Psalms 41:1-13

XLI. The Prayer of a Sick man against Cruel and Treacherous Foes.

Psalms 41:1. Kindness to the poor is a favourite virtue in the OT, but seems to have no natural place at the beginning of this Ps. We gain a better connexion by reading: Blessed is he who acts circumspectly though poor.

Psalms 41:3. thou makest all his bed is a rendering which the Heb. scarcely admits, and the change from the third to the second person is suspicious. A plausible conjecture is, On his couch he supporteth him in his sickness.

Psalms 41:8. Follow mg.

Psalms 41:9. lifted up his heel: read probably, Made his mouth (?) against me.

Psalms 41:10 is far removed, further perhaps than any verse in the Psalter, from Christian feeling. The Psalmist desires to recover that he may requite his enemies.

Psalms 41:13 is no part of the previous Ps. It is a doxology added to mark the close of Book I.