Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 41:6

"And if he come to see [me], he speaketh falsehood; His heart gathereth iniquity to itself: When he goeth abroad, he telleth it." — Psalms 41:6 (ASV)

And if he comes to see me - If he condescends to visit me in my sickness. The word "me" is not in the original. Perhaps the idea is not that he came to see the sufferer, but that he came to see "for himself," though under the pretense of paying a visit of kindness.

His real motive was to make observations, so that he might find something in the expressions or manner of the sufferer that would enable him to make an unfavorable report about him and to confirm his impression that it was desirable such a man should die. He would come under the mask of sympathy and friendship, but really to find something that would confirm his opinion that he was a bad man and that would enable him to state to others that it was desirable he should die.

He speaks vanity - He utters no expressions of sincerity and truth; he suggests nothing that would console and comfort me. His words are all foreign to the purpose for which a man should visit another in such circumstances and are, therefore, vain words. What he says is mere pretense and hypocrisy, designed to deceive me as if he had sympathy with me, while his real purpose is to do me mischief.

His heart gathers iniquity to itself - Or, in his heart, he is gathering mischief. That is, in his heart, or in his secret purpose, under the pretense of sympathy and friendship, he is really aiming to gather the materials for doing me wrong. He is endeavoring to find something in my words or manner; in my expressions of impatience and complaining; or in the utterances of my unguarded moments, when I am scarcely conscious—that is, something that may be uttered in the honesty of feeling when a man thinks he is about to die. This might be some reflections of my own on my past life, or some confession of sin, which he may then turn to my disadvantage or use to justify his slanderous report that I am a bad man, and that it is desirable such a man should live no longer. Can anything be imagined more malicious than this?

When he goes abroad, he tells it - Literally, he tells it to the street, or to those who are outside. Perhaps his friends, as malicious as himself, are anxiously waiting outside for his report and, like him, are desirous of finding something that may confirm their opinion of him. Or perhaps he designs to tell this to the friends of the sufferer, to show them how they were deceived in the man. He would argue that although in the days of his health and prosperity the sufferer seemed to be a good man, now that the trial has come and a real test has been applied, all his religion has been found false and hollow. His impatience, his complaining, his murmuring, and his unwillingness to die—all these, the visitor would claim, show that he was a hypocrite and at heart a bad man.

Compare the notes at Job 1:9-11.