Psalms 109:6-19

6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.
8 May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven[a] from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may blot out their name from the earth.
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come back on him. He found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him.
18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.

Psalms 109:6-19 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References 22

  • 1. 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1:6; Zechariah 3:1
  • 2. Psalms 1:5
  • 3. Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 41:24
  • 4. S Job 15:32
  • 5. Acts 1:20*
  • 6. Exodus 22:24; Jeremiah 18:21
  • 7. S Genesis 4:12
  • 8. Nehemiah 5:3
  • 9. S Numbers 14:3; Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 36:1; Lamentations 5:2
  • 10. Job 20:18; Job 5:5
  • 11. S Job 5:4; Isaiah 9:17
  • 12. Job 18:19; Psalms 21:10; Psalms 37:28
  • 13. S Numbers 14:12; Psalms 9:5; Proverbs 10:7
  • 14. Exodus 20:5; Numbers 14:18; Isaiah 65:6-7; Jeremiah 32:18; Nehemiah 4:5; Jeremiah 18:23
  • 15. Psalms 90:8
  • 16. S Exodus 17:14; S Deuteronomy 32:26; Job 18:17; Psalms 34:16
  • 17. S Job 20:19; S Psalms 35:10; Psalms 37:14,32
  • 18. S Psalms 34:18
  • 19. Proverbs 28:27; S Matthew 7:2; Proverbs 14:14; Ezekiel 35:6
  • 20. Psalms 10:7; Psalms 73:6
  • 21. Numbers 5:22
  • 22. ver 29; Psalms 73:6; Ezekiel 7:27

Footnotes 1

  • [a]. Septuagint; Hebrew "sought"
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