Psalms 41:1

PSALM 41

A PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE

The title selected here is that assigned by Halley, who also agreed with the superscription, assigning the psalm to David, and identifying the occasion as an illness of David that gave the opportunity for the flowering of Absalom's rebellion.[1]

This psalm concludes Book I of the Psalter, according to the common classification. It is the Hebrew method that divides the Psalter into five books, thus making another Pentateuch out of it. Some scholars, however, make the division as three books, instead of five.

This psalm is remarkably balanced and regular with four stanzas, each having three lines, concluded by Psalms 41:13, which is actually the Doxology marking the end of Book I. It is not considered part of the psalm itself.

We appreciate the judgment of Leupold, who rejected the critical device of interpreting many of the psalms as `liturgical,' and thus eliminating the personal element. "We have serious misgivings about this approach,"[2] he wrote, pointing out that similar literature from Babylonian, Canaanite, Egyptian and Ugarit sources, usually considered as liturgical, "Does not warrant casting many Psalms into the same molds."[3] Dahood's commentary on the Anchor Bible is a type of the interpretations Leupold rejected.

Psalms 41:1-3

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor:

Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.

Jehovah 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.

Jehovah will support him upon the couch of languishing:

Thou makest all his bed in his sickness."

"Blessed is he that considereth the poor" (Psalms 41:1). "This corresponds with `Blessed are the merciful' from the Sermon on the Mount. Such a person is preserved, blessed and strengthened by God. The psalmist here recognizes himself as an illustration of his case in point."[4]

"Deliver not ... to the will of his enemies" (Psalms 41:2). There is a confidence here, "That the wicked hopes of his enemies shall be confounded by actual events."[5]

"Upon the couch of languishing" (Psalms 41:3). This is an obvious reference to illness; and it is quite obvious that the Bible gives us no information whatever about any such serious illness that might have afflicted David.

"However, if we place this psalm in the times of the rebellion of Absalom, it fits exceptionally well. "The bosom friend" (Psalms 41:9) could well be Ahithophel; and David's illness would have led to David's omission of many duties as charged by Absalom (2 Samuel 15:2-6)."[6]