Psalms 109

1 For the leader. A psalm of David: God, whom I praise, don't remain silent!

2 For wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me, spoken against me with lying tongues,

3 surrounded me with hateful words, and attacked me without cause.

4 In return for my love they became my accusers, even though I prayed for them.

5 They repay me evil for good and hatred for my love.

6 [They say,] "Appoint a wicked man over him, may an accuser stand at his right.

7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, may even his plea be counted a sin.

8 May his days be few, may someone else take his position.

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

10 May his children be wandering beggars, foraging for food from their ruined homes.

11 May creditors seize all he owns and strangers make off with his earnings.

12 May no one treat him kindly, and may no one take pity on his orphaned children.

13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be erased within a generation.

14 May the wrongs of his ancestors be remembered by ADONAI, and may the sin of his mother not be erased;

15 may they always be before ADONAI, so he can cut off all memory of them from the earth.

16 For he did not remember to show kindness but hounded the downtrodden, the poor and the brokenhearted to death.

17 He loved cursing; may it recoil on him! He didn't like blessing; may it stay far from him!

18 He clothed himself with cursing as routinely as with his coat; May it enter inside him as easily as water, as easily as oil into his bones.

19 May it cling to him like the coat he wears, like the belt he wraps around himself."

20 This is what my adversaries want ADONAI to do, those who speak evil against me.

21 But you, God, ADONAI, treat me as your name demands; rescue me, because your grace is good.

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

23 Like a lengthening evening shadow, I am gone; I am shaken off like a locust.

24 My knees are weak from lack of food, my flesh wastes away for lack of nourishment.

25 I have become the object of their taunts; when they see me, they shake their heads.

26 Help me, ADONAI, my God! Save me, in keeping with your grace;

27 so that they will know that this comes from your hand, that you, ADONAI, have done it.

28 Let them go on cursing; but you, bless! When they attack, let them be put to shame; but let your servant rejoice.

29 Let my adversaries be clothed with confusion, let them wear their own shame like a robe.

30 I will eagerly thank ADONAI with my mouth, I will praise him right there in the crowd,

31 because he stands alongside a needy person to defend him from unjust accusers.

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.

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.