109 To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
109:1 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 encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.1
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
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 take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from 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,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come2 upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far3 from him!
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak4 into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!
21 But you, O God my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name’s sake;
because your 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, with no fat.
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 your steadfast love!
27 Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it!
28 Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
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 one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
Section Overview
This individual lament is geared to a situation in which a faithful Israelite is suffering the attacks of vicious accusers who return evil to him for the good he has done to them (vv. 1–5). It contains an extensive prayer that his accusers (or their chief) would receive what they deserve (vv. 6–20), and it finishes with a prayer that appeals to, and rests confidently on, God’s “steadfast love” (vv. 21–31).
An important repeated word is “accuse” (vv. 4, 6, 20, 29),673 indicating the invidious situation.
A major issue in this psalm is the role of verses 6–19. Are these the words of the accusers of verses 2–5 (as NRSV has it, supported in Goldingay’s commentary), or are they part of the prayer of the particular afflicted person? The answer will depend, first, on what one considers the situation to be in which the psalm is to be used. Is it a song sung by gathered worshipers (the norm for the Psalms), or is it part of an otherwise unknown liturgy of someone under accusation (say, part of legal proceedings)? Second, whom shall we identify as the “I” of the psalm? Is it the king himself, or is it anyone in Israel? Third, is there any tradition of reading that can help us? And finally, if these words are part of the prayer, are they much different from other imprecations?
The last of these questions is easy enough to answer: such a prayer is not out of step with what we find elsewhere, such as at 69:22–28 (though 109:6–19 is longer). The third question seems straightforward as well: the generality of readers have taken these verses as the psalmist’s prayers for judgment on the unjust accusers, and this is reflected in the way in which Peter applies verse 8 (Acts 1:20). Answers to the first and second questions are murkier. There is no clear indication in the text that the verses are intended as quoted speech, unless the shift from plural (“they”; 109:2–5) to singular (“he”; vv. 6–19) be the clue. The rhetorical figure prosopopoeia, which represents speech on behalf of someone besides the author, is represented in the Psalter (cf. Section Overview of Psalm 81), so we should assume some level of facility on the part of the ancient Israelites. However, the nature of these wishes is most naturally something like, “May he receive what he has planned for me” (cf. Ps. 5:9–10), and the singular may be taken as isolating a specific person or each of the enemies (cf. comments below), so there is no real problem with the conventional reading. Psalm 109:20 would then serve as the summary of the prayer on the part of the worshiper. Further, the thwarting of the accusers must be a public event; the community must reject their slander. Hence they must be “put to shame” (v. 28), which means publicly exposed as dealers in falsehood and thereby deprived of influence among the people. The conventional reading also suits a congregational use of the psalm; evidence is lacking for some kind of liturgical setting specifically for the unjustly accused that would overturn what seems to be the default understanding. Finally, there is no reason to think of the “I” in the psalm as anything other than a particular faithful member of the community.
All things considered, then, the arguments seem to tilt us mostly in the direction of the conventional reading, with verses 6–19 being part of the worshipers’ prayer.
As noted above, the tone and content of this psalm are reminiscent of Psalm 69. A major difference is that the sufferer in Psalm 69 acknowledges that wrongs he has done have played a role in his troubles, while the sufferer in Psalm 109 professes innocence. This facilitates its application to Jesus and to Judas. Though we may feel that Jesus would not have said such things about his betrayer and those who plotted against him, the Gospels do include his harsh condemnations of Judas (Matt. 26:24; Mark 14:21), Pilate, and the Jewish leaders (John 19:11). Jesus asked only for the soldiers to be forgiven, “for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Nevertheless, both psalms contain curses on enemies (cf. comment on 69:22–28), and both are appropriated by Christians (Pss. 69:25 and 109:8 in Acts 1:20). In both psalms the “enemies” are influential Israelites who are unfaithful to the covenant. The same principle applies to David’s authorship here as with Psalm 69, namely, that this is a prayer well suited to each of God’s people in analogous situations.
Section Outline
These considerations lead to the following understanding of how the psalm flows.
I. I Need Help against Those Who Accuse Me (109:1–5)
II. May He Suffer What He Deserves (109:6–20)
III. Deliver Me from Their Accusations (109:21–29)
IV. I Will Give Thanks to God Who Protects Me (109:30–31)
A number of the parts of the psalm are reflected in later verses. For example, the standing at the right hand of verse 31 echoes that of verse 6; the difference is the one who is standing. The singer identifies himself as “poor and needy” (v. 22), which means he is one of those the accuser has “pursued” (v. 16). The opposition between cursing and blessing in verse 28 echoes that of verse 17, and the kind of clothing of verse 29 echoes that in verses 18–19. These give a high degree of coherence to the whole psalm and invite us to sing it with its unity supplying the context for interpretation.
Response
Psalm 109, like other individual laments, expects thoughtful pastoral judgment on the part of those choosing it for a particular service. It would transpire, though, that some of the faithful would be opposed openly for their faith, and that this opposition would take the form of a lying campaign to destroy the faithful person’s place in the community. Since God’s people flourish when the faithful are honored (Prov. 11:10; 28:12; 29:2), this would make for a corporate disaster as well as an individual one. Thus the prayer serves the well-being of the whole people.
In addition to its function as a prayer, the psalm also enables worshipers to like some practices and abhor the others. For example, to use lies or innuendo to undermine another’s standing is here made hideous; the worshipers should hate such behavior and work against it wherever they find it (even in themselves). On the other hand, the person who remembers to show kindness to the vulnerable, though he makes himself vulnerable in so doing, is worthy of esteem among the faithful. The community member should learn that true faith leads them to side with such people and resist the seductive campaigns of the unfaithful. It could even be the case that some who are persecuting, or inclined to do so, might take heed of the prayers set out in the psalm as reflecting the divinely sanctioned perspective and turn away from persecuting. This, too, would strengthen the people of God.
Christians confess that their Lord was the victim of such smears; in spite of his suffering, he was ultimately vindicated. Psalm 109 can shape for Christian communities a vision for the kind of corporate life they should aspire for—and also a terrifying vision of the kind they should shun.Psalm 109
Psalm 110