HEBREW WORD STUDY – CLOSE FRIEND – ISH SHALOMI  אשה שלומי  Aleph Shin Hei    Shin Lamed Vav Mem Yod  

Psalms 41:9,12: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up [his] heel against me. (12) And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.”

I remember when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute I took a semester of Hebrew under a teacher who was Jewish and became a Christian.  He was an excellent Hebrew teacher but also with a great burden to reach the Jewish people with the Gospel. His greatest hope and likely prayer was that we would all become Jewish missionaries.  With that goal in mind, on top of learning Biblical Hebrew we also had to memorize all these verses which were believed to be Messianic.  Psalms 41:9 was an example.  How could this verse not be talking about Jesus who was betrayed by Judas.  See, here is the Old Testament talking about Jesus, you have to be blind not to see this.  The response is, of course, who has not been betrayed by a trusted friend.  Yet, most your Christian commentaries will walk in lock step with tradition and teach this is speaking of Jesus and Judas. 

I will admit it is a picture of Jesus and Judas, but I do not believe that this is the literal understanding.  Most Biblical scholars believe this was written by David and if you search long enough you will find some commentators who will admit this is referencing Ahithophel.  Ahithophel was one of David’s wisest counselors.  He was such a close friend that he would share some of his deepest secrets and receive wise advise.  He trusted this adviser and never dreamed that this loyal counselor would steer him wrong, yet he did just that when he plotted with David’s own son Absalom and staged a coup. 

No doubt Judas was a scoundrel.  Jesus loved him and was saddened by his betrayal, but Jesus knew all along what Judas was about. It came as no surprise to Jesus and Jesus certainly did not trust him with the blind trust that David put in Ahithophel. I mean David never saw it coming Jesus did. 

David calls Ahithophel a familiar friend.  In the Hebrew this is ish shalomi.  Ish simply means a male human but in various contexts it is used for a friend, a champion or a male companion.  I believe in this context I will go with tradition and use the word friend, although considering the agony of David I would not hesitate to call him a champion, one who was always there when needed, one who could be counted upon.  He was also a shalom. Shalom has a huge range of meanings. It basically means peace or one who is in harmony with another.  The Semitic greeting of Shalom Aleichem – peace be unto you and the return Aleichem Shalom unto you be peace is an indication that the two people are at peace with one another, they have no quarrel, no misunderstandings, they know where each other stood in their relationship.   So, to render this as my own familiar friend, or close friend is really quite correct.   This was not only a close friend of David but one in whom he trusted.  The word for trusted is betach which means to be welded to. It is used for glue in modern Hebrew. 

This trusted, loyal friend lifted his heel against David.   The heel is the back part of the foot and hence is a figure of walking away. When someone walks away from you their heel is lifted up and that is what you see from the back side and what sticks out the farthest is the heel lifted up in the air.   We use that expression today, to turn your heel and walkaway.  This would even implied that Ahithophel personally stood before David, looked him in the eye and said he was going to betray him and support his son’s cause to have David removed from the throne. 

Most Christians just focus on this being a Messianic passage and think what a wonderful prophesy to confirm Jesus as the Messiah.  Others will see the more literal message of a man who has been betrayed by his best friend yet three verses later finds that he even though his best friends betrays him, he can still count of God and will make a personal application.

But there is another message here that is often overlooked. That David is expressing the heart of God and the grief and pain expressed in this verse is also the pain that God feels when we betray Him. What I am experiencing in this verse is that after a life time of walking with God, sharing wonderful close moments together, accepting and enjoying the sweet presences of God, accepting his hugs, his warm caresses and then if I betray Him in any way, I remove Him from the throne of my life, I will break or wound His heart in a way that someone who spends a lifetime not believing in Him and/or cursing him could never break his heart. 

You see, the more years you walk and talk with God, enjoy his presence and love, the greater the pain God will experience if you even spend a few moments betraying His trust.  I recently experienced a very painful situation and got angry with God.  “God how could you do this to me, after all these years. I was faithful, a good soldier for you and this is how I am rewarded?”  Immediately I was filled with a sense of sorry and grief.  I knew and recognized I had entered God’s heart and that sorry and grief was what He was feeling.  It felt like He was saying to me, no, weeping to me: “Had I not been faithful all these years?  Could you not just trust me now after all my years of faithfulness?”  I immediately felt my own grief and wept before God, “Forgive me, forgive me for being so selfish. I promised my life to you, to do what you want and now because something I want doesn’t happen, I start to belly ache and I break your heart.”

If you have walked with God for many years, remember, you are more prone to break God’s heart when you try to remove Him from the throne of your life than from some lifelong enemy.