Psalms 109

Prayer against an Enemy

1

For the choir director. A Davidic psalm.

1 God of my praise, do not be silent.

2 For wicked and deceitful mouths open against me; they speak against me with lying tongues.

3 They surround me with hateful words and attack me without cause.^[a]

4 In return for my love they accuse me, but I continue to pray.^[b]

5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.^[c]

6 Set a wicked person over him; let an accuser^[d] stand at his right hand.^[e]

7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty, and let his prayer be counted as sin.

8 Let his days be few; let another take over his position.^[f]

9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children wander as beggars, searching [for food] far^[g] from their demolished homes.

11 Let a creditor seize all he has; let strangers plunder what he has worked for.

12 Let no one show him kindness, and let no one be gracious to his fatherless children.

13 Let the line of his descendants be cut off; let their name be blotted out in the next generation.^[h]

14 Let his forefathers' guilt be remembered before the Lord,^[i] and do not let his mother's sin be blotted out.

15 Let their sins^[j] always remain before the Lord, and let Him cut off [all] memory of them from the earth.

16 For he did not think to show kindness, but pursued the wretched poor and the brokenhearted in order to put them to death.

17 He loved cursing-let it fall on him; he took no delight in blessing-let it be far from him.

18 He wore cursing like his coat- let it enter his body like water and go into his bones like oil.

19 Let it be like a robe he wraps around himself, like a belt he always wears.

20 Let this be the Lord's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil against me.

21 But You, God my Lord, deal [kindly] with me because of Your name; deliver me because of the goodness of Your faithful love.

22 For I am poor and needy; my heart is wounded within me.

23 I fade away like a lengthening shadow;^[k] I am shaken off like a locust.

24 My knees are weak from fasting, and my body is emaciated.^[l]

25 I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;^[m] when they see me, they shake their heads [in scorn].

26 Help me, Lord my God; save me according to Your faithful love

27 so they may know that this is Your hand and that You, Lord, have done it.

28 Though they curse, You will bless. When they rise up, they will be put to shame, but Your servant will rejoice.

29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace;^[n] they will wear their shame like a cloak.

30 I will fervently thank the Lord with my mouth; I will praise Him in the presence of many.^[o]

31 For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who would condemn him.

Psalms 109 Commentary

Chapter 109

David complains of his enemies. (1-5) He prophesies their destruction. (6-20) Prayers and praises. (21-31)

1-5. It is the unspeakable comfort of all believers, that whoever is against them, God is for them; and to him they may apply as to one pleased to concern himself for them. David's enemies laughed at him for his devotion, but they could not laugh him out of it.

Verses 6-20 The Lord Jesus may speak here as a Judge, denouncing sentence on some of his enemies, to warn others. When men reject the salvation of Christ, even their prayers are numbered among their sins. See what hurries some to shameful deaths, and brings the families and estates of others to ruin; makes them and theirs despicable and hateful, and brings poverty, shame, and misery upon their posterity: it is sin, that mischievous, destructive thing. And what will be the effect of the sentence, "Go, ye cursed," upon the bodies and souls of the wicked! How it will affect the senses of the body, and the powers of the soul, with pain, anguish, horror, and despair! Think on these things, sinners, tremble and repent.

Verses 21-31 The psalmist takes God's comforts to himself, but in a very humble manner. He was troubled in mind. His body was wasted, and almost worn away. But it is better to have leanness in the body, while the soul prospers and is in health, than to have leanness in the soul, while the body is feasted. He was ridiculed and reproached by his enemies. But if God bless us, we need not care who curses us; for how can they curse whom God has not cursed; nay, whom he has blessed? He pleads God's glory, and the honour of his name. Save me, not according to my merit, for I pretend to none, but according to thy-mercy. He concludes with the joy of faith, in assurance that his present conflicts would end in triumphs. Let all that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him. Jesus, unjustly put to death, and now risen again, is an Advocate and Intercessor for his people, ever ready to appear on their behalf against a corrupt world, and the great accuser.

Footnotes

• [a]. Ps 35:7; 69:4; Jn 15:25
• [b]. Lit but I, prayer
• [c]. Ps 35:11-13; 38:20; Pr 17:13
• [d]. Or adversary
• [e]. Zch 3:1
• [f]. Ac 1:20
• [g]. LXX reads beggars, driven far
• [h]. Jb 18:17,19; Pr 10:7
• [i]. Ex 34:7
• [j]. Lit Let them
• [k]. Ps 102:11
• [l]. Lit denied from fat
• [m]. Lit to them
• [n]. Ps 35:26; Jb 8:22
• [o]. Ps 35:18; 111:1

Chapter Summary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This psalm was written by David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, concerning Judas the betrayer of Christ, as is certain from Acts 1:16 hence it is used to be called by the ancients the Iscariotic psalm. Whether the occasion of it was the rebellion of Absalom, as some, or the persecution of Saul, as Kimchi; and whoever David might have in view particularly, whether Ahithophel, or Doeg the Edomite, as is most likely; yet it is evident that the Holy Ghost foresaw the sin of Judas, and prophesies of that, and of the ruin and misery that should come upon him; for the imprecations in this psalm are no other than predictions of future events, and so are not to be drawn into an example by men; nor do they breathe out anything contrary to the spirit of Christianity, but are proofs of it, since what is here predicted has been exactly accomplished. The title in the Syriac version is, "a psalm of David when they created Absalom king without his knowledge, and for this cause he was slain; but to us it expounds the sufferings of the Christ of God;" and indeed he is the person that is all along speaking in this psalm.