/her upon the bed of languishing: Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.  I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against Thee.”

                                                                                                                    Psalm 41:3-4.

Good morning, physically & Spiritually sick Christian!  Sickness and disease are closely connected fruits of the Fall of Adam in Eden’s Garden: there was no sickness nor sin in this Created world before Eve, and then Adam, bowed the knee to Satan’s will and disobeyed their Sovereign Creator Lord God, Jehovah.  

Therefore, sin is the primary and root cause of sickness and disease throughout our world today.  The results of sinful disobedience – Spiritual and physical sickness - are a direct effect of God’s Curse upon His created beings, because of the original sin of disobedience to His will, and because of sin committed daily, due to our fallen state and condition.  

We who are NOT Created beings, but ‘…born…’ of fallen man/woman, are now born with a natural bent, a natural tendency, towards committing sin, i.e. disobedience to God’s Commandments and failing to come up to His Perfect example of Holiness in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.  (Romans 3:10)

“But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested…Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
(Romans 3:21-23)

Mankind – Adam and Eve – that was Created perfect by a Perfect and Holy Lord God, fell into disobedient sin, in God’s Created Garden of Eden.  God cursed them, and all His Creation because of their sin, yet He then redeemed them by the shedding of innocent blood of animals.  However, sickness – Spiritual and physical sickness – has remained to plague fallen mankind ever since.  It is a legacy of the great fall of man into sin, and we face its potential dangers each and every day of our lives, even as redeemed Christian believers.  (Read afresh Genesis Chapter 3:1-24)

We fall down into Spiritual and physical ‘…beds of languishing…’ due to the consequences of sin – Adam’s sin in the Garden, and our own sins committed daily as we walk as pilgrims though this carnal and soul-polluting world.  Fact.  

As believers in Christ, we need to examine ourselves continually, to make sure we are ‘…in the faith…’; and confess openly to the Lord our continual faults and failings in the daily process of  what we theologians call Progressive Sanctification.

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove (test) your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates (rejected of God)?”                        (2 Corinthians 13:5)

“If we say we that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins (to God alone!), He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.”  (1 John 1:8-10)

So, therefore, with this truth in mind, dear Christian friend, let us ask ourselves this vital question:  What ‘…bed of languishing…’ are you and I lying wounded in today?  Is it the bed of serious illness; incurable cancers; heart attack and strokes?  Or are you or I ‘…languishing…’, laid low, in a bed of guilt, or shame, or ridicule, due to foolishly committed personal sin?  

Believer, remember again the Word of the Lord: “There is NO DIFFERENCE, ALL HAVE SINNED AND COME SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.”  You today, me tomorrow!  We are all in this particular ‘boat’ together!  We are all prone to commit sin! And, if we are honest – we all do commit sin every day, in thought, word, or deed.

Yet, in the midst of the daily realities of all this ‘doom and gloom’, I have some really good news for you.  There IS a Balm in Gilead, a healing and a help in the Lord God.

Verse 3. “The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. The everlasting arms (of God) shall stay up his soul as friendly hands and downy pillows stay up the body of the sick.  How tender and sympathizing is this image; how near it brings our God to our infirmities and sicknesses!  Who ever heard this of old heathen Jove, or the gods of India or China?

“This is the language peculiar to the God of Israel; He it is Who deigns to become nurse and attendant upon good men.  If He smites with one hand, He sustains with the other.  Oh, it is blessed fainting when one falls upon the Lord’s own bosom and is upborne thereby!”  (C.H.Spurgeon, Treasury of David, page 199)

Our Lord God is a Holy Lord God Who cannot abide sin.  However, He is also a Lord God of infinite compassion and love; a Lord God Who can, and often does, heal us – Spiritually and physically from all our sickness and failings.  Praise His Holy Name!

If the Lord does not see fit to touch us miraculously with His hand of physical healing, then He will grant us additional grace and strength to go through the door of serious sufferings that lead, immediately thereafter, into His own Holy Presence.  God is good.

Verse 3b. “Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.  But, oh! How shall God make my bed, who have no bed of mine own to make?  Thou fool, He can make thy not having a bed to be a bed unto thee.  When Jacob slept on the ground, who would not have had his hard lodging, therewithal to have his Heavenly dream?” (Thomas Fuller 1608-1661)

Thought: “When I visited one day, as he was dying, my beloved friend, Benjamin Parsons, I said, ‘How are you today, Sir?’  He said, ‘My head is resting on three pillows – Infinite power; Infinite love, and infinite wisdom.” (Paxton Hood 1860)