Psalm 109

Psalms 109:1

“To the end, a psalm of David. When it says "to the end," let us understand that it is spoken not of the present, but of the future. And if it is spoken of the future, then the prophecy is about Christ. O God, do not keep silent about my praise. That is: Judas betrayed me, the Jews persecuted me and crucified me, and they thought that they would destroy me utterly, to the end. But you, O God, do not keep silent about my praise.”

Psalms 109:2

“For the mouth . . . opened--or, "They have opened a wicked mouth" against me--literally, "with me," that is, Their intercourse is lying, or, they slander me to my face (Mt 26:59).”

Psalms 109:3

“And they have surrounded me with words of hatred. Not that they might believe, but that they might war against me. And they have warred against me without cause. "Without cause" is understood in two ways. That is, without reason: for I had not sinned, and I did not deserve that they should make war upon me. And what worthy cause was there that they should war against me? Because I had healed their sick? because I had raised their dead? because I had done other signs? See therefore that they warred against him without cause.”

Psalms 109:4

“Instead of loving me, they disparaged me: but I kept praying. In return for the benefits which I had conferred upon them, they were doing me insults. But what was I doing? I kept praying. These are the weapons of the Lord: and these are our weapons too, prayer. So then, whenever anyone persecutes us, and hates us, let us say: Instead of loving me, they disparaged me. But what was I doing? I kept praying. That I might overcome them? Far from it: for whom did the Lord pray that he might overcome?”

Psalms 109:5

“And they set against me evils in return for goods. And set upon the cross, I kept praying for those who were crucifying me, while they were saying: "Aha, you who destroy the temple, and in three days build it up. Let him save himself. Let the Father who loves you come now and set you free." I rose again from the dead for their sakes, and they say: "His disciples came by night, and stole him away." And hatred in return for my love.”

Psalms 109:6

“Set thou a wicked man over him. What worse punishment could a man have? The proud man cannot endure the proud, nor the oppressor brook the rule of another like himself. The righteous in their patience find the rule of the wicked a sore bondage; but those who are full of resentful passions, and haughty aspirations, are slaves indeed when men of their own class have the whip hand of them. For Herod to be ruled by another Herod would be wretchedness enough, and yet what retribution could be more just?”

Psalms 109:7

“When he shall be judged, let him be condemned. He judged and condemned others in the vilest manner, he suffered not the innocent to escape; and it would be a great shame if in his time of trial, being really guilty, he should be allowed to go free. Who would wish Judge Jeffries to be acquitted if he were tried for perverting justice? Who would desire Nero or Caligula to be cleared if set at the bar for cruelty? When Shylock goes into court, who wishes him to win his suit? And let his prayer become sin.”

Psalms 109:8

“Let his days be few. His days were made few, but his nights increased: for he was cut off in the middle of his days. The sun withdrew from him, and behold, darkness was multiplied for him. And let another receive his episcopate. This too is interpreted more plainly in the Acts of the Apostles. But it was not only spoken of Judas in that time, it is spoken even to this day. If Judas lost his apostleship, let priests and bishops guard themselves, lest they too lose their own priesthood.”

Psalms 109:9

“Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. This would inevitably be the case when the man died, but the psalmist uses the words in an emphatic sense, he would have his widow "a widow indeed", and his children so friendless as to be orphaned in the bitterest sense. He sees the result of the bad man's decease, and includes it in the punishment. The tyrant's sword makes many children fatherless, and who can lament when his barbarities come home to his own family, and they too, weep and lament.”

Psalms 109:10

“Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg. May they have neither house nor home, settlement nor substance; and while they thus wander and beg may it ever be on their memory that their father's house lies in ruins, —let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. It has often been so: a race of tyrants has become a generation of beggars. Misused power and abused wealth have earned the family name universal detestation, and secured to the family character an entail of baseness.”

Psalms 109:11

“Let the moneylender search out all his substance. You gave him money, O Lord, you gave to him as also to the others. But what did he do? He did not bind it up in a napkin, nor bury it in the earth, nor was he negligent: but when he had the Lord's talent and money, he took a price from the enemies of the Lord, and sold his own Lord. Therefore I say to you, O Lord, exact from him the interest of your money. And let strangers plunder his labors.”

Psalms 109:12

“Let there be none to extend mercy unto him. He had no mercy, but on the contrary, he crushed down all who appealed to him. Loath to smite him with his own weapon, stern justice can do no otherwise, she lifts her scales and sees that this, too, must be in the sentence. Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.”

Psalms 109:13

“Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Both from existence and from memory let them pass away till none shall know that such a vile brood ever existed. Who wishes to see the family of Domitian or Julian continued upon earth? Who would mourn if the race of Tom Paine or of Voltaire should come to an utter end? It would be undesirable that the sons of the utterly villainous and bloodthirsty should rise to honour, and if they did they would only revive the memory of their father's sins.”

Psalms 109:14

“This verse is, perhaps, the most terrible of all, but yet as a matter of fact children do procure punishment upon their parents' sins, and are often themselves the means of such punishment. A bad son brings to mind his father's bad points of character; people say, "Ah, he is like the old man. He takes after his father." A mother's sins also will be sure to be called to mind if her daughter becomes grossly wicked. "Ah", they will say, "there is little wonder, when you consider what her mother was." These are matters of everyday occurrence.”

Psalms 109:15

“Again, he wishes that his father's sins may follow up the transgressor and assist to fill the measure of his own iniquities, so that for the whole accumulated load the family may be smitten with utter extinction. A king might justly wish for such an end to fall upon an incorrigible brood of rebels; and of persecutors, continuing in the same mind, the saints might well pray for their extinction; but the passage is dark; and we must leave it so. It must be right or it would not be here, but how we cannot see.”

Psalms 109:16

Because that he remembered not to show mercy,.... As Judas did not; neither to the poor, whom he cared not for, Joh 12:6 nor to Christ, whom he betrayed with a kiss to his enemies: nor had these words of Christ any effect upon him, to move his pity and compassion, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?"

Psalms 109:17

“As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him. Deep down in every man's soul the justice of the lex talionis is established. Retaliation, not for private revenge, but as a measure of public justice, is demanded by the psalmist and deserved by the crime. Surely the malicious man cannot complain if he is judged by his own rule, and has his corn measured with his own bushel. Let him have what he loved. They are his own chickens, and they ought to come home to roost. He made the bed, let him lie on it himself.”

Psalms 109:18

“Garment - Which a man wears constantly. Like water - Water in the cavity of the belly, between the bowels, is almost certain death. And oil soaking into any of the bones, will soon utterly destroy it.”

Psalms 109:19

“Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him - He has chosen to put it on, to wear it, to appear in it; so let him constantly feel its consequences. As he is always obliged to wear clothing, so let this be as constantly with him and upon him as his mantle and his sash. And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually - The belt or girdle which he constantly wears. See the notes at Mat 5:38.”

Psalms 109:20

“This is the summing up of the entire imprecation, and fixes it upon the persons who had so maliciously assailed the inoffensive man of God. David was a man of gentle mould, and remarkably free from the spirit of revenge, and therefore we may here conceive him to be speaking as a judge or as a representative man, in whose person great principles needed to be vindicated and great injuries redressed.”

Psalms 109:21

“But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake. How eagerly he turns from his enemies to his God! He sets the great thou in opposition to all his adversaries, and you see at once that his heart is at rest. The words are very indistinct and though our version may not precisely translate them, yet it in a remarkable manner hits upon the sense and upon the obscurity which hangs over it. "Do thou for me"—what shall he do? Why, do whatever he thinks fit.”

Psalms 109:22

“For I am poor and needy. When he does plead anything about himself he urges not his riches or his merits, but his poverty and his necessities: this is gospel supplication, such as only the Spirit of God can indite upon the heart. This lowliness does not comport with the supposed vengeful spirit of the preceding verses: there must therefore be some interpretation of them which would make them suitable in the lips of a lowly minded man of God. And my heart is wounded within me.”

Psalms 109:23

“I am shaken off like locusts. I indeed had come to protect my people, and I said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often did I wish to gather your children as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings." I had come like a hen to protect them: but they received me with a most hostile mind. I had come as a mother: and they slew me as if I were their murderer. I am shaken off. What is this? They persecuted me, they cast me out.”

Psalms 109:24

“My knees are weak through fasting,..... Either voluntary or forced, through want of food or refreshment; this was verified in Christ, when he kneeled and prayed, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling to the ground; see Psa 69:10. And my flesh faileth of fatness; or "for want of oil" (k); the radical moisture of his flesh being dried up like a potsherd, Psa 22:15. (k) משמן δι' ελαιον, Sept. "propter oleum", V. L. "propter defectum olei", Eth. Arab.”

Psalms 109:25

“I became also a reproach unto them,.... Or they reproached him; not only in life, traducing his conversation, blaspheming his miracles, calling him a Samaritan, saying he had a devil, and charging him with sedition; but at the time of his death they reviled him, and treated him in the most opprobrious manner. When they looked upon me, they shaked their heads; which was verified in the Jews as they passed by the cross of Christ, whither they came to stare upon him and scoff at him, Mat 27:39.”

Psalms 109:26

“Help me, O Lord my God. Laying hold of Jehovah by the appropriating word my, he implores his aid both to help him to bear his heavy load and to enable him to rise superior to it. He has described his own weakness, and the strength and fury of his foes, and by these two arguments he urges his appeal with double force. This is a very rich, short, and suitable prayer for believers in any situation of peril, difficulty, or sorrow. O save me according to thy mercy. As thy mercy is, so let thy salvation be.”

Psalms 109:27

“And let them know that this is your hand, and you, O Lord, have made it. What is it that he says, And let them know that this is your hand, and you, O Lord, have made it? Let the Jews understand that they did not prevail against me by their own strength: but my will and your will was done, that I should suffer. And I willed to suffer; therefore I say, according to what I am as man: "My God, I willed to do your will." And your will was also mine, that I should suffer.”

Psalms 109:28

“Let them curse, but bless thou,.... Let them curse me, as Shimei did David, the type of Christ; let them curse themselves, as they did; or my people: or "let them be cursed", as the Syriac version; cursed in life and at death, and to all eternity: but "bless thou me", the Messiah; as he did, when he raised him front the dead, set him at his right hand, and gave him a name above everyone, and made him most blessed for evermore; and bless my people with all spiritual blessings of grace, and with eternal glory and happiness.”

Psalms 109:29

“Let those who disparage me be clothed with shame. It profits us greatly to understand what we say. The clemency of God appears in this, in his saying "let them be clothed." He does not say, let them perish; he does not say, let them be blotted out forever: but what does he say? let them be confounded, that is, let them understand their error, and be confounded, and stand in repentance. He who is clothed with shame is near to salvation: for if anyone is truly confounded, he begins to repent.”

Psalms 109:30

“I will confess to the Lord exceedingly with my mouth. This is said after the resurrection, and it is sung of the future church. And in the midst of many I will praise him. For not in Judea alone, but in the whole world, in the church I will praise you.”

Psalms 109:31

“For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor. God will not be absent when his people are on their trial; he will hold a brief for them and stand in court as their advocate, prepared to plead on their behalf. How different is this from the doom of the ungodly who has Satan at his right hand (Ps 109:6). To save him from those that condemn his soul.”