Psalm 41 – Happy People
Happy is one who is considerate of the poor; the Lord will save him in a day of adversity. (Psalms 41:1)
Giving to the poor doesn’t save you. Neither does any other good work. It’s evidence that God has already saved you. It’s proof that you identify with physically poor people because you see yourself as spiritually poor apart from the grace of God. That’s what Paul said when he encouraged the Corinthians to remember the poor: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ: Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:8-9).
That’s why Jesus called us to be “poor in spirit,” unlike many who are “middle-class in spirit” and believe they’ve earned God’s reward through their hard work. People who understand their spiritual poverty naturally tend to be generous toward people in physical poverty. And according to Psalm 41, that makes them happy. Judging from the generosity of our church toward the Compassion Fund recently, we have a lot of happy people!