Some Friends Bring No Comfort - Psalms Now - Psalms 41 and 21

'I receive no comfort from many
who I thought were my friends.
I could drop dead; they couldn't care less.
When we meet,
their words are empty,
their thoughts pregnant with suspicion.
When we part,
they go out to spread their suspicions abroad,
imagining the worst about me
and whispering behind my back.

I can well imagine their conversation:
"One would think he'd be
beyond this sort of thing;
and here he calls himself religious.
Why, he's as bad as the worst of them,
He's had it! He won't crawl out of this!"
Even the one person I trusted the most,
in whom I confided,
with whom I lovingly related,
even he looks down his nose at me
as one he would rather step on than support.
He no longer wants anything to do with me."'

- Psalm 41 - Leslie Brant - "Psalms Now"


'But I feel as empty and insignificant
as a bag full of wind.
I don't really expect men's plaudits,
but I so sorely feel their criticism.
I risk all in following
what I feel to be Your will for me;
yet even my friends fail to support me,
and they actually turn against me.
"He thinks he's doing God's will," they say,
"But he'll be sorry he made that decision."'

- Psalm 22 - Leslie Brandt - "Psalms Now"