# 31 2018 Dev. Ps.41:4. “Have Mercy on me”! Read all of Ps.41. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Psalm 41:4 “I said, ‘Have mercy on me, Lord; for I have sinned against you.”
Ps. 41 is the last of this four-part series of David dealing with his sin and its consequences. In Ps. 38 David is overwhelmed with guilt. In Ps. 39 David fears for his life and prays to God for deliverance. In Ps. 40 David waits for God, God hears him and David is placed on a firm place, on the rock. In Ps. 41 David acknowledges his sin and asks for mercy.
Sin in our lives will damage us psychologically and sometimes physically. There was a time in the past when sin and illness were closely tied together. Today we know that Illness is not the result of sin 99% of the time. However, we should not discount consequences of sin altogether. Obviously David had major physical and psychological problems. We know that lack of confession can seriously depress us and lack of forgiveness can lead to physical problems. Addictions that harm our bodies are actions with serous consequences. We treat addiction as illness, but we must admit our own actions have damaged our bodies. As followers of Jesus our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This is an important accountability issue because help with addiction is available, but often we refuse to ask for it. As for David and for us, our help comes from God. We confess our sins, our short comings, our disregard for our body (temple) and we ask God for mercy. After that we seek the help of the medical community because that is a major blessing that God has brought to us in this country. Having lived in a place where even simple medical care is unavailable, except for those who can afford to receive treatment in large cities, it seems to me we have not always been thankful for the care we receive. Medical help and healing is God’s mercy!
More importantly, when it comes to sin, forgiveness is the largest blessing of all. When we confess and ask for forgiveness in Christ Jesus, our souls are healed, often our bodies as well but that is not as important as our souls. We will all die, but the assurance of salvation, guaranteed to us by the Holy Spirit in us, is our eternal life line. Eternal life! Who is able to get his/her mind around that and understand it? We know and anticipate eternal life by faith. That is the guarantee and that is the promise we have along with David. Praise be to God!
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