Psalm 41
The Message
41 1-3 Dignify those who are down on their luck;
you’ll feel good—that’s what God does.
God looks after us all,
makes us robust with life—
Lucky to be in the land,
we’re free from enemy worries.
Whenever we’re sick and in bed,
God becomes our nurse,
nurses us back to health.
4-7 I said, “God, be gracious!
Put me together again—
my sins have torn me to pieces.”
My enemies are wishing the worst for me;
they make bets on what day I will die.
If someone comes to see me,
he mouths empty platitudes,
All the while gathering gossip about me
to entertain the street-corner crowd.
These “friends” who hate me
whisper slanders all over town.
They form committees
to plan misery for me.
8-9 The rumor goes out, “He’s got some dirty,
deadly disease. The doctors
have given up on him.”
Even my best friend, the one I always told everything
—he ate meals at my house all the time!—
has bitten my hand.
10 God, give grace, get me up on my feet.
I’ll show them a thing or two.
11-12 Meanwhile, I’m sure you’re on my side—
no victory shouts yet from the enemy camp!
You know me inside and out, you hold me together,
you never fail to stand me tall in your presence
so I can look you in the eye.
13 Blessed is God, Israel’s God,
always, always, always.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Psalm 41
American Standard Version
The psalmist in sickness complains of enemies and false friends.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he that considereth [a]the poor:
Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.
2 Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive,
And he shall be blessed [b]upon the earth;
And deliver not thou him unto the will of his enemies.
3 Jehovah will support him upon the couch of languishing:
Thou [c]makest all his bed in his sickness.
4 I said, O Jehovah, have mercy upon me:
Heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
5 Mine enemies speak evil against me, saying,
When will he die, and his name perish?
6 And if he come to see me, he speaketh falsehood;
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 [d]An evil disease, say they, [e]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,
Who did eat of my bread,
Hath lifted up his heel against me.
10 But thou, O Jehovah, 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.
13 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel,
From everlasting and to everlasting.
Amen, and Amen.
Footnotes
- Psalm 41:1 Or, the weak
- Psalm 41:2 Or, in the land
- Psalm 41:3 Hebrew turnest, or, changest.
- Psalm 41:8 Or, Some wicked thing
- Psalm 41:8 Or, is poured out upon him
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
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