Fathers

Psalms 41

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Blessed is he who considers the poor. Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil. 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. Yahweh will sustain him on his sickbed, and restore him from his bed of illness. I said, “Yahweh, have mercy on me! Heal me, for I have sinned against you.” My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?” If he comes to see me, he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it. All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me. “An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.” Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me. But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them. By this I know that you delight in me, because my enemy doesn’t triumph over me. As for me, you uphold me in my integrity, and set me in your presence forever. Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.

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What the Fathers say

Psalms 41:10

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"But Thou, O Lord, be merciful unto Me" [Psalm 41:10]. This is the person of a servant, this is the person of the needy and poor for, "Blessed is he that understandeth upon the needy and poor One." See, as it was spoken, "Be merciful unto Me, and raise Me up, and I will requite them," so is it done. For the Jews slew Christ, lest they should lose their place. Christ slain, they lost their place. Rooted out of the kingdom were they, dispersed were they. …

Exposition on Psalm 41 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

"But you." Christ has now set forth his petition in general; here, however, he shows in what respect he asks for mercy. Hence he says: they have disturbed me, but there remains nothing except that I have recourse to God; and therefore he says, "But you, O Lord, have mercy on me." Mercy ought to be where there is misery; now Christ was made a partaker of our misery, not as to guilt but as to punishability, and especially as to the punishment of death. And therefore, "Have mercy on me." Ps. …

Exposition on the Psalms of David ↗