Psalm 109

Psalms 109:1-3

The psalm opens by naming God the object of praise before any complaint is spoken, O God of my praise, so what follows is prayer rather than mere venting. The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me states the attack as verbal, false witness rather than physical harm, and they compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause gives the accusers no provocation to answer for. Calvin reads without a cause as the psalm's own claim to innocence, the ground the imprecations that follow will stand on.

Psalms 109:4-5

The speaker's situation sharpens: for my love they are my adversaries, love answered with enmity rather than indifference, and I give myself unto prayer, meeting hatred with intercession rather than retaliation in the moment itself. They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love states the exact reversal the imprecations to follow will ask God to turn back again. Barnes notes the verb rendered give myself, more literally I am prayer, as if the speaker has become nothing else in the face of the accusation.

Psalms 109:6-7

The imprecations begin here, and the readings the bench carries are named rather than softened: most read this as vengeance handed to God rather than taken by the speaker himself, following the same logic Romans 12:19 later states directly, while others read the section as the covenant lawsuit's own formal language, a legal curse pronounced on a guilty party rather than personal spite. Set thou a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand asks that the accuser's own weapons, a hostile judge and an adversary at the trial, be turned back on him. Let his prayer become sin closes the opening curse on the accuser's own worship, the same reversal verse 5 named as already done to the speaker.

Psalms 109:8-9

This verse is quoted at Acts 1:20 by Peter of Judas, for it is written in the book of Psalms, let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein, and his bishoprick let another take, the New Testament's own warrant for reading this curse as more than one man's private grievance. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow extends the curse to the household, the hardest line for a modern reader, and the gracious rule holds absolutely: no note turns this or any imprecation onto any living person or family. The apostles heard a prophetic voice in David's words rather than mere rage, and Peter's own citation is the New Testament's judgment on how the verse is read, not an addition the site makes to it.

Psalms 109:10-13

The curse widens to the next generation, children continually vagabonds, and beg, seeking bread out of their desolate places, and to the estate itself, the extortioner catch all that he hath, and the strangers spoil his labour. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him is the curse's own hinge, asking that the accuser receive exactly the mercy he refused others, and let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out asks for the ancient world's severest loss, a name erased from memory. Spurgeon reads the escalation across these verses as matching, curse for curse, the harm already done to the speaker, not exceeding it.

Psalms 109:14-16

iniquity of his fathers: The curse reaches back a generation, asking that inherited guilt be remembered rather than forgiven, language that sits uneasily beside Ezekiel 18's later teaching that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the older commentators name the tension rather than resolve it. Verse 16 gives the reason the whole section has been building to: because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart, naming the crime the imprecations answer. Henry reads this verse as the psalm's own justification clause, the curses following from a stated wrong rather than standing alone.

Psalms 109:17-19

The principle stated here, as he loved cursing, so let it come unto him, is the imprecation's own logic laid bare, a plea that the man's own chosen weapon be turned back on its owner rather than a new harm invented against him. Verses 18 and 19 picture the curse as a garment worn daily, clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones, the very thing he put on becoming what he cannot take off. Delitzsch reads the water and oil as the two things a body absorbs completely, the curse asked to reach as deep as what a man eats and what a man is anointed with.

Psalms 109:20

This verse closes the curse section with a summary line, naming the whole request as a reward from the Lord rather than an act the speaker will carry out himself, the same handing over to God's own justice the bench reads through the entire section. Them that speak evil against my soul ties the closing line back to the mouth of the wicked and the lying tongue of verse 2, the curse answering speech with speech rather than escalating to violence. Gill notes the psalm never asks to strike a blow itself; every curse from verse 6 through verse 19 is a request addressed to God, not an action the speaker takes.

Psalms 109:21-22

The psalm turns from the accuser's curse to the speaker's own plea, do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake, asking on the ground of God's own reputation rather than the speaker's merit. Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me answers the accuser's refusal of mercy in verse 16 with an appeal to the mercy that never fails. I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me states the speaker's own condition plainly, the same poor and needy the accuser persecuted in verse 16 now named as the speaker himself.

Psalms 109:23-25

Three pictures of weakness follow in close order, a lengthening shadow near evening, a locust tossed by wind rather than flying under its own power, and knees weak through fasting, my flesh faileth of fatness, a plain description of a man who has prayed and eaten little while under attack. I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads pictures public mockery, the same gesture used of the mockers at Psalm 22:7. Spurgeon reads the fasting named here as deliberate, not merely the wasting of grief, a man praying through the accusation rather than only enduring it.

Psalms 109:26-29

The plea sharpens to a direct request for vindication before witnesses, that they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it, asking not only for rescue but for a rescue the accusers will themselves recognize as God's own act. Let them curse, but bless thou sets the two speeches side by side without asking that the curse be prevented, only that it be answered, and when they arise, let them be ashamed names the outcome wanted without the speaker naming the harm himself. Verse 29 closes the direct plea asking that the adversaries be clothed with shame as with a mantle, the same garment imagery verse 18 used for the curse now turned to their own covering.

Psalms 109:30-31

The psalm closes in the same praise it opened with, I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth answering hold not thy peace, O God of my praise from verse 1, the accusation and the imprecations both resolved into worship rather than left standing as the last word. He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul gives the psalm's own last image, God as advocate standing where the wicked man of verse 6 was cursed to stand, at the right hand of the one on trial. Calvin reads the closing verse as the psalm's true center, a poor man's confidence that the judge himself will stand for the defense.