Praying the Psalms: Psalm 41

There are psalms that make it clear to me that David was the long-term king of a fractious group of tribes in a pre (pre!) modern context. It seems to me that there’s something very real about his preoccupation with gossiping enemies, the retention of his own power and the desire to assert his own blamelessness.

I’m stretching ideas here, but: I wonder if Psalm 41 resembles something that Hosni Mubarak might have prayed a couple of weeks ago? Or Muammar Gaddaffi? Can’t you just see a 20+ year military ruler rambling: ‘My enemies say nothing but evil about me. “How soon will he die and be forgotten,” they ask…’

It’s not that I necessarily want to argue that King David, God’s chosen leader of Israel and a key link in Jesus’ own lineage has that much in common with a pair of 20th Century dictators. But what else do you do with, ‘Lord make me well so I can take revenge on my enemies’?

Which gets me to my point. I think one of the reasons Psalm 41 is in The Book is to remind us that prayer is not just something that only the Super Spiro people are allowed to do. Prayer isn’t reserved for the holy; prayer is one of the things that causes holiness. It’s a ‘renewing of the mind’ thing (Romans 12:2) – that’s why we’re all supposed to do it all the time.

All of which is good. Because although I hate to admit it, if this kind of slightly bipolar, quite self-righteous kind of prayer is something that David and Hosni would pray, it’s also the kind of thing I’ve been known to pray…

Praise be to the God who loves the unlovely; praise be to the One who forgives those beyond forgiveness!