Devotional Short Note on Psalm 41: The first verse we need to run to in this Psalm is David’s admission of acting sinful. It is in 41:5 where he pleads for grace from the Lord, why? “heal my soul for I have sinned against You”. Someone once said that Saul was more perfect than David but the secret of David’s life is that he knew where to run to, namely the Lord, whereas Saul ran to the witch of Endor. Sin. Sin has magnets clinging to it and comes in bundles or groups, all in one package: sin, sensitivity, distrust, suspicion, gossip. Scholars have translated 41:6-9 as if the enemies of David have done a list of things against him already. Not so. He used the future form of the verb meaning that he only thinks that they might now do these things against him because of his sin. The stress is based on virtual reality or imaginations of what can happen to him now because of his misdeed. This is the haunting reality of sin. Even if no-one has done anything, we suspect they will. They will gossip “all that hate me will whisper together against me” (41:8a); they will apply political tricks “against me will they devise my hurt” (41:8b); they will spread defamation “when he will go abroad he will speak of it” (41:7c); they will be curiosity story collectors “his heart will gather iniquity to itself” (41:7b); suspicion “and if one comes to me he will speak falsehood” (41:7a). They will allow empty stories to entertain them “an evil thing will cleave to him” (41:9a), they are set in their ways: “which he lies down, not will he turn to rise up” (41:9b). All these did not happen but may now happen because of David’s sin. David has the desire to control everyone around him. He wants to keep all stories, fabrications, truth of sin, whispering, networks and thoughts under mind-control so that he cleans himself from the vain thing that he did. We do not know what he did but he sinned and brought stress on his own being. We can learn from these lessons. Are we going to church with the suspicion that the one who looked in our direction and dropped the head whispered about us? Are we suspicious that one is greeting us with a double intention? Pastor C. D. Brooks said in a sermon entitled on Youtube, “God in Bad company” in the extract “Little Willy” that if one wants to come to church to see hypocrites, Satan has a bag full for him/her to see. He said, even though a cat goes to England to see beautiful things, he will only see the mouse under the chair, because that is what a cat is trained to see. We need to come to see Jesus instead. After voicing his fear of maybe that could happen, David used the particle “also” (gam) in 41:10a. He said: “I have all these worries bothering me, and also….” Then he switch to the past tense since it already happened. He saw evidence of gossip now and whispering against him: “also [gam] man of my peace which I trusted in him, who ate my bread magnified [hagdîl] a heel over me” (41:10b). It is the same verb that is normally used for describing Satan’s rebellion against God in scripture for example Daniel 8:11 which is not the Little Horn but Satan in the Little Horn since horn is a feminine verb as in verse 10 and 12 in Hebrew but here in verse 11 of Daniel 8, the masculine verb is used. Sometimes if you suspect something bad is going to happen, then it happens. That is what David is adding here and what haunts him now is that more is to come (41:6-9). He prayed to God to be gracious to him and raise him up just like in Psalm 40:2-4. “Cause me to be raised up” is the Hebrew word form he used. It is not just raising up but be the origin of intention to be raised up. David says that the truth-o-meter for himself that God is with him will be if he can see that his enemies do not triumph over him (41:12a-b). It is amazing that when there are sin in one’s life, one dreams of absolute total perfection in daily events. When sin are overcame, one experience more trials and tribulations to test the faith and makes us more sparkling for him. The famous pastor gospel singer who died a couple of years ago, Jesse Dixon, not an Adventist, said in one of his songs that if someone is gossiping about him, then he knows that there is an extra brick in his house in heaven. That is gossiping about a life free of sin, not like David here who sinned. David is dreaming of the Eschaton arriving when “and as for me, You will uphold me in my perfection [at the Second Coming and Resurrection] and You will set me to Your face to eternity” (41:13). The only escape for David is the world to come. This world is not his home. Finally he blessed the Lord God of [spiritual Israel] from everlasting and unto everlasting, Amen and Amen” (41:14). “The very trials that test our faith most severely, and make it seem that God has forsaken us, are designed to lead us more closely to Christ that we may lay all our burdens at His feet and experience the peace He will give us in exchange” (Ellen White, Testimonies for the Church Vol. 4, 220.1).