41st Psalm

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For the weekly PsalmChallenge that Robert Geiss in Athens challenges us with, here is my illustrated Psalm 41.


1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

Blessed is he who considers the poor! The LORD delivers him in the day of trouble; 2 the LORD protects him and keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; thou dost not give him up to the will of his enemies.


3 The LORD sustains him on his sickbed; in his illness thou healest all his infirmities.
4 As for me, I said, "O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against thee!"

5 My enemies say of me in malice: "When will he die, and his name perish?"

6 And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers mischief; when he goes out, he tells it abroad. 7 All who hate me whisper together about me; they imagine the worst for me. 8 They say, "A deadly thing has fastened upon him; he will not rise again from where he lies."
9 Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.
10 But do thou, O LORD, be gracious to me, and raise me up, that I may requite them! 11 By this I know that thou art pleased with me, in that my enemy has not triumphed over me. 12 But thou hast upheld me because of my integrity, and set me in thy presence for ever.

13 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! Amen and Amen. .
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This week I used the Revised Standard Version translation.
The Hebrew original and a different English translation are here.
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In Jewish usage the Book of Psalms is divided, after the analogy of the Pentateuch, into five books, each closing with a doxology or benediction.

In his study of Psalm 41 Rabbi Segal says this:

"The last verse is widely understood to conclude the first book of Psalms. Each of the first four books ends with such a doxology (statement of praise). . . .
'Amen' (last verse) is a term of confirmation ('verily, truly').
Although it appears elsewhere in the Bible, in Psalms it is found exclusively in the doxologies that end the first four books (Psalms 41, 72, 89, and 106)."

PHOTOS:
1. An old synagogue door with an arrow pointing to the slot through which you can give anonymous charity (tsdaka).
2. An old photo (exhibited at the new Shaare Zedek) shows windows of the old Shaare Zedek hospital on Jaffa Road covered by wooden beams for protection against the constant shelling during the War of Independence, 1948.
3. A nameless grave in Tel Aviv's historic Trumpeldor cemetery. The marker says only "Po nikbar galmud" meaning something like "Here lies someone who had no one."
During Turkish times (i.e. before 1917) a plague killed so many that no one knew all the names of the dead.
4. Kneading dough for a monastery's daily bread.
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