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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Psalms 41:1 - 41:1
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(Heb.: 41:2-4) The Psalm opens by celebrating the lot, so rich in promises, of the sympathetic man. דַּל is a general designation of the poor (e.g., Exo 30:15), of the sick and weakly (Gen 41:19), of the sick in mind (2Sa 13:4), and of that which outwardly or inwardly is tottering and consequently weak, frail. To show sympathising attention, thoughtful consideration towards such an one (הִשְׂכִּיל אֶל as in Neh 8:13, cf. עַל Pro 17:20) has many promises. The verb חִיָּה, which elsewhere even means to call to life again (Psa 71:20), in this instance side by side with preserving, viz., from destruction, has the signification of preserving life or prolonging life (as in Psa 30:4; Psa 22:30). The Pual אֻשַּׁר signifies to be made happy (Pro 3:18), but also declaratively: to be pronounced happy (Isa 9:15); here, on account of the בָּאָרֶץ that stands with it, it is the latter. The Chethîb יְעֻשַּׁר sets forth as an independent promise that which the Kerî וְאֻשַּׁר joins on to what has gone before as a consequence. אַל, Psa 41:3 (cf. Psa 34:6 and frequently), expresses a negative with full sympathy in the utterance. נָתַן בְּנֶפֶשׁ as in Psa 27:12. The supporting in Psa 41:4 is a keeping erect, which stops or arrests the man who is sinking down into death and the grave. דְּוַי (= davj, similar form to שָׁמַי, מֵעַי, but wanting in the syllable before the tone) means sickness. If Psa 41:4 is understood of the supporting of the head after the manner of one who waits upon the sick (cf. Son 2:6), then Psa 41:4 must, with Mendelssohn and others, be understood of the making of the couch or bed. But what then is neat by the word לך? מִשְׁכָּב is a sick-bed in Exo 21:18 in the sense of being bedridden; and הָפַכְתָּ (cf. Psa 30:12) is a changing of it into convalescence. By כל־משׁכבו is not meant the constant lying down of such an one, but the affliction that casts him down, in all its extent. This Jahve turns or changes, so often as such an one is taken ill (בְחָלְיֹו, at his falling sick, parallel with דוי על־ערשׂ דוי htiw). He gives a complete turn to the “sick-bed” towards recovery, so that not a vestige of the sickness remains behind.