◄ Psalm 41:9 ►














Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Very Special Treachery
Psalm 41:9
C. Clemance
Psalm 41:9. Here is an instance of

Very special treachery, which would be regarded as black indeed in the light of Oriental hospitality. Yet he who was in all points tempted like as we are, endured treachery viler still. To this reference is made in John 13:18. The note of Bishop Perowne hereon is so truly helpful, that we quote it in full below) - C.

Biblical Illustrator
Yea, mine own familiar friend in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.
Psalm 41:9
The evil of Christ's friends lifting up their heel against Him
T. Boston, D. D.
The psalmist doth in the text show the cope-stone laid on the maltreatment with which he met in the world by his particular friends turning abusive to him. They who did this were his intimates, his confidants, in whom he trusted; and his dependents, also, for they did eat of his bread. He describes their treatment under the metaphor of a horse that kicks against the man that lays meat before him. "Confidence in an unfaithful man in the time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint." Now, it is evident that what the text speaks of was a typical event. Hence, consider it as it relates to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all bread that we eat is the Lord's bread: it is He who supplies us with all the necessaries and conveniences of life. But there is a sacred and sacramental bread which we eat at the Lord's table for the nourishment of our souls. This is peculiarly His bread.

I. IT IS A GRIEVOUS THING THAT THEY WHO EAT OF THE LORD'S COMMON DREAD SHOULD LIFT UP THEIR HEEL AGAINST HIM.

1. But they thus lift up their heel when —(1) They do not serve Him by whom they are maintained. If we live by Him we should surely live for Him.(2) When their lusts are fed and fattened by God's good benefits bestowed on them, so that instead of being led to repentance thereby, they are led farther away from God ("Jeshurun" and Ezekiel 16:49, 50). And(3) when the good things God gives are wasted on our lusts to satisfy their cravings.(4) When in any manner of way they live to the dishonour of God (Romans 2:3-6).

2. Now, the causes of such evil conduct are —(1) The corruption of man's nature, which tends to make an ill use of everything.(2) Our forgetting our dependence upon God.

3. The evil of this practice.(1) It is monstrous ingratitude. Of. Isaiah.(2) It has dismal effects, provoking God to take away His bread from men. Therefore let us be humbled on account of this sin, and resolve to reform and amend our ways.

II. IT IS A VERY GRIEVOUS THING THAT THEY WHO EAT OF THE LORD'S SACRAMENTAL BREAD SHOULD LIFT UP THEIR HEEL AGAINST HIM. Note —

1. How His professed friends may do this.(1) By unsteadiness in their walk. We are bidden "walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise."(2) By returning to their openly profane courses (2 Peter 2:20-22).(3) By carnality and worldliness in the ordinary frame of their hearts.(4) By formality and listlessness in the duties of religion.(5) By secret dalliance with some bosom idol, to the slighting of Christ.(6) By neglecting opportunities of communion with God, as Sabbaths and public ordinances.(7) By the heart losing the esteem it once had for Christ.(8) By wearying of converse with God.(9) By habitual neglect of the duties of practical godliness (Galatians 2:20). As the life of faith; the acknowledging of God in all our ways; self-examination; mourning for our own sins, and the sins of the land; commending Christ and religion to others who are strangers to Him.

(T. Boston, D. D.)

The treachery of Ahithophel
A. Maclaren, D. D.
at once occurs to mind. No doubt many treacherous friends have wounded many trustful hearts, but the correspondence of David's history with this detail is not to be got rid of by the observation that treachery is common. Still less is it sufficient to quote Obadiah 1:7, where substantially the same language is employed in reference to the enemies of Edom, as supporting the national reference of the present passage. No one denies that false allies may be described by such a figure, or that nations may be personified; but is there any event in the post-exilic history which shows Israel deceived and spurned by trusted allies? The Davidic authorship and the personal reference of the psalm are separable. But if the latter is adopted, it will be hard to find any circumstances answering so fully to the details of the psalm as the Absalomic rebellion and Abithophel's treason. Our Lord's quotation of part of ver. 9, with the significant omission of "in whom I trusted," does not imply the Messianic character of the psalm, but is an instance of an event, and a saying which were not meant as prophetic, finding fuller realization in the life of the perfect type of suffering godliness than in the original sufferer.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Faithless friendship
Bishop Hacker.
Sophocles says that, a faithless friend is the sorest bile that can be touched. Methinks as Jonathan laid aside his bow and arrows approaching to embrace David, so the name of friend should disarm the heart of man, that no instrument of malice should be left to give offence. It is like God's rainbow in the clouds, a sure token of reconcilement, and preservation: it is the uniting of more souls in one, like the rod of Moses, and the rod of the Egyptians, which were united into one rod (Exodus 7.); that as Joseph said of Pharaoh's dreams, the dreams are two, hut the interpretation is but one; so among friends the hearts are two, yet there is but one joy, one desire, and but one affection between them both. O what an accursed crime it is to cancel such a bond, much more to falsify and corrupt it! more unnatural than to divide one living child into two dead parts like the uncompassionate harlot. St. Basil did so cleave to the familiarity of holy Nazianzen, whom he called his necessary friend, that he thought not his knowledge solid, or his study profitable, or the daylight to be clear without him. Xenophon was so inflamed with the love of Proxenus, dear to him as his own soul, that he changed his bookish life, and entered into a dangerous war, as he confesseth, that he might follow him as the shadow did the body. Perfect lawgivers, says , have had more careful regard to settle friendship in their polities, than to settle justice; for there is a recompense and satisfaction for any fault that infringeth justice, but it is past our value and exceeds all estimation how to salve up an injury which abuseth friendship: besides, there is prevention in all points of justice that an innocent may sustain no hurt, but the wounds of a false friend, how is it possible to avoid them? such an Ahithophel is like hot iron taken out of the fire which neither glows nor shines, but burns more violently than the flame that threatens. We have a test to try gold, says Euripides, a touchstone to betray deceit in counterfeit metals; but to know the mischief of a dissembler's heart, there's no mark or character to discern it. Moreover, every man hath a share in his whole friend, in all his estate and faculties, but every single man hath but his part in that commonwealth whereof he is a citizen: then reason within yourselves, can he that wrongs a friend, who is all and every whit his own, be true to that kingdom wherein he hath but a share and moiety? As the poet warned the sparrow not to build a nest in Medaea's statue, for she spared not to kill her own young ones, and could the little birds, who were but inmates, expect succour from her? So believe him not that he will be just to others, who was unjust to his other self: let him be rooted out, let him be cut off like unprofitable ivy that undermines the building upon which it creeps.

(Bishop Hacker.)

People
David, Korah, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Ally, Ate, Bosom, Bread, Close, Confided, Dearest, Eat, Eating, Faith, Familiar, Friend, Heel, Lifted, Shared, Trusted, Yea, Yes
Outline
1. The recompense of the charitable
4. David complains of his enemies' treachery
10. He flees to God for helpfulness

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 41:9

     1680   types
     2206   Jesus, the Christ
     2366   Christ, prophecies concerning
     2422   gospel, confirmation
     5160   heel
     5501   reward, human
     5573   table
     5692   friends, bad
     5798   betrayal
     5963   sympathy
     8354   trustworthiness
     8841   unfaithfulness, to people

Psalm 41:5-9

     5951   slander

Library
Christ Teaching Liberality
If we should attempt to mention all the parables which Jesus spoke, and the miracles which he performed, and the many other lessons which he taught, it would make a long list. As we have done before we can only take one or two specimens of these general lessons which Jesus taught. We have one of these in the title to our present chapter, which is--Christ Teaching Liberality. This was a very important lesson for Jesus to teach. One of the sad effects of sin upon our nature is to make it selfish, …
Richard Newton—The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young

Of visions. The Graces Our Lord Bestowed on the Saint. The Answers Our Lord Gave Her for those who Tried Her.
1. I have wandered far from the subject; for I undertook to give reasons why the vision was no work of the imagination. For how can we, by any efforts of ours, picture to ourselves the Humanity of Christ, and imagine His great beauty? No little time is necessary, if our conception is in any way to resemble it. Certainly, the imagination may be able to picture it, and a person may for a time contemplate that picture,--the form and the brightness of it,--and gradually make it more perfect, and so …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Question of the Contemplative Life
I. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. 7 ad 3m II. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? S. Augustine, Of the City of God, xix. 19 III. Does the Contemplative Life comprise many Acts? S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. 18 " Ep., cxxx. ad probam IV. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

The Beatific vision. (Continued. )
In the Beatific Vision our intellect is glorified, and our thirst for knowledge completely satisfied. Man was created with a thirst for knowledge which can never be satiated in this world. Sin, which greatly weakened and darkened his mental faculties, has not taken away his desire and love for knowledge. And the knowledge which he acquired by eating the forbidden fruit, rather increased than satisfied his thirst. But all his efforts to reach the perfection of knowledge, even in the natural order, …
F. J. Boudreaux—The Happiness of Heaven

The Difference Between Union and Rapture. What Rapture Is. The Blessing it is to the Soul. The Effects of It.
1. I wish I could explain, with the help of God, wherein union differs from rapture, or from transport, or from flight of the spirit, as they speak, or from a trance, which are all one. [1] I mean, that all these are only different names for that one and the same thing, which is also called ecstasy. [2] It is more excellent than union, the fruits of it are much greater, and its other operations more manifold; for union is uniform in the beginning, the middle, and the end, and is so also interiorly. …
Teresa of Avila—The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus

Perseverance of Saints.
FURTHER OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 4. A fourth objection to this doctrine is, that if, by the perseverance of the saints is intended, that they live anything like lives of habitual obedience to God, then facts are against it. To this objection I reply: that by the perseverance of the saints, as I use these terms, is intended that, subsequently to their regeneration, holiness is the rule of their lives, and sin only the exception. But it is said, that facts contradict this. (1.) The case of king Saul is …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

The Paschal Meal. Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet.
(Thursday Evening of the Beginning of Friday.) ^D John XIII. 1-20. ^d 1 Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto his Father, having loved his own that were in the world, he loved them unto the end. [Since the second century a great dispute has been carried on as to the apparent discrepancy between John and the synoptists in their statements concerning the passover. The synoptists, as we have seen in the previous section, …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

All we Therefore, who Believe in the Living and True God...
18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil, nor suffers any evil, from Whom is every good, even that which admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of decrease in His own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying, "Walk in the Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: For these are opposed …
St. Augustine—On Continence

A Discourse of Mercifulness
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Matthew 5:7 These verses, like the stairs of Solomon's temple, cause our ascent to the holy of holies. We are now mounting up a step higher. Blessed are the merciful . . '. There was never more need to preach of mercifulness than in these unmerciful times wherein we live. It is reported in the life of Chrysostom that he preached much on this subject of mercifulness, and for his much pressing Christians to mercy, he was called of many, the alms-preacher, …
Thomas Watson—The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12

Question Lxxxii of Devotion
I. Is Devotion a Special Kind of Act? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Meaning of the Term "Devotion" S. Augustine, Confessions, XIII. viii. 2 II. Is Devotion an Act of the Virtue of Religion? III. Is Contemplation, that is Meditation, the Cause of Devotion? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Causes of Devotion " " On the Devotion of Women IV. Is Joy an Effect of Devotion? Cardinal Cajetan, On Melancholy S. Augustine, Confessions, II. x. I Is Devotion a Special Kind of Act? It is by our acts that we merit. But …
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

The Lord's Prayer.
(Jerusalem. Thursday Night.) ^D John XVII. ^d 1 These things spake Jesus; and lifting up his eyes to heaven [the action marked the turning of his thoughts from the disciples to the Father], he said, Father, the hour is come [see pp. 116, 440]; glorify thy Son, that the son may glorify thee: 2 even as thou gavest him authority over all flesh, that to all whom thou hast given him, he should give eternal life. [The Son here prays for his glorification, viz.: resurrection, ascension, coronation, etc., …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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