“When Will He Die?” (Ps 41:5): Illness in the Hebrew Psalter and Contemporary African Contexts

Abstract

Illness is a reality of human existence. Yet, because of the threat it poses to human life, both traditional and modern societies
regulate the discourse surrounding illness. In Ghana, individuals go to great lengths to keep secret the details of ill health, which privacy is aimed at averting malevolent human or spiritual agency. Psalm 41 offers an opportunity to interrogate this question of ill health and the anthropological and theological discourse associated with it in the Hebrew Psalter. In this psalm, the psalmist is threatened by people identified as enemies, who predict his death and divulge his health status. Using African Biblical Hermeneutics,
this study compares the discourse of illness in Psalm 41 with experiences of illness in contemporary African society. It argues that the
current spiritualisation of illness in contemporary African Christianity is better understood when considered in the light of Biblical texts like Psalm 41.