Ps. 41.6a (darkness and the division of seeing and speaking)

“And / even if / one came to see me – he would / speak falsehood / in his heart.” In this verse we begin to trace a dynamic referred to in the previous reflections of concealment and disclosure. The previous verse was concerned with the psalmist’s enemies and how they “speak evil”. Here, we come to realize that this ‘speech’ was not something uttered in the psalmist’s presence but, rather, outside his house while he, presumably, was incapacitated by his sickness. Now, however, they have hypothetically come to ‘see’ the psalmist. Presumably, what we have here is what appears to be an act of compassion (“came to see me”) but is in fact an act of treachery. This is signaled in a very telling manner by dividing up the act of ‘seeing’ and ‘speaking’. What we notice is that throughout the psalm the act of speaking by the enemies always takes place outside of the psalmist’s presence (here, it takes place silently “in his heart”). The act of ‘seeing’, however, is related to their watching his demise. By dividing these two actions the psalmist is showing how the evil are themselves divided, and therefore ‘wicked’ (an argument we have made throughout our reflections, namely, that the wicked are so primarily due to the fact that they are not unified but, like unclean animals, transgress boundaries (speaking one way but intending another)). As this applies to the psalmist, it is evident the anxiety this causes him as none of these words he imputes to the wicked are ever actually spoken to him or in his presence. It is clear to him, however, that he is surrounded by darkness and any acts of light (either from someone “coming to see him” or, later, even his own “dining companion”) are in fact treachery. From this darkness, the words of the priest in verses 1-3 take on an added depth—the sound the (only) note of hope the psalmist would have available to him. They would, likewise, be the only ‘true words’ spoken. Interestingly, in that regard, they are conditional: in order to stand in Yhwh’s light one must have, himself, provided the same light to others