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The Lord will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.
Psalms 41:3 · New American Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness.
  • KJV The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
  • BSB The LORD will sustain him on his bed of illness and restore him from his bed of sickness.
  • NKJV The Lord will strengthen him on his bed of illness; You will sustain him on his sickbed.
  • NLT The Lord nurses them when they are sick and restores them to health.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

The Lord sustains the merciful on his sickbed and restores him from illness. God tends the godly in their weakness.

Overview

Even in sickness, God upholds and renews the one who has cared for others. The image of God at the sickbed is tender and personal. It assures believers of God's nearness in suffering, fulfilled in Christ who bore our infirmities (Matthew 8:17).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 6

  • 2 Kgs 20:5–6“Turn back, and tell Hezekiah the prince of my people, ‘Yahweh, the God of David your father, says, “I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will heal you. On the third day, you will go up to Yahweh’s house.
  • Ps 73:26My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
  • Phil 2:26–27since he longed for you all, and was very troubled, because you had heard that he was sick.
  • 2 Cor 4:16–17Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
  • 2 Kgs 1:16He said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of his word? Therefore you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely die.’”
  • 2 Kgs 1:6They said to him, “A man came up to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you, and tell him, “Yahweh says, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel, that you send to inquire of Baal Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you will not come down from the bed where you have gone up, but you will surely die.’”’”

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 41:3YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 41:3 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.