Mine enemies wish me evil When will he die, and his name perish?
Psalm 41 blesses the man who cares for the weak, then turns to a sufferer on his sick-bed. He hears enemies who wish him dead and his name forgotten — and the psalm asks whether such a wish can succeed.
The man is already under God's hand in sickness, and that is the moment his enemies choose. One writer traces how their hatred works out in the verses that follow:
His enemies, taking occasion by this chastisement, express their hatred of the godly, desiring his death. Yet they act with complete hypocrisy. They visit the godly to look for evil against them, imagined or real, and then spread it abroad. They plot secretly against the godly man, devise mischief, and slander him. With malice they look forward to a speedy end for him.
One writer counts this kind of slander among the trials God's people meet, and points to the psalm's answer:
Are they called to endure persecution (2), or sickness at the hand of God (3, 4)? Are they tried by the tongue of slander (5), or betrayed by a close friend (9)? Whatever the trial may be, the Lord will deliver the one who considers the poor (1)... so that he will be upheld in his integrity, and set by the Lord before His face for ever.
The psalm records David's own experience. Yet some lines reach past anything true of him, and one writer names verse 5 among them.
In Psalm 41 we find the experience of David. Yet here and there, as we can now see, the Spirit of God shaped the language so that it applies to Christ. This is the case of verses 5, 9, 12. It is particularly clear and definite in verse 9. David was doubtless thinking of Ahithophel, but the Spirit, who inspired him, was thinking of Judas Iscariot. The Lord applied these words to him in John 13:18.
The same writer sets the two sufferers side by side.
David was surrounded by enemies. They spoke evil against him and wished him nothing but evil, desiring that his name should perish (verse 5). He had given them some cause for this, as his confession to the Lord at the end of verse 4 shows. Yet all his adversaries were as nothing to those who united against Jesus and hated Him "without a cause" (Ps. 69:4).
To wish a name blotted out, you must first fail to see whose name it is.
We turn to look back at the terrible hatred of his maddened adversaries... They are strangers to His glorious Name, or they could not ask such a question. As the apostle says, "None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8). Of course: they would not have dared. Yet they had seen in Christ the image of God, and seen it only to hate it. He who hates goodness must hate the God of all goodness, and yet may not know that it is God he hates.
Their wish did not stay a wish.
His enemies spoke of Him, "When will He die, and His name perish?" But they went further than this. They deliberately murdered Him, thinking that in this way His name would perish (v. 5). Did that happen? Far from it! In resurrection His name has been highly exalted.
Another writer names what would have been lost if the wish had worked:
These rulers had crucified Him. If they had got their way, mankind would have lost for ever the power that was in His name. They were His enemies who said, "When will He die, and His name perish?" But God raised Him from the dead. That showed plainly what He thought of their great sin, what He thought of Christ, and His way of blessing for men.
The name they wanted erased is the one name that will outlast every other.
Every other name will perish. The name of the mightiest man who ever appeared in this world will pass away, but the name of Jesus will endure for ever... What does God say? "I will cause your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore nations will praise you forever and ever" (Ps. 45:17).
- Occasion. Weakness invited the attack — the enemies used his sickness as their opening to wish him dead.
- Voice. David spoke it out of his own trouble; the Spirit shaped verses 5, 9 and 12 so they would fit Christ.
- Cause. David had given his enemies some ground. Christ was hated without a cause.
- Blindness. Only those blind to His glory could ask such a question. Had they known Him, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
- Outcome. They killed Him, but the name did not perish. God exalted it in resurrection, and every generation remembers it still.
And if one come to see [me], he speaketh falsehood; his heart gathereth wickedness to itself he goeth abroad, he telleth [it].
The scene is a sickroom, and a visitor arrives with the expected kind words. But the whole visit is a search for something to use against the sick man.
The caller in this verse is not a friend who happens to gossip afterwards. The errand itself is hostile from the start, and the sympathy is the disguise.
His enemies take their chance while he is under this discipline. They show their hatred of the godly man and want him dead. Yet they act with total hypocrisy. They visit him to look for evil in him, imagined or real, and then spread it abroad. They plot against him in secret, plan mischief, speak against him, and spitefully expect a quick end for him.
Older translations render the first line of the verse "he speaks falsehood." The next line, "his heart gathers iniquity," sounds like collecting. But this visitor finds evil because he brought it in with him. The gathering and the making are one act.
Here the hypocrisy that goes with this real hatred is plain. So he finds just what he is looking for. His heart is a magnet. By a terrible principle of natural selection it draws wickedness to itself — wickedness that it forged first. Then he goes out and announces what he has collected; but in fact he only shows himself for what he is.
The last line of the verse takes the damage out of the sickroom and into the street. One writer weighs the same habit elsewhere in Scripture, in an older translation. What makes such talk harmful is not whether the report is true; it is the wound it leaves.
Just as evil as the foolish talker is the tale-bearer, whom we hear of next. "The words of a tale-bearer are as wounds, and they go down to the chambers of the belly." Even if such words were strictly true — and they rarely are — they do damage in every way. They fall under the condemnation of evil speaking. They lack any moral purpose or loving manner.
The visit makes no sense until you ask what the visitor hates. The sick man has done him no harm. The offence is what he is.
Even so, they had seen in Christ the image of God, and seen it only to hate it. Whoever hates goodness must hate the God of all goodness, and yet may not know that it is God he hates... "the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil" (John 3:19).
The psalm records David's own experience. But its wording reaches further than David, as one writer explains:
In Psalm 41 we find the experience of David. Yet here and there, as we can now see, the Spirit of God framed the language so that it applies to Christ. This is the case in verses 5, 9, 12. It is especially clear and definite in verse 9. David was no doubt thinking of Ahithophel. But the Spirit, who inspired him, was thinking of Judas Iscariot, for the Lord applied it to him in John 13:18.
Read that way, the flattering visitor has a face in the Gospels. Men came to Jesus with questions, hoping for something to report.
When He was on earth, men conspired against Him. The Pharisees tried to trap Him in His words, and afterwards they would falsely report what He said. So their hearts continually gathered iniquity.
- Visit. The caller comes to a sickbed as a sympathiser. But the visit is an inspection, and he wants something he can use.
- Words. What he says is empty; the mouth is doing one job while the errand does another.
- Heart. He gathers what he first forged — his heart draws wickedness to itself, so he is certain to find what he came for.
- Street. The gathering has a destination. He goes outside and spreads it, and so exposes himself more than his victim.
- Root. Under it all lies hatred of goodness itself. Whoever hates goodness hates the God of all goodness, even without knowing it — the same hatred that met Christ.
All that hate me whisper together against me; against me do they devise my hurt.
In Psalm 41 a sick and suffering man is visited by people who hate him. By verse 7 they have drawn together to whisper. Commentators ask whose voice this is — David's, a suffering believer in Israel's, or Christ's — and what the whispering achieved in the end.
Commentators place this psalm on the lips of a suffering believer in Israel. Christ later took its words as His own.
Psalm 41 shows the blessedness of the man who understands this position of the poor of the flock and enters into it (compare Matt. 5:3; Luke 6:20). It is spoken in the person of one of the suffering remnant — no doubt drawing on the psalmist's own experience. It is one of the psalms where Christ takes up an expression of theirs. It shows how, at the close of His life, He entered into their sorrows and tasted their bitterness to the full.
Not every line fits Christ in the same way. Some see David's own history behind the psalm. The Spirit shaped the words to reach further than David could:
In Psalm 41 we find the experience of David. Yet here and there, as we can now see, the Spirit of God framed the language so that it fits Christ as well. This is true of verses 5, 9 and 12. It is clearest of all in verse 9. David was surely thinking of Ahithophel, but the Spirit who inspired him was thinking of Judas Iscariot, for the Lord applied the words to him in John 13:18.
The whisper is not a passing insult. It was a settled plan, kept up while the Lord did works of kindness in front of them.
"All who hate me whisper together about me" (v. 7). This was the character of the religious leaders of Israel when the Lord was working many miracles of grace. They kept plotting to put Him to death, though they could not do it until God's time.
Verse 7 does not stand alone. Earlier visits feed the whispering. Callers come to the sick man's bedside to collect material.
His enemies use this chastisement as their opportunity. They show their hatred of the godly man and want him dead. Yet they act with complete hypocrisy. They visit him to hunt for evil in him, imagined or real, and then spread it around. They plot in secret against him, plan harm, slander him, and spitefully look forward to a quick end for him.
The visitor's heart does the manufacturing before it does the reporting.
So he finds exactly what he is looking for. His heart is a magnet. By a terrible kind of natural selection it draws wickedness to itself — wickedness that it has manufactured first. Then he goes out and announces what he has found. In truth he only shows what he himself is.
The whispering ends in a strange confidence. The plotters read the sufferer's condition as God's verdict against him.
Then come plots and treacherous whispers. They persuade themselves that God is against the One they want to make their victim. "Some evil thing," they say, "has fastened on him; now that he lies down, he will never rise again." How easily the cry at the cross would carry that same charge of guilt! God Himself, by their own admission, against the holy Sufferer.
Open contempt is one thing. This psalm marks out something worse.
The proud and wicked could look down on the meek and lowly remnant, who may also be under chastening, and trample on them. Here it is more the false and treacherous spirit of people he ought to have been able to trust.
The whispering did not have the last word. The psalm ends with the sufferer's name safe.
When we reach the end of Psalm 41, we are sure that His Name will not perish. In verses 11 and 12 we find words that fit Him beautifully. He could say to God, "You favour Me," or, "You delight in Me." So the enemy could not triumph over Him. God not only delighted in Him; He upheld Him in His integrity, and has set Him before His face for ever.
- Whisper. The verse shows a habit, not an outburst. Hatred sits down together and keeps talking against a sufferer.
- Gather. Hypocritical visits feed the whispering. The heart makes the evidence first, then goes out and spreads it.
- Persuade. Plotters talk themselves into believing God is on their side. The same charge was thrown at Christ at the cross.
- Betray. Commentators differ over how much of the psalm is Christ's own voice. They agree the sharpest wound comes from a trusted friend. David was thinking of Ahithophel; the Spirit was thinking of Judas.
- Uphold. The whisperers wanted his name to perish. The psalm ends with the sufferer upheld in integrity and set before God's face for ever.
A thing of Belial cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he is laid down, he will rise up no more.
In verse 7 the sufferer's enemies whisper. Here they say it out loud: something deadly has him, and he is finished. Whose voice is this — David's enemies, or the crowd around a cross — and was their verdict ever true?
Psalm 41 records David's own experience. Yet writers point out that in places its wording reaches past David to Christ.
Psalm 41 is also closely connected with Psalm 40. Both are psalms of David. But Psalm 40 holds far more that goes beyond anything David could say of himself — words that are clearly prophetic of Christ, things that could only be said of Him. Psalm 41, on the other hand, gives us the experience of David. Yet here and there, as we can now see, the Spirit of God shaped the language so that it fits Christ too. That is the case in verses 5, 9 and 12.
Commentators differ on how far to press it. One writer holds that the psalm as such is not about Christ, yet Christ used it of Himself and took the place it describes.
We have Christ using it of Himself. Though the psalm is not about Him, He shows how He took the place that the spirit of the whole psalm fits. The proud and wicked could despise and trample on the meek and lowly remnant — the faithful few, perhaps under God's chastening. Here it is more the false and treacherous spirit of those he should have been able to trust.
The verse quotes the enemies' own words. They are not just gossiping. They are persuading themselves that God has already ruled against the man they mean to destroy. Where the ESV speaks of a deadly thing poured out on him, older translations read "a thing of Belial" — Belial meaning worthlessness.
Then come plots and treacherous whisperings, and they persuade themselves that God is against the One they would make their victim. "A thing of Belial," they say, "cleaves fast to him; and now that he lies down, he shall rise up no more." How easily they would take the cry from the cross as pointing to such guilt! In their eyes God Himself was plainly against the holy Sufferer, and this was surely only the last of many such signs.
The charge fed on what they could see. His poverty and tears looked to them like proof that God was displeased, and that let them reject Him with a clear conscience.
He was afflicted among them because they were afflicted. Power went out of Him to heal them, and the loads He lifted from them weighed His spirit down. He felt these things in His spirit. Disease could not seize or defile His sinless, holy body, even though His enemies said, "An evil disease cleaves fast to Him" (Psalm 41:8). But they thought that God was against Him when they saw His sorrow: that He was stricken and smitten of God. Why was He so poor if He was in God's favour? Why should He sigh and weep? If God were pleased with Him would He not be popular with Pharisees and priests? So they reasoned, and that reasoning quieted their consciences while they rejected Him.
The second half of the verse is where history tested them. They did not just say it; they acted to make sure of it.
They imagined that Christ had "an evil disease" (v. 8), for He had acknowledged that He was the Son of God, and they thought this a horrible evil. How blinded they were! When He lay down in death, they were confident — wrongly — that He would "rise up no more." They were so set on keeping Him there that they sealed the grave. They even posted a watch of four soldiers at a time to make sure He did not come out!
The psalm does not leave the accusation standing. God at last steps in for the One they hated.
But when man's innermost heart is revealed like this, God at last shows Himself on behalf of the One whom man hates... He is answered in resurrection, raised up to repay friends and foes alike. The hatred of His enemies cannot prevail against Him in whom Jehovah delights. God owns His perfection, sustains Him in it, and sets Him before His face forever.
- Verdict. The verse is the enemies' own speech. Their whispered plot becomes a public sentence on a man they had already written off.
- Belial. Older renderings read "a thing of Belial cleaves fast to him". The charge is not just illness but worthlessness — and they claimed God stood with them.
- Misread. They took His sorrow, poverty and tears as proof that God had struck Him. That reasoning quieted their consciences while they rejected Him.
- Sealed. "He shall rise up no more" was not a guess but a plan. They sealed the grave and posted a rotating guard to enforce it.
- Answered. God raised the One they buried, owned His perfection, and set Him before His face forever. Resurrection reversed their verdict.
Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I confided, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up [his] heel against me.
This psalm shows a man surrounded by enemies, and the sharpest wound comes from the friend who sat at his table. Jesus applied this verse to Judas, and that raises a question: how much of this psalm is David's own grief and how much is prophecy.
The words point to two men at once. One turned against David. The other sold his Master.
In Psalm 41 we find the experience of David. Yet here and there, as we can now see, the Spirit of God shaped the language so that it applies to Christ as well. This is the case in verses 5, 9, 12. It is particularly clear and definite in verse 9. David was no doubt thinking of Ahithophel. But the Spirit, who inspired him, was thinking of Judas Iscariot, for the Lord applied this verse to him in John 13:18.
Verse 4 of this psalm confesses sin. That sets a limit on how far the psalm can speak for Christ.
No one can dispute that this psalm includes Christ, betrayed by Judas. He indeed was the One who, being rich, made Himself poor for His own. But if verse 9 truly applies to Him, verse 4 proves that the godly Jew is in view, and not the Lord throughout. There is confession of sin here, but the heart goes fully out to Jehovah.
The mention of eating bread is not a small detail. Sharing food carried its own meaning.
To eat the same bread or food together is a sign of friendship. Joshua 9:14; Ps. 41:9; Song of Songs 5:1; John 13:18. And this sign of closeness is forbidden toward those who live in a disorderly way. 1 Cor. 5:11.
To lift the heel is to kick. One writer sets Judas beside the older ingratitude of Israel, called Jeshurun here.
"Jeshurun grew fat and kicked" of old; "he forsook God who made him and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation" (Deut. 32:15). Judas went far further than that. He was guilty and indifferent toward the Son of God, who had come down in love and lowliness. He was eager to serve himself at any cost, and he betrayed his gracious Master for something worthless. Never was there such love, and never such contempt and abuse of it. And this came from one of those who were especially responsible to be faithful.
The Lord did more than point to the prophecy. He handed the traitor bread dipped in the dish — the very act the psalm describes.
The piece of bread dipped in the dish was the sign of friendship. He takes it, and goes out. This was love's last witness, and it found no answer — "after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him" (John 13:27).
Judas was as close to Jesus as anyone could be. That closeness did not save him.
It was a test of man in new circumstances. He was a "close friend" (Ps. 41:9) of the Lord Jesus. He heard His gracious words and saw His miracles, and was probably even allowed to work miracles himself in His name. Yet he fell, as man has fallen in every other test. Judas is a solemn example of how far a person can come under the influence and power of Christianity, and still abandon the faith altogether.
For anyone who has been let down by someone they trusted, the verse is more than history.
Do I feel the treachery of a friend? Could our Lord's sorrow be more vividly described than in Psalm 41:9? … Tempted He was, tried in all points as we are, "sin apart"! How fitted He is to be our sympathising High Priest! In His Godhead He knows all things, so He understands our feelings. But He also understands as One who was a true Man down here in lowly grace, in all the ordinary circumstances of life.
- Foretold — David wrote from his own pain. The Spirit meant Judas, and the Lord Himself said so.
- Fulfilled — the shared bread was the sign of friendship; which is why the betrayal cut so deep.
- Felt — the verse shows a real Man wounded by a real friend, which is why He can sympathise with you when it happens to you.
- Refused — grace kept offering to the very end. The dipped bread was love's last appeal, and Judas took it and went out.
- Warned — being near Christ is not the same as belonging to Him. Judas heard the words, saw the miracles, and still fell.
But thou, Jehovah, be gracious unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
Psalm 41 has just described whispering enemies and a trusted friend who turned traitor. Now the sufferer stops describing men and speaks to God. He asks for mercy, and to be raised up. The closing words about repayment raise the sharpest question: whose voice is this, and may a Christian pray this way today?
Commentators read the psalm on two levels at once. William Kelly holds that Christ is in it, yet not alone in it, because the psalm also confesses sin:
That this psalm includes Christ as betrayed by Judas is beyond dispute. He indeed was the One who, being rich, made Himself poor for His own. But if verse 9 is truly applied to Him, verse 4 proves that the godly Jew is really in view, and not the Lord throughout. Sin is confessed, but the heart goes thoroughly out to Jehovah. Such will be the righteous at the close of the age.
J. N. Darby reads it the same way. The words belong to a suffering people, and Christ took up their language.
One of the suffering remnant speaks here — doubtless out of the psalmist's own experience. It is one of the psalms in which Christ takes up an expression. It shows how, at the close of His life, when He entered into their sorrows, He tasted their bitterness to the full. Still the poor man is upheld in his integrity, and set before Jehovah's face. The apparent triumph of the wicked is short.
Arno Gaebelein reads verse 10 as the answer to the sufferer's prayer:
Verse 9 refers to Judas who betrayed Him. See John 13:18. When our Lord quotes from this Psalm, He leaves out the words "whom I trusted." He leaves them out because the One who knows all things knew Judas, and did not trust him. And He — the Poor and Needy One, the Miserable One, the Forsaken One — had His prayer answered. He is the Risen One (verse 10), in God's own presence, before His face (verse 12).
The repayment comes only after God raises him. F. W. Grant ties the two halves of the verse together:
But if this is what man is in his innermost heart, God at last shows Himself on behalf of the One that man hates… He is answered in resurrection, raised up for the recompense of friends and foes alike. The enmity of His adversaries cannot prevail against Him in whom Jehovah delights. His perfection is owned, and in it He is sustained, and set before the face of God forever.
A. Pridham sees this verse and those after it looking beyond one man's rescue to a settled outcome for a whole people:
Verses 10-13 seem to look forward to this final avenging and glorifying of the people of Jehovah's promise. They also point first to the punishments of divine judgment. Under those punishments the broken and scattered despisers of Jesus still remain. These subjects are very different, yet morally related, and the Psalms often mix them together.
Darby says that prayers like this one are not the language of Christian hope, and he explains why:
That is why we find in the Psalms these appeals to judgment, and demands for it. They have often puzzled Christians when unbelievers press the point. They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. In no sense do we have to demand the destruction of our enemies to pass into glory. But Israel cannot have their rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed. So they do ask for this righteous judgment, and that is how they will be delivered.
That does not make the prayer wrong. Darby also says it is righteous in its place, and not personal revenge:
The Christian should understand this. The Spirit of Christ in His own walk in the world was quite different from the desire of judgment expressed in the psalms, and the Christian's walk should be different too. Yet that desire is righteous and right in its place. That desire of judgment is not self-vengeance. It is an appeal to a delivering and righteous God, made after the heart's perfect patience under unrighteous oppression, bowing to the will of God and learning the lesson He had to teach.
- Betrayed — the sufferer stops answering men and turns to God.
- Mercy — he asks for grace first, and he has already confessed sin (v. 4). Because of that confession, commentators differ over how much of the psalm is Christ's own voice.
- Raised — the prayer "raise me up" was answered in resurrection: He is the Risen One, before God's face.
- Repay — the repayment follows the raising. God acts for the One He delights in; this is not the sufferer's revenge.
- Ours today — the prayer is right in its place, an appeal to a righteous God after patience. But Christian hope is different: we leave the world for heaven, and never demand our enemies' destruction.