Psalm 41

Psalms 41:1-3

The opening beatitude sets a general principle of divine care for the one who considers the poor, promising deliverance, preservation and strength on the bed of languishing. Henry reads considereth as more than pity, a wise and practical concern that plans relief rather than merely feeling for the sufferer. The psalm then turns from that general promise to the psalmist's own sickbed, where he will test it against his own experience of both mercy and betrayal.

Psalms 41:4-6

The psalmist's own prayer names sin plainly, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee, tying his sickness and his guilt together without claiming innocence. Against that honesty his enemies speak evil, wishing his name to perish, and one who visits him speaks emptiness while gathering material to spread abroad. Gill notes the visitor's hypocrisy, a sickbed call used to collect a grievance rather than to bring comfort.

Psalms 41:7-9

The whispering campaign of verse 7 becomes an explicit diagnosis in verse 8, an evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him, and now that he lieth he shall rise up no more, enemies reading his sickness as a death sentence. Verse 9 names the deepest wound, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me, table fellowship turned into betrayal. The Lord applies this line to Judas at John 13:18, quoting only he that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me and leaving out in whom I trusted, an omission the bench reads as his own restraint in not claiming a trust he had never placed in Judas as a man.

Psalms 41:10-12

The prayer turns from complaint to request, be merciful unto me, and raise me up, asking for vindication alongside healing, that I may requite them. Verse 11 reads assurance in a negative test, enemies not triumphing over him, by this I know that thou favourest me, and verse 12 closes on integrity and standing before God's face for ever. Henry notes the psalmist rests his case on the specific charge his enemies brought rather than a claim to sinlessness, letting God's continued favor answer their scorn.

Psalms 41:13

This verse is the doxology that seals Book I of the Psalter, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting, Amen, and Amen, a formula that closes each of the five books in turn, at 72:18-19, 89:52, 106:48 and the whole Psalter at 150. Delitzsch reads the double Amen as the congregation's own answering voice, appended to David's psalm rather than part of it. The doxology lifts the sickbed prayer of the whole psalm into the larger praise the book keeps returning to at every seam.