Psalm 41 – Consider the Wretched

TEXT (Hebrew text at end)

For the leader. A psalm. Of David.

2. Happy is the person who considers the wretched; on a day of evil may the LORD deliver him.

3. May the LORD guard him and sustain him, and may he be deemed happy in the land. Do not subject him to the will of his enemies.

4. May the LORD support him on his sickbed. “You have wholly transformed his bed of suffering.”

5. I said: “O LORD, have mercy on me, heal my soul,1 though I have sinned against You.”

6. My enemies speak evil about me, “When will he die and his name perish?”

7. If one comes to visit, he utters falsehood; his heart stores up malice; once outside, he speaks.

8. All those who hate me whisper together against me, plotting evil for me

9. “Something base has settled in him; when he lies in his bed, he will not rise again.”

10. Even my closest friend, in whom I trusted, he who shares my bread, has been utterly false to me.

11. But You, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up and I will repay2 them.

12. Then I shall know that You are pleased with me—when my enemy cannot shout in triumph over me.

13. As for me, You uphold me because of my integrity and let me stand before You eternally.

14. Blessed is the LORD, God of Israel, from eternity to eternity. Amen and Amen.

Notes

1. “Soul” is the same word as “will” in verse 3.

2. The root of “repay” is a homonym of the root of “closest friend” (sh-l-m), verse 10.

　

COMMENTARY

Several psalms connect illness with the glee of one’s enemies. Psalm 41 ostensibly deals with this connection more than any other, but both form and content quickly reveal that the poet is reflecting primarily on human relations, informing us from the beginning that true happiness and tranquility can be learned from considering the case of the deathly ill.

The Introduction (Verses 1–4)

Psalm 41 isolates the body of its text from an introduction. The body of the text, verses 5 through 13, all a prayer said to the LORD, is framed by specific terms and dwells on one central subject. This requires independent analysis of the first verses, the introduction.

Most verbs in the opening section are in the imperfect mode (which spans present to future tenses), allowing one to translate these verses either as a prayer (“may it be,” as above) or as a description of the considerate (and therefore, happy) person (the LORD delivers him… guards him… sustains him… he is thought to be happy… the LORD supports him….”). As ever, if there are two possible readings, it is likely that the poet was aware of them, and implied both.

If it is read as a prayer, it could mean either that the individual mentioned in verse 2 (the person who is so considerate) is the object of the prayer (so translated) or that this is a cited prayer that this considerate person offers for the wretched (which would require quotation marks from “On a day of evil,” verses 2–4).

On the other hand, if this is a description of how God treats the considerate individual rather than a prayer, one could understand that the “wretched person” whom the speaker wants the audience to consider is none other than himself, as described in verses 5–13.

Three factors allow for these two understandings. (a) The opening’s “considers” bears the same double meaning in Hebrew as in English―“learns from” and “cares for.” (b) The application of “wretched” specifically to the sick is later found in the Talmud (Nedarim 40a) and befits the psalm. (c) “You shall wholly transform his bed of suffering” can be seen in two different ways: God curing the sick or the visitor literally changing the bed.

A Nested Prayer (Verses 5–13)

Three separate inclusions frame the main body of Psalm 41, creating a prayer within a prayer within a prayer. On the outermost level, the speaker talks of himself, the only two uses of the separate Hebrew pronoun “I” (ani) appearing in the first and last verses. The outer frame indicates, then, that in the end the speaker and God remain alone together.

The speaker’s sickness is emphasized by the second frame word, “mercy” (verses 5, 11). Most surprisingly, that theme is barely pursued, even though the problem is resolved by his rising (verse 11). This prayer for healing, it turns out, is really an opportunity to discuss something else in the inner core, to which I now proceed.

The third internal frame word is “enemy” (verses 6 and 12, but also reflecting one use in the first section, verse 3). This is the core subject, and the content expands upon the narrow concept “enemy”: the bothersome “other” is sometimes singular and sometimes plural, sometimes a former ally and sometimes a duplicitous well-wisher. Sounds abound, even if they seem somewhat hushed—evil wishes, whispers, false comforts, imaginings, falsehoods—but the speaker “hears” them all.

Thus the poet, through a speaker who is addressing God, is himself really addressing these very “enemies.” In his two leveled introduction, the speaker tells his audience both to care for and to learn from the wretched. In terms of the latter, “learning from,” he presents his own testimony, of how he, this sick person, “hears” these awful things being anticipated and talked about. It is a terribly sad picture of abandonment and resentment. He feels totally alone and rejected, and he is angry. It is that portrait that the poet would have the reader consider, for the (healthy) reader is immediately placed in the position of one of these “others”—visiting the sick, talking about him, and so on. The reader is, quite simply, challenged to act otherwise.

Is the speaker’s view accurate? Certainly it finds echoes in other pieces of literature. Job, for example, is virtually ostracized (though there the emphasis is on the assumption that suffering implies sin). Reflecting on similar circumstances (of poverty), Proverbs says, “All the brothers of a poor man despise him; how much more is he shunned by his friends!” (19:7). [The problem spans the millennia. I recall a song from the Great Depression—“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.”] In Psalm 41 we have a cry against “the incomprehensible and yet so very common hard-hearted unkindness of man” (Weiser).

But again, is the view accurate in the particular case of the speaker? He is, after all, quoting words that he could not hear! They are said behind his back. He speaks, in fact, from general knowledge of these enemies or of humanity (or of himself!). This realization makes the point stronger, not weaker, for he is not reflecting some very specific circumstance. The poet, by presenting the bitter reaction of the one suffering, is asking us to confront ourselves.

One expression that the speaker uses in articulating his bitterness is the request for revenge, “raise me up and I will repay them” (though it is possible to interpret that the rising itself is the repayment—“raise me up and thus I will repay them”). This line, much criticized in some commentaries (e.g., “Shows… Old Testament thought is restricted by emotions which are far too human…,” Weiser), is more revelatory than condemnatory. It focuses on those circumstances in which one loses sight of core values, not in order to recommend that reaction, but rather to teach doing whatever is necessary to avoid the circumstances that elicit it. As to judging the speaker, I presume the poet would invoke something like the much later Talmudic dictum, “Do not judge a person until you have been in his position” (Mishna Avot 2:5).

Endings

The last verse is widely understood to conclude the first book of Psalms. Each of the first four books ends with such a doxology (statement of praise). The change of focus to the people Israel is therefore appropriate.

Psalm 41 as a whole also may have been chosen as a part of a “frame” for the first book (or section) of Psalms, since it and Psalm 1 both begin with the quest for what makes one truly “happy” (Hebrew, ashrei). In those terms, the two psalms extend from hearing God’s word to caring for the sick, a most appropriate framework.

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Additional Note

“Amen” (last verse) is a term of confirmation (“verily, truly”). Although it appears elsewhere in the Bible, in Psalms it is found exclusively in the doxologies that end the first four books (Psalms 41, 72, 89, and 106).

　

　

The author of these essays is Rabbi Benjamin Segal, former president of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem　and author of The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love (Jerusalem: Gefen, 2009). This material is copyright by the author, and may not be reproduced. If you are interested in using the texts for study groups, please be in direct contact with the author, at psalmblog@gmail.com.

HEBREW TEXT

(א) לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד:

(ב) אַשְׁרֵי מַשְׂכִּיל אֶל דָּל בְּיוֹם רָעָה יְמַלְּטֵהוּ יְהֹוָה:

(ג) יְהֹוָה יִשְׁמְרֵהוּ וִיחַיֵּהוּ יאשר {וְאֻשַּׁר} בָּאָרֶץ וְאַל תִּתְּנֵהוּ בְּנֶפֶשׁ אֹיְבָיו:

(ד) יְהֹוָה יִסְעָדֶנּוּ עַל עֶרֶשׂ דְּוָי כָּל מִשְׁכָּבוֹ הָפַכְתָּ בְחָלְיוֹ:

(ה) אַנִי אָמַרְתִּי יְהֹוָה חָנֵּנִי רְפָאָה נַפְשִׁי כִּי חָטָאתִי לָךְ:

(ו) אוֹיְבַי יֹאמְרוּ רַע לִי מָתַי יָמוּת וְאָבַד שְׁמוֹ:

(ז) וְאִם בָּא לִרְאוֹת שָׁוְא יְדַבֵּר לִבּוֹ יִקְבָּץ אָוֶן לוֹ יֵצֵא לַחוּץ יְדַבֵּר:

(ח) יַחַד עָלַי יִתְלַחֲשׁוּ כָּל שׂנְאָי עָלַי יַחְשְׁבוּ רָעָה לִי:

(ט) דְּבַר בְּלִיַּעַל יָצוּק בּוֹ וַאֲשֶׁר שָׁכַב לֹא יוֹסִיף לָקוּם:

(י) גַּם אִישׁ שְׁלוֹמִי אֲשֶׁר בָּטַחְתִּי בוֹ אוֹכֵל לַחְמִי הִגְדִּיל עָלַי עָקֵב:

(יא) וְאַתָּה יְהֹוָה חָנֵּנִי וַהֲקִימֵנִי וַאֲשַׁלְּמָה לָהֶם:

(יב) בְּזֹאת יָדַעְתִּי כִּי חָפַצְתָּ בִּי כִּי לֹא יָרִיעַ אֹיְבִי עָלָי:

(יג) וַאֲנִי בְּתֻמִּי תָּמַכְתָּ בִּי וַתַּצִּיבֵנִי לְפָנֶיךָ לְעוֹלָם:

(יד) בָּרוּךְ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל מֵהָעוֹלָם וְעַד הָעוֹלָם אָמֵן וְאָמֵן: