Psalm 109:21-27

21 But you, Sovereign LORD, help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

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

23 I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.

24 My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.

25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.

26 Help me, LORD my God; save me according to your unfailing love.

27 Let them know that it is your hand, that you, LORD, have done it.

Psalm 109:21-27 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

• 1. S Exodus 9:16; S Psalms 23:3; Psalms 79:9
• 2. Psalms 69:16
• 3. S Psalms 3:7
• 4. S Job 14:2; Psalms 102:11
• 5. Hebrews 12:12
• 6. S Psalms 35:13
• 7. S Job 16:8
• 8. S Psalms 22:6
• 9. S Job 16:4; S Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29
• 10. Psalms 12:1; Psalms 119:86
• 11. S Job 37:7