Psalm 109:11-21

11 (108-11) May the usurer search all his substance: and let strangers plunder his labours.

12 (108-12) May there be none to help him: nor none to pity his fatherless offspring.

13 (108-13) May his posterity be cut off; in one generation may his name be blotted out.

14 (108-14) May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 (108-15) May they be before the Lord continually, and let the memory of them perish from the earth:

16 (108-16) because he remembered not to shew mercy,

17 (108-17) But persecuted the poor man and the beggar; and the broken in heart, to put him to death.

18 (108-18) And he loved cursing, and it shall come unto him: and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him. And he put on cursing, like a garment: and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones.

19 (108-19) May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him; and like a girdle with which he is girded continually.

20 (108-20) This is the work of them who detract me before the Lord; and who speak evils against my soul.

21 (108-21) But thou, O Lord, do with me for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is sweet. Do thou deliver me,

Psalm 109:11-21 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.