Soon and NEVER :: Psalm 41:5
David prayed in Psalm 41, My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die, and his name perish?’ (v 5)
I.
King David had plenty of enemies. David’s enemies are why he wrote those words.
After he was anointed by Samuel (1 Sm 16:13) ... but before he finally attained the throne ... David spent a long time being hunted by King Saul, who jealously made himself David’s enemy (e.g., 1 Sm 19). After David reached the throne, he was obliged to continue the war against Israel’s generational enemy, the Philistines (2 Sm 21:15–22). Then there was David’s son Absalom, who staged a coup to remove his father from the throne (2 Sm 15). These are examples of the enemies who maliciously said of David, When will he die, and his name perish?
Given the opportunity, David could have provided good and faithful answers to both of those questions.
When will he die? fumed his enemies.
David could have rightly answered, Whenever the Lord of hosts desires it. Maybe sooner, maybe later, but NOT a moment before I receive from the Lord every day written for me in His book.
The next question gets a one-word answer: When will his name perish?
To that, David could say, NEVER. My name will NOT perish. The Lord of hosts Himself promised to preserve and protect David’s name and memory forever. God chose David according to His own good pleasure, saying to the prophet Samuel, You will anoint for me [him] whom I declare to you (1 Sm 16:3). Later, the same God swore His eternal oath to David: I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. ... I will cause your offspring to arise after you ... and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ... Your house and your kingdom will be established forever before Me (2 Sm 7:9b, 12b, 13b, 16a).
So when David wrote ... My enemies say of me in malice, ‘When will he die and his name perish?’ ... David was so confident in the word and promise of God, his answer could almost sound glib.
SOON AND NEVER
This is our theme. As David prayed to the Lord in another place, This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life (Ps 119:50) and again, Your promise is well tried, and Your servant loves it (v. 140). David also declared to all who would listen, The word of the Lord proves true (Ps 18:30).
II.
Jesus of Nazareth spoke through David in Psalm 41, saying, My enemies say of Me in malice, ‘When will He die, and His name perish?’ David’s words in the psalms are actually the words of Jesus because all the psalms were written about Jesus, our Lord: They bear witness, Jesus said in John 5, about Me (v 39).
Like his father David, Jesus also had ... and still has ... plenty of enemies.
Our Lord’s most famous enemy is, as John wrote in the Revelation, the ancient serpent, the one called the Devil and the Satan, the one who leads astray the whole [world] (Rv 12:9) Death is also an enemy of our Lord ... but it will be destroyed on the Final Day, the day of judgment.
Jesus accumulated many more enemies during the days of his humiliation ... men who feared his incarnation ... men who hated his preaching ... men who could NOT accept his authority ... men who conspired to see Him die ... and men who continue to silence the words of Jesus. Like his father David before Him, our Lord Jesus could likewise give good and faithful answers to the questions posed by His enemies.
To their question, When will he die? Jesus could rightly answer His enemies, I will die at exactly the right time; NOT a moment before and NOT a moment after that time decreed from eternity by My Father in heaven! You may rest assured, My enemy, that I will indeed die.
As he himself told his disciples three times before it actually happened ... It is necessary that [the Son of Man] goes into Jerusalem and to suffer many things ... and be killed, and on the third day be raised’ (Mt 16:21, 17:22-23, 20:18-19). But you, O enemy, you shall NOT take My life from Me, Jesus says. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from My Father, (Jn 10:18) and NOT from any enemy!
Jesus even told Pilate: You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above (Jn 19:11). Nonetheless, I will indeed soon die.
As to the question asked in malice concerning Jesus about when his name will perish, our Lord’s answer is the same as David’s answer: NEVER.
Father, Jesus prayed, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again’ (Jn 12:28).
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus IS the name of God, and His name is glorious! The heavenly Father glorified his own, eternal, imperishable name when He placed that name upon Jesus of Nazareth, the child conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. As the angel said of the child, he will be called holy, the Son of God (Lk 1:35).
And so he was. The heavenly Father again glorified his name when his Son ... his very name incarnate ... was baptized. He glorified it again when Jesus was lifted up for the sins of the world, thus drawing all people to Himself (Jn 12:32). ... The eternal name of God was yet again glorified in the resurrection of our Lord, when God highly exalted Him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name” (Pp 2:9), far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named (Ep 1:21).
So when, My enemies say of [Jesus] in malice, ‘When will He die, and His name perish?’ The Lord answers soon and NEVER ... with firm and unshakable confidence. As David’s answers were before Him, so confident was the Christ in His Father’s love.
III.
Like it or not, you also have plenty of enemies. The Small Catechism names them in the Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: [1] the devil, [2] the world, and [3] our sinful nature, which do not want us to hallow God’s name or let his kingdom come.
You might have accumulated other enemies for yourself ... enemies that you can name personally. Whomever your additional enemies might be, they all fit squarely into that group of three. Perhaps you have never had anyone directly say to you, It’s either you or me. ... Or ... I wish you were dead. ... I wish your memory would disappear ... but if your child is on social media, he or she has probably heard at least that much, if not more.
In the same way that Psalm 41 speaks of David and of your Christ, it likewise speaks of you. It speaks about you because it speaks about Jesus. It speaks about you because you have been eternally united to Jesus in Baptism. As Paul says in Galatians 2:20 ... It is no longer I who lives, but Christ who lives in me. Because of your baptismal connection to Jesus, and because of your participation in your father David’s confident faith, you are able to give the same confident and even glib answer to your enemies that both David and Jesus confidently gave before you:
When will he or she die?
You can answer your enemies like the Psalmist and Isaiah ... saying, Soon enough ... but NOT a moment too soon or a moment too late. [My Lord’s] eyes saw my unformed substance; in [His] book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me (Ps 139:16). ... Like the stars are in heaven, so are my days on earth: ‘Not one is missing’ (Is 40:26).
Yes, you, O enemy, you can worry and fret about my death if you wish! I will not! My Lord Jesus has promised. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? (Lk 12:24–26)
So brothers and sisters in Christ, When will your name perish?
You now know the answer ... NEVER.
Rejoice that your names are written in heaven, said the Lord (Lk 10:20). You will be delivered, along with everyone whose name was written before the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain (see Dn 12:1; Rv 13:8). You are already part of the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven (Hb 12:23).
You will NOT be forgotten, and the memory of you shall NEVER cease. The Lord of hosts has engraved you on the palms of his hands (Is 49:16). Your life and your name shall always be before Him, and your enemies will be the ones who come to nothing ... in Jesus’ name.