Ps. 41.4 (one sick man, two prognoses)

“I said: / “Have mercy / on me / Yhwh – Heal me / for I have sinned / against you.” At this point the psalm shifts perspective and the psalmist speaks in the first person “I”. As we have said previously, the first three verses likely represent the words of a priest as the sick-man/psalmist approaches the temple. The priest declares to him the standards by which one should measure one’s self if one expects Yhwh to heal him; here, one cannot expect Yhwh to “give consideration” to him if he has not “given consideration” to those whom Yhwh displays a particular form of devotion—the weak and the poor. This type of liturgical/dramatic reading helps explain the shift not only in perspective but tone that we find now in verse 4. From declaration (1-3) we have now moved into petition (4). The psalmist picks up where the priest left off: sickness. This portion of the psalm works in a chiastic manner: A: Yhwh will protect from enemies (vs.2); B: Yhwh will heal (vs. 3); B1: petition to Yhwh to heal (vs. 4); A1: petition to Yhwh to protect him from enemies (vs. 5 and following). The importance of the psalmist beginning with sickness when the majority of the remaining psalm is concerned with his enemies is the fact that his sickness has made him more susceptible to his enemies attacks. Furthermore, and more thematically, it has apparently confined him, making him immobile and therefore unable to counteract the lies that are being spread about him; in other words, his sickness has given his enemies a much larger arena within which to work than would otherwise be the case if he was healthy (then, he would be able to defend himself). This is important as it points back and gives depth to the words of the priest when he said Yhwh will “keep him” and “not deliver him to his enemies’ desires”, as well as the fact that he will be his ‘nurse’. Essentially, while he is sick he will still be “kept by Yhwh” (addressing the fact that his enemies have a much greater arena within which to work) and then healed (thereby allowing the psalmist to defend himself). Finally, there is the obvious connection here between the sickness and sin. His enemies will call this a “devilish disease” that has been placed upon him (vs. 8). The contrast between the two prognoses is instructive. For the psalmist (as for the priest), there is clearly the sense that Yhwh desires to minister to him (vs. 3), to “have mercy” (vs. 4) upon him. For the wicked, however, they perceive his sickness as much more malevolent (something similar to the evil spirit placed upon the failed king Saul). This contrast will be explicit between vs. 9 and 10 where Yhwh’s “mercy” will again appear in direct contrast to the wicked’s evil intent. We can, I believe, discern something important in this. The psalmist (as we will see) is one who displayed Yhwh’s concern for the “weak and poor”. His enemies, by contrast, are, vulture-like, circling this “weak man” and picking pieces off of him while alive. It is incredibly important that they see him as infected by a “devilish spirit” whereas he understands himself to be placed within the mercy of Yhwh. The more destructive and self-aggrandizing one becomes the more likely it is that one sees in the ‘weak’ nothing but an opportunity for exploitation. For those, however, who display concern for the weak, one can tend to see them as objects of Yhwh’s concern and mercy. Clearly, the fact that this psalm will be quoted as describing Jesus’ relationship with Judas ties into this very nicely.