Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 71 · March 12
On the Bed
“Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.”
A sickroom in Jerusalem, three thousand years ago. A man is lying in it who cannot get up, and there are visitors.
Psalm 41 is written from that bed, and further down it gets specific about the traffic through the room. Mine enemies speak evil of me, When shall he die, and his name perish? And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it. Somebody sits at the bedside saying the kind things, collecting material, and repeats it in the street. Then the worst line in the psalm: Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. Jesus quoted that one at the last supper, about Judas.
Now go back to the opening. Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble. The man writing it is himself the weak one in the room, learning by experience exactly what a visit is worth. Considereth is a thinking word. It means giving attention to a situation, looking at it until you understand it, which is a longer errand than handing over money.
Proverbs puts the same idea in ledger terms: He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD; and that which he hath given will he pay him again.
So take the promise as it stands, from a man who tested it flat on his back. The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive. The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing. The repayment named there is delivered to the exact place where it will be wanted.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 71 is A Man Plans His Way (Proverbs 16:9).