Blessed is the one who considers the poor in the day of trouble the Lord delivers him.
– Psalm 41:1
I want to actually read that one more time and I want to emphasize how that first phrase ends in an exclamation point.
Psalm 41:1 Is a Calling to Care for the Poor
Psalm 41:1 says, “Blessed is the one who considers the poor.” Exclamation point. And this is God saying to you and me right now that there is blessing that is found in, listen to the language, considering the poor, stopping and contemplating, thinking about praying for, and the implication clearly is working toward the good of the poor. And I just want to ask each of us to consider, is that happening in our lives? Or specifically, how is that happening in our lives? Are we stopping in our lives and thinking about praying for and working for the good of the poor around us?
How is that playing out in your life? How’s that playing out in my life? This is God with an exclamation point in his word saying, “There’s blessing that is found here.” Obviously this verse, in addition to hundreds of verses all over the Bible, that talk about God’s consideration of the poor, the way God sees and knows, thinks about and works for the good of the poor, and how God causes people to consider the poor, commands us to do this.
Psalm 41:1 is telling us there is blessing that is found here. So I want to encourage you today just to do this, to consider the poor, to think about, pray for, and consider how God is calling you and me to work for the good of the poor around us. And the implication all over scripture, and not just implied, but explicitly stated over and over again, is to specifically consider those who are physically poor.
Psalm 41:1 Reminds us There is a Blessing in Obedience
So, who are the poor around you and who are the poor around me? And who are the poor around us and the world, so near to us, far from us, the physically poor? And then to consider on top of that spiritual poverty, as we pray for unreached people, people, 3 billion of them in the world, living in total spiritual poverty without access to the gospel.
God, help us to experience this blessing that you command in your word. God, help us to faithfully consider the poor. Please keep us from going throughout the busyness of our lives with the resources you’ve entrusted to us to not stop, think about, pray for, and intentionally work for the good of those who are poor around us and far from us. God, we pray that you would buy your spirit even right now, prompt in us ways that you are calling us to care for the poor, to look after the poor in a way that reflects the way you love the poor.
Praying for the Thai-Kao People
God, we do pray for the spiritually impoverished and God, we do pray for the spiritually impoverished around the world for the Thai-Kao people of Laos, over a hundred thousand of them, and this mixture of Buddhism and ethnic religions, and have no access to the gospel. A government that’s actually working to keep the gospel from going to them.
God, we pray for the spread of your riches in Christ, among the Thai-Kao people of Laos. And God, we pray that you would use the resources you’ve entrusted to us for the spread of your riches in grace among all the nations, including the Thai-Kao God make us, the people we pray who consider the poor and experience the blessing that you promised with an exclamation point here in Psalm 41:1. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
