Psalm 41 Bible study: Who ate bread with me

The title is "For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David." (41:1), and it says no more than that. After the title, the psalm's first word in Hebrew is ashrei, Blessed: "Blessed is he who considers the poor" (41:1) (tap Blessed). It is the word the whole book opens with: "Blessed is the man who doesn’t walk in the counsel of the wicked" (Psalm 1:1). The next verse says, "He shall be blessed on the earth" (41:2), and there blessed is a verb, ashar (tap blessed in 41:2). And the psalm ends, "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel" (41:13), where Blessed is barukh, another word again (tap Blessed in 41:13). The WEB has blessed three times; in Hebrew they are three different words. Psalm 41 ends the first of the five parts the introduction divides the book into, so that part begins with ashrei (Psalm 1:1), and its last psalm begins with ashrei too, after its title. The book doesn't comment on that, and these notes add no meaning to it.

Psalms 41:9→leads toJohn 13:18

At supper, "before the feast of the Passover" (John 13:1), when he had washed his disciples' feet (John 13:12), Jesus said, "I don’t speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen; but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, ‘He who eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me.’" (John 13:18). He said why he told them beforehand: "From now on, I tell you before it happens, that when it happens, you may believe that I am he" (John 13:19). The psalm says, "Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me" (Psalm 41:9). Jesus gives the second half of that verse, and the WEB words it a little differently (who ate in the psalm, He who eats in John). He doesn't give the first half, "my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted" (Psalm 41:9), and he doesn't name the psalm. Then he said, "one of you will betray me" (John 13:21), and John tells that he gave the piece of bread "to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot" (John 13:26). John gives no other line of the psalm, and the prayer "Heal me, for I have sinned against you" (Psalm 41:4) is the psalmist's own: "I said" (Psalm 41:4).

שָׁלוֹםshalomsay sha-LOHM

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "completeness, soundness, welfare, peace", and among its senses, "peace, friendship". Strong's lists "familiar" and "friend" among the English words it is given as. "Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me" (41:9). In Hebrew my own familiar friend is ish shelomi, the man of my peace. The WEB gives the same word as friends in another psalm: "He raises his hands against his friends. He has violated his covenant" (Psalm 55:20). Jeremiah has it: "say all my familiar friends, those who watch for my fall" (Jeremiah 20:10). And Obadiah has it beside bread: "The men who were at peace with you have deceived you, and prevailed against you. Friends who eat your bread lay a snare under you" (Obadiah 1:7), where The men who were at peace with you is anshei shelomekha, and the Hebrew for Friends who eat your bread is one word, lachmekha, your bread.