Psalm 41 is a lament, raising up to God the distress the psalmist is going through.  His enemies hope he dies (verse 5); his visitors “utter empty words” (vs 6); he has haters who gossip about his grieving (vs 7-8).

But verse 9 is the most crushing: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heal against me.” Such betrayal is an awful event.  Still, the writer can say at the end, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.”

The psalmist was recording more than he knew. Just after washing the disciples’ feet in John 13, Jesus quotes from Psalm 41:  “But the scripture will be fulfilled, ‘he who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’”  Jesus then handed bread to Judas Iscariot, who left the meal to do his betraying work.

The suffering psalmist wrote it and Jesus quoted it more than 500 years later.  Jesus adds to the list of scriptures he is fulfilling as the Messiah, the chosen one of God.  The betrayal by Judas was just one of many ignominies Jesus suffered through.  And like the psalmist, he looks past his pain to glorify the LORD, the one true God of Israel.