Psalms
Chapter 41
Blessed is he Who Cares for the Helpless
Blessed the one who has regard for the poor; the Lord delivers him in time of trouble.
The Lord protects him, preserves his life, and gives him happiness in the land; he yields him not to the will of his foes.
The Lord helps him when he gets sick, and heals him of all his ailments.
I have pleaded: “O Lord, have mercy on me; heal me, in spite of all my iniquity.”
My enemies ask of me in malice, “When will he die and his name perish?”When they come in to see, they talk emptily, gathering slanderous gossip.No sooner have they left, that they comment.
Then all my enemies whisper together, imagining the worst for me:
“A deadly disease has fastened on him. He will never get up again!”
Even my most trusted friend, with whom I shared my food, has lifted his heel against me.
But you, O Lord, have mercy on me; lift me up to give them recompense.
This will assure me, that I enjoy your favor: if my enemies do not triumph over me,
if you uphold my integrity and let me stand in your presence forever.
Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, from all eternity and forever! Amen. Amen!
Commentaries
41
It is common to see the psalmist publicly thanking God for healing from illness. The psalm seems to start with this expression, but verse 4 brings us back to the distress, which has now ended. In this context, we find familiar words from John’s Gospel (13:18). To help the Jews accept the concept of a suffering Messiah, the evangelists seek to show, drawing on the Old Testament, that such suffering was expected. If Israel’s revered prophets could be persecuted and betrayed, why wouldn’t the Messiah himself face the same? Our Lord had called Judas his friend (Mt 26:50). Judas had ‘eaten his bread’ with him (Mt 26:23) but ultimately turned against him. The enemies of Jesus, like those in this psalm, believed that the name of Jesus could be forgotten (Acts 4:18). But they were mistaken. The beatitude of the merciful (Mt 5:7) nearly repeats the psalm’s beatitude.
We can pray with this psalm to strengthen our compassion for others, to walk toward our hope, and to find relief from our sorrows. The one who is sick, ridiculed, and betrayed prays this prayer. Perhaps we recognize him, and he is beside us, waiting for our support.