Psalms 109

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

1 My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent,

2 for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.

3 With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.

4 In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.

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.

20 May this be the LORD’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

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.

28 While they curse, may you bless; may those who attack me be put to shame, but may your servant rejoice.

29 May my accusers be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.

31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them.

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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.

Taken from Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise)

Cross References 48

1. S Exodus 15:2; Jeremiah 17:14
2. S Job 34:29; Psalms 83:1
3. S Psalms 43:1
4. S Psalms 52:4; Psalms 120:2
5. Psalms 69:4
6. Psalms 35:7; John 15:25
7. Psalms 69:13; Psalms 141:5
8. S Genesis 44:4; Psalms 35:12; Psalms 38:20
9. 1 Chronicles 21:1; Job 1:6; Zechariah 3:1
10. Psalms 1:5
11. Proverbs 28:9; Isaiah 41:24
12. S Job 15:32
13. Acts 1:20*
14. Exodus 22:24; Jeremiah 18:21
15. S Genesis 4:12
16. Nehemiah 5:3
17. S Numbers 14:3; Isaiah 1:7; Isaiah 6:11; Isaiah 36:1; Lamentations 5:2
18. Job 20:18; Job 5:5
19. S Job 5:4; Isaiah 9:17
20. Job 18:19; Psalms 21:10; Psalms 37:28
21. S Numbers 14:12; Psalms 9:5; Proverbs 10:7
22. Exodus 20:5; Numbers 14:18; Isaiah 65:6-7; Jeremiah 32:18; Nehemiah 4:5; Jeremiah 18:23
23. Psalms 90:8
24. S Exodus 17:14; S Deuteronomy 32:26; Job 18:17; Psalms 34:16
25. S Job 20:19; S Psalms 35:10; Psalms 37:14,32
26. S Psalms 34:18
27. Proverbs 28:27; S Matthew 7:2; Proverbs 14:14; Ezekiel 35:6
28. Psalms 10:7; Psalms 73:6
29. Numbers 5:22
30. ver 29; Psalms 73:6; Ezekiel 7:27
31. S Exodus 32:34; Psalms 54:5; Psalms 94:23; Isaiah 3:11; 2 Timothy 4:14
32. Psalms 71:10
33. S Exodus 9:16; S Psalms 23:3; Psalms 79:9
34. Psalms 69:16
35. S Psalms 3:7
36. S Job 14:2; Psalms 102:11
37. Hebrews 12:12
38. S Psalms 35:13
39. S Job 16:8
40. S Psalms 22:6
41. S Job 16:4; S Matthew 27:39; Mark 15:29
42. Psalms 12:1; Psalms 119:86
43. S Job 37:7
44. S 2 Samuel 16:12
45. Psalms 66:4; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:11; Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 65:14
46. S Psalms 35:26; Psalms 132:18
47. S Psalms 35:18; Psalms 111:1
48. Psalms 16:8; Psalms 73:23; Psalms 108:6; Psalms 121:5

Footnotes 1

[a]. Septuagint; Hebrew "sought"

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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible