Psalms 41

17. The transition in the original is very animated: “And as for me poor and needy, the Lord will care for me: my help and deliverer art Thou; O my God, tarry not.” The last word is a deep sigh. Cook.

What comfort there is in the thought that the Lord does not pivot His remembrance of us on our remembrance of Him! We may at times be so absorbed in thought or work that we forget to ask God’s blessing, or to thank Him for it when it has been given, but He goes right on blessing us at all times without waiting for our prayers or our praises. Yet shall it be that we are less mindful of God because of our confidence that God will never be unmindful of us? Ought not God’s never-failing remembrance of us to quicken and intensify our loving remembrance of God? S. S. T.

Not forsaken and alone, when this is pondered and believed: “The Lord thinketh on me.” Where is the past which this faith will not make clear? where the present which it will not brighten? where the future, which with this certainty cannot be awaited in calm hope? Here, then, is all my hope and comfort, that, despite my backslidings, Thou wilt not yet draw back Thine hand. Oh, teach me, then, despite myself, a firmer faith; yea, such a faith that this “My God” of inmost fellowship must ever deeply and more fully vibrate within my heart! Van O.

1. BLESSED is he that considereth the poor: The LORD will deliver him in the day of evil. 2 The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth; And deliver not thou him unto the will of his enemies. 3 The LORD will support him upon the couch of languishing: Thou makest all his bed in his sickness. 4 I said, O LORD, have mercy upon me: Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. 5 Mine enemies speak evil against me, saying,

When shall he die, and his name perish? 6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity; His heart gathereth iniquity to itself: When he goeth abroad, he telleth it. 7 All that hate me whisper together against me: Against me do they devise my hurt. 8 An evil disease, say they, cleaveth fast unto him: And now that he lieth he shall rise up no more. 9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, Hath lifted up his heel against me.

10. But thou, O LORD, have mercy upon me, and raise me up, That I may requite them.11 By this I know that thou delightest in me, Because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.12 And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity,

And settest me before thy face for ever.

THIS Psalm seems to have been written in a season of recovery from sickness, and under a deep sense of the hypocrisy and ingratitude of false friends, who came to the Psalmist pretending to condole with him in his sickness, while in reality they hated him in their hearts and wished for his death. The Psalm opens with a eulogy pronounced on those who know how to feel for and show compassion to the miserable and the suffering. This is evidently designed in order to condemn more forcibly, by way of contrast, the opposite line of conduct which is the subject of complaint. The Psalmist’s own experience of the baseness and hollowness of the men who surrounded him made him only appreciate more sensibly the great value of faithful, sympathizing friends in a season of affliction. P.

1,2. The Psalm begins by celebrating the blessedness of the lot, rich in promise, of the compassionate man. Poor. A general designation of the poor, the sick, the weak, the suffering, and of any one who is wavering outwardly or inwardly, and is therefore liable to fall. To show such an one sympathetic attention, to turn to him with considerate regard, has attached to it a great promise. D.

There is only one beatitude in the Psalter which has reference to a special kind of conduct, and that is a significant one. “Blessed is he that considereth the poor”—he who carries the remembrances of him in his mind and in his heart, who, in the midst of his own abundance, can look beyond it, and by an effort of sympathetic imagination can bring into his presence the needy and sad. This, the charity that comes of God, this open heart, and careful remembrance of all the afflicted and the miserable, is the one virtue which the Psalter thinks worthy of being ennobled by a special benediction. For all the rest the general idea is all that is given to us—the felicity of the man that keeps the commandments of God. “Conduct is three fourths of life,” and, according to the Old Testament, keeping God’s commandments is the whole of conduct. A. M.

1. Happy (the man) acting wisely toward the poor (man); in the day of evil Jehovah will deliver him. As the first verb sometimes has the sense of attending or attentively considering, some understand it to mean here considering (or attending to) the poor. But its proper import of acting prudently (or wisely) is entirely appropriate, and therefore entitled to the preference. What is meant by acting wisely toward the poor may be gathered from the parallel passage (Psalm 34: 13, 14). The principle assumed is that expressed by our Saviour in Matt. 5: 7. The poor here includes all forms of want and suffering, and might be translated wretched. A.

Considereth. This word includes the ideas of thoughtful attention and judicious kindness, the kindness of a man who does not misinterpret the affliction. Cook.—“Considereth” is somewhat more than thinketh upon. The primary sense is to look attentively toward, but here with the farther idea of looking kindly, with due sympathy and with prompt relief. Such an one the Lord delivers in the day of his trouble. Loving the spirit that sympathizes with the suffering, He will miss no fit opportunity to express His love by rewarding it openly. C.—Probably no one ever thought of compassion as being anything less than a joy, a holy bliss of feeling. And yet it is compassion. It suffers with its objects, takes their burdens, struggles with their sorrows—all which is pain, a loss of happiness. Still it is no loss, because there is another element in the conscious greatness of the loss, and the man is even raised in order by the inward exaltation he feels. So in respect to pity, longsuffering, patience with evil, and meekness under wrong. They have all a side of loss, and yet they are the noblest augmentations of blessedness. There is a law of moral compensation in them all, by which their suffering is married to inevitable joy. Anon.

The Divine conception of the matter is plainly this: That power is not a gift to man, but a trust; that the human family is one vast brotherhood, all men deriving their life, their personal constitution and force from the endowment of God, and all being, therefore, interlinked with each other by the primitive constitution of their being, as well as by every command imposed, by their common immortality, and their common need of Divine grace and help; and that he who has power, specially intrusted to him of God, has it for the use of others and of all whom by it he may affect for good—in affecting whom he may be even the instrument of advancing the Divine glory in the world. They who are weak have, therefore, a right to claim his help; and he who has the special power is under obligation by reason of it, is under a solemn and incessant responsibility for the right use of it. It is not a gratuity when he draws from it for the benefit of others; it is the discharge of a debt; it is the partial fulfilment of a peremptory and an eternal obligation; and when he withholds from others that use of his power by which he might have benefited them, he is not exercising a right, but is resisting his Maker, and bringing himself under certain condemnation. He is to be the spring on the hillside, whose office it is to fertilize the meadow. He is to be the sun in the heavens, by reason of his superior eminence in knowledge and in genius, whose office it is to enlighten the less gifted; and the talent unused, either hidden in the napkin or buried in the ground, becomes a condition of recompensing judgment. There is something fearful as well as beautiful in every increase of power, under this conception of the duty which that power constantly owes to weakness. The sure and swift judgment of the Lord awaits each man who has had such power; and it will decide as to the use which he has made of it, and the extent to which he has fulfilled the obligation that comes interwoven inseparably with it. The weak, according to this Divine conception, have a constant claim on the protection of the strong; the poor have a right to the aid of the rich; the ignorant properly demand the assistance and the illuminating guidance of genius and of wisdom. These are claims which invest all more fortunate men, from those who are obscure, from those who are in darkness, from those who are in peril; and it becomes simply imperative, under the Christian conception of things, upon those who are strong, wise, enriched, to give the help which others need. No other duty is more instant or more binding. R. S. S.

How foolish are they that fear to lose their wealth by giving it, and fear not to lose themselves by keeping it! Thou hast riches here, and here be objects that need thy riches—the poor; in heaven there are riches enough but no poor, therefore, by faith in Christ make over to them thy moneys in this world, that by bill of exchange thou mayest receive it in the world to come; that only you carry with you which you send before you. Do good while it is in your power; relieve the oppressed, succor the fatherless, while your estates are your own; when you are dead your riches belong to others. Francis Raworth.

How often it is difficult to be wisely charitable; to do good without multiplying the sources of evil. To give alms is nothing unless you give thought also. It is written, not “blessed is he that feedeth the poor,” but “blessed is he that considereth the poor.” A little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great deal of money. Ruskin—The Bible calls you to consider the poor. It makes the virtue of relieving them a matter of computation as well as of sentiment, and in so doing puts you beyond the reach of the various delusions, by which you are at one time led to prefer the indulgence of pity to the substantial interest of its object; at another are led to retire chagrined and disappointed from the scene of duty, because you have not met with the gratitude or the honesty that you laid your account with; at another are led to expend all your anxieties upon the accommodation of time, and to overlook eternity. It is the office of consideration to save you from all these fallacies. Under its tutorage attention to the wants of the poor ripens into principle. It is not enough that you give money and add your name to the contributions of charity; you must give it with judgment. You must give your time and your attention and make yourself acquainted with the object of your benevolent exercises. To give money is not to do all the work and labor of benevolence. You must lend your hand to the work of assistance. This is true and unsophisticated goodness. Chalmers.

3. “Make all his bed in his sickness” means in the original much more than making a sick man’s bed comfortable. It means to change his sick-bed to a bed of healthful repose, implying the change of his state from sickness to health. The Hebrew word, having the sense to turn or change, looks for its object beyond his bed to his bodily state. C.—God has promised His people that He will strengthen them and make them easy under their bodily pains and sicknesses. He has not promised that they shall never be sick, nor that they shall not lie long languishing, nor that their sickness shall not be unto death; but He has promised to enable them to bear their affliction with patience, and cheerfully to wait the issue; the soul shall by His grace be made to dwell at ease when the body lies in pain. H.

If it be a soul, made merciful from evangelical motives—a man who having received mercy loves to show it, and whose soul, overflowing with the peace of God, is bountiful and benignant, then we can hardly conceive a more blessed state of mind than the mercifulness so produced. There is a mechanical performance of good offices in which there is little zest or satisfaction; but that full-hearted kindness, that effluent and effusive goodness which the love of Christ constrains, and the Spirit of God supplies—there is an increase in its expenditure, and in its efforts and exertions a continual feast. Such mercifulness is blessedness. Repeated into habit and infused into the very temper of the soul, it comes out again in the face of the philanthropist, a cheerful serenity, and an obvious charity with all that God has made. And when sickness comes, and weakness and decay, there comes a secret strength. The pillow grows unaccountably soft and the silent chamber surprisingly bright and happy. The reason is—the Lord is there. The prayers have been heard of many debtors to His kindness and friendly offices, and, better than angels, the Lord of angels comes and makes all his bed in his sickness. Hamilton.

4. For I have sinned**, i.e., it is my sin which has brought this suffering on me; but observe the prayer is, “Pardon my sin,” not “take away my suffering.” P.—God is the strength of a Christian’s heart, by healing and restoring him when the infused habits of grace fail and sin grows strong and vigorous. A Christian never fails in the exercise of grace, but sin gives him a wound; and therefore David prayed, “Lord, heal my soul, for I have sinned.” And what David prayed for God promiseth to His people: “I will heal their backsliding.” S. Blackerby.—Saul and Judas each said, “I have sinned;” but David says, “I have sinned against Thee.” Plumer.—Plead we the greatness of our sins not to keep us from mercy, but to prevail for it. “Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.” “Do Thou it for Thy name’s sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee” (Jer. 14: 7). This is a strong plea, when sincerely urged by an humble and contrite spirit. It glorifieth God as one that is abundant in goodness, rich in mercy, and one with whom are forgivenesses and plenteous redemption; and it honoreth Christ as infinite in mercy. T. Cobbet.

Here is a confession, a plea, and a prayer.

A confession, “I have sinned against Thee.” Thus we must come and confess to the Lord today, to-morrow, and every day, till the sun of life sets. Sense of sin, whether now contracted or long since committed, abides with us; it wounds and pains a gracious soul. Here grace discovers itself; that soul waits not for time to efface the memory of sin, nor strives to stifle convictions for it, but goes humbly to the Lord and confesses, it with all its aggravations, and with this above all others, Lord, “against Thee have I sinned.” Oh, may my soul never, never lose this conviction, that every sin is against Thee, my Lord and loving Father; Thee, my Lord and precious Redeemer; Thee, my Lord and gracious Comforter; this makes sin exceeding sinful, while it magnifies the superabounding riches of grace in receiving sinners and in pardoning sin. Consider the plea; it is not the Pharisee’s parade, but it is the publican’s plea: “Lord, be merciful to me,” to me a sinner, who have done nothing to deserve Thy favor, yet plead Thy mercy promised to sinners in Christ Jesus; Thou canst be just and yet justify the ungodly who believe in Jesus. Therefore his prayer is, “heal my soul.” No prayers, no tears, no duties of mine can heal my soul; no, my best works are stained with pollution, my holiest duties are mixed with sin; nothing but the blood of the Lamb can bring pardon to my heart, peace to my conscience, and healing to my soul. “The Lord will speak peace unto His people and His saints” (Psalm 85: 8). W. Mason.

9. Our Lord applies this verse expressly to Himself and Judas, which shows that He was really included in the class to which the Psalm relates. It is remarkable, however, that He only quotes the second of the three descriptive phrases, eating My bread, enjoying My society, and subsisting on My bounty, while He omits the other two, because these would have represented Judas as His friend, and one in whom He trusted. But He knew from the beginning who it was that should betray Him. This accurate distinction seems to confirm the assumption that the Psalm has a generic meaning, and is only applicable to our Saviour as the most illustrious representative of the class which it describes. A.

Part of this verse is quoted by our Lord in John 13: 18 as applicable to the treacherous conduct of Judas, but with the significant omission of the words “Mine own familiar friend, whom I trusted;” for our Lord knew what was in Judas from the beginning, and therefore did not trust him. Nothing can be more decisive, both as to the way in which quotations were made, and also as to the proper interpretation of the apparently strong phrase, “that the Scripture might be fulfilled,” with which the quotation is introduced. First, it is plain that particular expressions in a Psalm may be applicable to events which befell our Lord, while the whole Psalm is not in like manner applicable. And next it is evident that “the Scripture is fulfilled” not merely when a prediction receives its accomplishment, but when words descriptive of certain circumstances in the life of the Old Testament saints find a still fuller and truer realization—one not foreseen by the Psalmist, yet one no less designed of God—in the circumstances of our Lord’s earthly life. This will be peculiarly the case here if Ahithophel be meant; for as David was in much of his life a type of Christ, so the treachery of his trusted counsellor would be a foreshadowing of the treachery of Judas. P.

Men talk of the resentments of those who are wronged—of the deep and bitter animosities which lie in the hearts of those who are oppressed; but if human history reveals a solitary truth, it is, that the hatred of all hatreds, the most indomitable and the most cruel, broods in the heart of him who inflicts the wrong. And if you want to become transformed, in your inmost soul, into an absolute devil, I merely tell you, wrong your neighbor; cheat him, defraud him, oppress him, use your influence and power to inflict upon him injury, day after day, and year after year; and by the fixed laws which God has given to the human soul, you pass from a man into a devil at the last. It is bound to be so; and hence there sprung up in the heart of this traitor a desperate enmity against his Lord from the moment in which the thought of His betrayal was conceived. Palmer.

10. “Requite them.” This does not demand the sense of retaliation, much less of selfish, revengeful retaliation, for it may mean, that I may repay them good for their evil. Indeed, the Hebrew word strongly favors this sense—to make good again, to make all whole, sound. David has repeatedly expressed this sentiment in his Psalms (35: 12-14 and 7: 4); and yet better, has lived it forth in his actual deeds (1 Sam. 24: 9-15 and 26: 18-25). There is no occasion, therefore, to give these words the bad sense of a malign, wicked retaliation. C.

12. Thou upholdest me.** The assurance of a righteous cause and a righteous judge will preserve an inward and joyful tranquillity of soul in the midst of all the storms of reproach and scandalous imputations, like the calmness of a haven when the sea is tempestuous without. And this will fortify believers to bear with an invincible courage all the violence that is offered to them for their fidelity to God: all the wrongs and injuries they endure shall be redressed with infinite advantage. Bates.

Settest me before Thy face forever. If this phrase stood alone it might possibly be explained of confidence in perfect restoration to God’s favor and life-long peace; but comparing it with other passages (Psalms 16: 11; 17: 15; 23: 6; 30: 12) we find here the distinct intimation of a hope of immortality. Cook.

13. This is no part of the original Psalm, but is merely a later doxology, appended here when the Psalms were collected, in order to mark the conclusion of the first book. Similar doxologies occur at the end of the three following books. P.—Blessed is applied to God as the expression of good-will, gratitude, and reverence on the part of the worshipper. The Lord God of Israel; Jehovah, who is the God of Israel. Israel is the church of the elect, and stands for the Catholic Church of all ages. From everlasting to everlasting. This in its strict sense applies to Jehovah, the Eternal Self-existent One, and to the ascription of praise as always due, whether there was or was not an intelligent being to render it. Amen, and Amen. This has become a household word in our mother tongue. It means true, and therefore expresses assent, and when repeated, emphatic assent to the foregoing petition. Be it so, yea, be it so. M.—In this word concentre all the requests, and are put up together; so be it. And there is in it withal a profession of confidence that it shall be so. It is from one root with those words which signify believing and truth. Leighton.

As the Psalms were not written by one man, so neither do they form one book. The Psalter is, in fact, a Pentateuch, and the lines of demarcation, which divide the five books one from another, are clear and distinct enough. At the end of the forty-first Psalm, of the seventy-second, of the eighty-ninth, and of the one hundred and sixth we meet with the solemn Amen, single or redoubled, following on a doxology, which indicates that one book ends and that another is about to begin. A closer study of the Psalms shows that each book possesses characteristics of its own. Plumptre.—How ancient this division is cannot now be clearly ascertained. Jerome, in his epistle to Marcella, and Epiphanius speak of the Psalms as having been divided by the Hebrews into five books, but when this division was made they do not inform us. The forms of ascriptions of praise, added at the end of each of the five books, are in the Septuagint version, from which we may conclude that this distribution had been made before that version was executed. It was probably made by Ezra, after the return of the Jews from Babylon to their own country, and the establishment of the worship of God in the new temple, and it was perhaps made in imitation of a similar distribution of the books of Moses. In making this division of the Hebrew Psalter, regard appears to have been paid to the subject-matter of the Psalms. Calvin.

When the breath of God so visits the human mind as to free it from its ordinary fallibility, without fettering the play of its usual tendencies or altering its natural constitution, that is called inspiration. Accordingly we find among the sacred writers great variety of style, which originates no doubt in great variety of mind. Each man strikes his own note in the gamut of Divine truth; but no one strikes the same note as another. The Psalms of David are altogether different from the Epistles of Paul, and these again from the Epistles of Peter, and all from the Gospel of John. The mind of each writer was under the same afflatus, but develops itself freely according to its own bias, being only so far restrained as to confine it strictly within the limits of truth. By this arrangement we gain the sympathy of the inspired writers—no small thing surely. Every word comes to us from the Divine afflatus, indeed; but at the same time steeped and bathed in the experience of David, of Paul, of Peter, and of John. It is a man who speaks; a man who has realized in his own inmost soul what he is speaking about. What life it lends to the Holy Scriptures, to read them in connection with the history of their writers! Thus sings the sweet Psalmist of Israel, once a young shepherd boy—the loyal, the generous, the brave—and yet than whom never saint of God fell lower or more foully. Goulburn.

The ancients held the authority of Scripture to the full as earnestly and tenaciously as we can. But these were their ways of citing: “Hear what says the beloved apostle, he who lay gathering truth on the breast of Jesus;” “Listen to Paul, to him whose words I seem to hear, not as words, but as claps of thunder;” “Will you not hear Peter, him to whom the Great Shepherd said, ‘Pasture My sheep?’” And so the Divine words came in each case, wedded as it were to the winning music of a human character; carried into men’s hearts by a throbbing life whose pulses coincided with their own. Oh, that we, too, read Scripture thus! that we spent less energy on making the Bible into a fetish, and more on a fearless and childlike search after its living voice! Alford.