The One Who Sees the Helpless
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
A sickbed prayer resting on a promise: our Father sustains whoever considers the helpless. Visitors gather gossip and go out to spread it; enemies calculate how soon he will die. The sharpest blow is the trusted friend who ate his bread.
41 1Blessed is the one who considers the helpless; our Father will deliver him in the day of trouble. 2Our Father will protect him and keep him alive; he will be called blessed in the land. You will not hand him over to the will of his enemies. 3Our Father will sustain him on his sickbed; in his illness you will restore him to full health.
4As for me, I said, "My Father, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you." 5My enemies speak evil of me: "When will he die, and his name perish?" 6When one comes to see me, he speaks empty words, while in his heart he stores up slander; then he goes out and spreads the slander.
7All who hate me whisper together against me; they devise harm for me. 8"A deadly thing is poured out on him; he will not get up again from where he lies." 9Even my close friend whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has turned against me. a a v9 Jesus quoted this verse the night he was betrayed, naming Judas as the friend who shared his bread and then turned against him (John 13:18).
10But you, my Father, be gracious to me and raise me up, that I may repay them. 11By this I know that you delight in me: that my enemy does not shout in triumph over me. 12As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and you set me in your presence forever.
13Blessed be our Father, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and Amen.
