Psalms 109

1 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise!

2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues.

3 They beset me with words of hate, and attack me without cause.

4 In return for my love they accuse me, even as I make prayer for them.

5 So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Appoint a wicked man against him; let an accuser bring him to trial.

7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin!

8 May his days be few; may another seize his goods!

9 May his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow!

10 May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit!

11 May the creditor seize all that he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!

12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him, nor any to pity his fatherless children!

13 May his posterity be cut off; may his name be blotted out in the second generation!

14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!

15 Let them be before the LORD continually; and may his memory be cut off from the earth!

16 For he did not remember to show kindness, but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted to their death.

17 He loved to curse; let curses come on him! He did not like blessing; may it be far from him!

18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat, may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!

19 May it be like a garment which he wraps round him, like a belt with which he daily girds himself!

20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, of those who speak evil against my life!

21 But thou, O GOD my Lord, deal on my behalf for thy name's sake; because thy steadfast love is good, deliver me!

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

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

24 My knees are weak through fasting; my body has become gaunt.

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

26 Help me, O LORD my God! Save me according to thy steadfast love!

27 Let them know that this is thy hand; thou, O LORD, hast done it!

28 Let them curse, but do thou bless! Let my assailants be put to shame; may thy servant be glad!

29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor; may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a mantle!

30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD; I will praise him in the midst of the throng.

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

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.