For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.

chronological insert: Sin, illness - 2 Samuel 12:15

The recompence of the charitable.

41:1 Blessed is he who considers the poor.
Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.

41:2 Yahweh will preserve him, and keep him alive.
He shall be blessed on the earth,
and he will not surrender him to the will of his enemies.

41:3 Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed,
and restore him from his bed of illness.

David complains of his enemies' treachery.

41:4 I said,

“Yahweh, have mercy on me!
Heal me, for I have sinned against you.”

41:5 My enemies speak evil against me:

“When will he die, and his name perish?”

41:6 If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood.
His heart gathers iniquity to itself.
When he goes abroad, he tells it.

41:7 All who hate me whisper together against me.
They imagine the worst for me.

41:8 “An evil disease,”

they say,

“has afflicted him.
Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

41:9 Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted,
who ate bread with me,
has lifted up his heel against me.

He flees to God for succour.

41:10 But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up,
that I may repay them.

41:11 By this I know that you delight in me,
because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me.

41:12 As for me, you uphold me in my integrity,
and set me in your presence forever.

41:13 Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel,
from everlasting and to everlasting!
Amen and amen.