Psalms 41:5 - Meaning and Application

David often complains about how insolently his enemies treated him when he was sick. Their behavior was cruel and barbaric, and it had to hurt him deeply. They did not go as far as poisoning his food or drink, but they still mocked him in his weakness (Psalm 41:5). They spoke evil about him, hoping to wound his spirit, ruin his name, and weaken his influence.

The psalm first shows what his enemies did to him. They longed for his death. “When will he die, and his name perish?” they seemed to say. He already had a hard life, and yet they still envied him that life. His life was useful, and in every way he was a blessing to his country, but some people were tired of him, just as the Jews were later tired of Paul, crying, “Away with such a fellow from the earth.” We should not wish for anyone’s death, and to wish for the death of useful people because they are useful is deeply evil. They envied David’s name and the honor he had gained, and they thought his reputation would die with him. But they were wrong. After he had served his own generation, he died (Acts 13:36), but his name did not perish. It still lives in Scripture and will continue to the end of time, for the memory of the righteous is blessed.

They also seized on every small thing they could use to shame him (Psalm 41:6). If they came to visit him, as kindness would normally require, they spoke empty words. They pretended friendship and sympathy, but it was all flattery and falsehood. People often complain that sincerity is rare in our day, and this shows the same was true then. David’s friends were all outward show, with no real affection in their hearts.

But their visit was worse than empty politeness. They came with a harmful purpose. They wanted to make sharp comments about everything he said or did, then carry those comments to others with their own cruel spin. In this way they tried to make him look foolish or hateful. If he complained a lot about his sickness, they mocked his weakness. If he said little, they mocked his dullness. If he prayed or gave good counsel, they called it hypocrisy. If he stayed silent before wicked people, they said he had forgotten his religion now that he was sick. There is little protection against people whose malice twists everything into evil.

They also assumed he would never recover and would never clear away the shame they had placed on him. They whispered against him (Psalm 41:7), speaking in secret because they were ashamed to say such things openly and knew they could be answered. Whisperers and slanderers are grouped among the worst sinners (Romans 1:29, Romans 1:30). They whispered so their plot would not be exposed. They planned evil against David and believed they would succeed. Since they thought he would soon die, they also planned how to stop the good work he had begun for the public good.

They said, in effect, that some evil disease had fastened itself on him, and that the disgrace they had attached to his name would cling to him until he died. They followed the old rule of slander, throw out enough lies, and some of them will stick. They also said his sickness must be the punishment for some terrible sin, proving he was a wicked man after all. Or they may have meant that Satan, the evil one, had struck him down, and now the disease would hold him fast. Since he was lying in bed, they thought he would never rise again, and they would be free to seize what had belonged to him. We should not be surprised if some people fear the sickness of good men, for the world is not worthy of them (Revelation 11:10).

There was also one especially painful betrayal. A man David had trusted deeply sided with his enemies and spoke against him as harshly as they did (Psalm 41:9). This was likely Ahithophel, David’s close friend and chief adviser, the man whose counsel he trusted in dealing with enemies. He had eaten David’s bread, meaning he had shared his table and depended on David’s kindness and support. Such a man should have been bound by gratitude and honor to stand with David, not shame him. Yet he forgot the bread he had eaten and lifted up his heel against the one who had lifted up his head. He did not merely abandon David, he attacked and tried to ruin him.

People are truly wicked when no kindness and no trust can bind them. We should not find it strange if we are abused by such people. David had this experience, and so did the Son of David, Jesus. David spoke of Judas the traitor by the Spirit, and Jesus applied this Scripture to him, saying that the one who ate bread with him had lifted up his heel against him (John 13:18, John 13:16). And do we not often act in the same faithless way toward God? We eat his bread every day, yet we still turn against him, like Jeshurun, who grew fat and kicked (Deuteronomy 32:15).

How did David respond to this cruel treatment? He prayed to God that his enemies would be disappointed. He said nothing to them. Instead, he turned to the Lord: “O Lord, be merciful to me, for they are unmerciful” (Psalm 41:10).

He had prayed in response to the insults of his enemies, “Lord, be merciful to me,” and that is a prayer that fits every situation. God’s mercy has a remedy for every trouble. They try to run me down, but, Lord, raise me up from this bed of weakness, from which they think I will never rise. Raise me up so I can repay them, so I can do good to those who did me harm, as some take it, for that was David’s way (Psa 7:4; Psa 35:13). A godly person will even want a chance to show that he bears no hatred toward those who hurt him, and that he is ready to do them any kindness.

Or the meaning may be, “Raise me up, as king, so I may place them under the sign of my just displeasure, send them away from the court, and keep them from my table in the future.” That would be an act of needed justice, and it would warn others. Perhaps this prayer also points forward to Christ, whom God raised up so that he might be the righteous avenger of all the wrongs done to him and to his people, especially by the Jews, whose complete destruction came not long after.

He also made sure that his enemies would be disappointed (Psa 41:11): “By this I know that you favor me and my cause, because my enemy does not triumph over me.” They hoped for his death, but he found himself recovering through mercy, and that would add comfort to his healing. First, it would shame his enemies. They would be brought low and deeply embarrassed, and there would be no need to taunt them about their failure, because they would feel it themselves. We should not take pleasure in our enemies’ fall, but we may rejoice when their plans against us fail.

Second, his recovery would be a sign of God’s favor and clear proof that God loved him and would continue to do so. When we can see God’s favor in any mercy, whether personal or public, that mercy becomes richer and sweeter.

He depended on God, who had already delivered him from many evil deeds, to keep him for his heavenly kingdom, as blessed Paul says (Ti2 4:18). “As for me, since you favor me, as a result of that favor, and to fit me for its continuing, you uphold me in my integrity, and, to that end, you keep me before your face,” meaning that God keeps his eye on him for good. Or, “Because you uphold me by your grace in my integrity, I know that you will, in your glory, set me before your face forever.”

When we suffer damage to our reputation, our main concern should be our integrity, and then we can calmly leave our name in God’s hands. David knows that if he keeps his integrity, he need not fear his enemies’ triumph. The best person in the world keeps integrity only as God upholds him. By God’s grace we are what we are. If we are left to ourselves, we will not only fall, but fall away.

It is a great comfort that, even when we are weak, God is able to uphold us in our integrity, and he will do it if we trust him with the care of it. If God did not keep constant watch over us, we would not stay upright. His eye is always on us, or we would soon turn away from him. Those whom God now upholds in their integrity, he will place before his face forever and make happy in the sight and enjoyment of himself. The one who endures to the end will be saved.

The psalm ends with a solemn doxology, a word of praise to God as the Lord God of Israel, Psa 41:13. It is not certain whether this verse belongs to this psalm alone. If it does, it teaches that a believing hope of being preserved by grace until glory is enough to fill our hearts with joy and our mouths with lasting praise, even in our hardest trials. Or it may have been added as the close of the first book of Psalms, which is thought to end here, as similar endings are added to Ps. 72, 89, and 106. In that case, it teaches us to make God the Omega, the end, who is also the Alpha, the beginning of every good work.

We are taught to give glory to God as the Lord God of Israel, the God in covenant with his people, who has done great and kind things for them and still has more, and better, in store. We are also taught to glorify him as the eternal God, whose being and blessedness are from everlasting to everlasting. And we are to do this with deep feeling and earnestness, shown by the double seal set to it, “Amen, and Amen.” Let it be so now, and let it be so forever. We say Amen to it, and let all others say Amen too.