God of my praise, don’t remain silent,
for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.
In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer.
They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand.
When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin.
Let his days be few. Let another take his office.
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins.
Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor.
Let there be no one to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children.
Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out.
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
Let them be before Yahweh continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth;
because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them.
Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him.
He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.
Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, for the belt that is always around him.
This is the reward of my adversaries from Yahweh, of those who speak evil against my soul.
But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me;
for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust.
My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.
I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head.
Help me, Yahweh, my God. Save me according to your loving kindness;
that they may know that this is your hand; that you, Yahweh, have done it.
They may curse, but you bless. When they arise, they will be shamed, but your servant shall rejoice.
Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonor. Let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.
I will give great thanks to Yahweh with my mouth. Yes, I will praise him among the multitude.
For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31 1 O God of my praise! be not silent…
1 O God of my praise! be not silent In these words, which may be considered as an introduction to the psalm, David declares that he neither could find nor would desire any other than God to stand forward in vindication of the integrity of his heart. For in denominating him the God of his praise, he intrusts to him the vindication of his innocence, in the face of the calumnies by which he was all but universally assailed. Some are of opinion that this clause is to be understood as referring to David’s having actually declared that he himself was the publisher of God’s praises; but the scope of the passage is opposed to such an interpretation; for we find David appealing to the judgment of God against the unjust and cruel hatred to which he was subjected in the world. There is in the words an implied contrast, because, when calumny is rampant, innocence is duly and properly estimated by none but God only. The meaning of the passage is this: Lord, although I may be regarded as the vilest of the vile, and exposed to the reproach of the world, yet thou wilt maintain the uprightness of my character, and on this account thou wilt also set forth my praise. This interpretation corresponds well with that which is immediately subjoined, be not silent For when we are overwhelmed by the aspersions of the wicked, it would surely be improper on the part of God, who is the witness of our innocence, to remain silent. At the same time, what I formerly stated must not be forgotten, that while David mourns over the injuries which he in particular was suffering, yet, in his own person, he represented Christ, and the whole body of his Church. From this we are taught, when we are subjected to every species of indignity by men, to repose with perfect confidence under the protection of God alone. No man, however, can, with sincerity of heart, surrender himself entirely into the hand of God, except he has first formed the resolution of treating with contempt the reproaches of the world, and is also fully persuaded that he has God as the defender of his cause.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30, 31 Though all the world condemn me, yet thou wilt…
Though all the world condemn me, yet thou wilt approve mine innocence, and that is a sufficient praise to me.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–31 Psa 109:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm…
Psa 109:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. » Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
A Psalm of David] Written by him, usque adeo terribili et horrifica oratione, saith Beza, in such terrible terms, as the like is not to be found in Holy Scripture; wherefore it is to be read and used with very great judgment, and not as those miscreants of whom Faber writeth, Quod more magico clam murmurabant hune Psalmum per modum execrationis in eorum hostes, that after a conjuring fashion they muttered out this psalm, by the way of curse upon their enemies.
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Ver. 1. Hold not thy peace] But plead my cause, clear mine innocence.
O God of my praise] The object of my praises, or thou that keepest up my credit, as a witness, judge, and avenger of mine integrity.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 Hold not thy peace; do not neglect me, but…
Hold not thy peace; do not neglect me, but take notice of my extreme danger and misery, and deliver me, which thou canst do by the speaking of one word. O God of my praise; the author and matter of all my praises; who hast given me continual occasion to praise thee, whom I have used to praise, and will praise whilst I live; do not therefore now give me occasion to turn my praises into lamentations.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 21 It is the unspeakable comfort of all good people…
It is the unspeakable comfort of all good people that, whoever is against them, God is for them, and to him they may apply as to one that is pleased to concern himself for them. Thus David here.
I. He refers himself to God's judgment (Psa 109:1): "Hold not thy peace, but let my sentence come forth from thy presence, Psa 17:2. Delay not to give judgment upon the appeal made to thee." God saw what his enemies did against him, but seemed to connive at it, and to keep silence: "Lord," says he, "do not always do so." The title he gives to God is observable: "O God of my praise! the God in whom I glory, and not in any wisdom or strength of my own, from whom I have every thing that is my praise, or the God whom I have praised, and will praise, and hope to be for ever praising." He had before called God the God of his mercy (Psa 59:10), here he calls him the God of his praise. Forasmuch as God is the God of our mercies we must make him the God of our praises; if all is of him and from him, all must be to him and for him.
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II. He complains of his enemies, showing that they were such as it was fit for the righteous God to appear against. 1. They were very spiteful and malicious: They are wicked; they delight in doing mischief (Psa 109:2); their words are words of hatred, Psa 109:3. They had an implacable enmity to a good man because of his goodness. "They open their mouths against me to swallow me up, and fight against me to cut me off if they could." 2. They were notorious liars; and lying comprehends two of the seven things which the Lord hates. "They are deceitful in their protestations and professions of kindness, while at the same time they speak against me behind my back, with a lying tongue." They were equally false in their flatteries and in their calumnies. 3. They were both public and restless in their designs; "They compassed me about on all sides, so that, which way soever I looked, I could see nothing but what made against me." 4. They were unjust; their accusations of him, and sentence against him, were all groundless: "They have fought against me without a cause; I never gave them any provocation." Nay, which was worst of all, 5. They were very ungrateful, and rewarded him evil for good, Psa 109:5. Many a kindness he had done them, and was upon all occasions ready to do them, and yet he could not work upon them to abate their malice against him, but, on the contrary, they were the more exasperated because they could not provoke him to give them some occasion against him (Psa 109:4): For my love they are my adversaries. The more he endeavoured to gratify them the more they hated him. We may wonder that it is possible that any should be so wicked; and yet, since there have been so many instances of it, we should not wonder if any be so wicked against us.
III. He resolves to keep close to his duty and take the comfort of that: But I give myself unto prayer (Psa 109:4), I prayer (so it is in the original); "I am for prayer, I am a man of prayer, I love prayer, and prize prayer, and practise prayer, and make a business of prayer, and am in my element when I am at prayer." A good man is made up of prayer, gives himself to prayer, as the apostles, Act 6:4. When David's enemies falsely accused him, and misrepresented him, he applied to God and by prayer committed his cause to him. Though they were his adversaries for his love, yet he continued to pray for them; if others are abusive and injurious to us, yet let not us fail to do our duty to them, nor sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for them, Sa1 12:23. Though they hated and persecuted him for his religion, yet he kept close to it; they laughed at him for his devotion, but they could not laugh him out of it. "Let them say what they will, I give myself unto prayer." Now herein David was a type of Christ, who was compassed about with words of hatred and lying words, whose enemies not only persecuted him without cause, but for his love and his good works (Joh 10:32); and yet he gave himself to prayer, to pray for them. Father, forgive them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–30 Hold not thy peace,.... Or be not as a…
Hold not thy peace,.... Or be not as a deaf or dumb man, or like one that turns a deaf ear and will give no answer; so the Lord seems to his people when he does not give an immediate answer to their prayers, and does not arise to help them; he seems to have forsaken them, and to stand at a distance from them; nor does he avenge them of their enemies; it is the Messiah, as man, that puts up this petition, and it agrees with Psa 22:2.
O God of my praise; worthy of all praise, because of the perfections of his nature, and for the mercies he bestows; and is and ought to be the constant object of the praise of his people, and was the object of the praise of Christ; see Psa 22:22, who praised him for his wonderful formation as man, having such a holy human nature, so suitable to his divine Person, and so fit for the service of his people; for his preservation from his enemies, and the deliverance of him from death and the grave, by his resurrection; for hearing his petitions, and for the special grace bestowed on his people; see Psa 139:14. Or, "O God of my glorying (w)"; in whom he gloried, of whom he boasted; as he often with exultation spoke of him as his God and Father: or, "the God that praises me"; for his praise was not of men, but of God, who by a voice from heaven declared him his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased, Mat 3:17.
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(w) "gloriationis meae", Cocceius; "de quo glorior", so some in Vatablus.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23 David complains of his enemies and appeals to God,…
David complains of his enemies and appeals to God, ver. 1-5. Foretells their destruction, ver. 6-20. Prays that God would succor him in his low condition, ver. 21-29. Concludes with a joyful hope of deliverance, ver. 30, 31 To the chief musician, A psalm of David.
God - The author and matter of all my praises.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 The psalmist speaks against his inveterate enemies, 1-5.
PSALM CIX
The psalmist speaks against his inveterate enemies, 1-5.
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He prays against them, and denounces God's judgments, 6-15.
The reason on which this is grounded, 16-20.
He prays for his own safety and salvation, using many arguments
to induce God to have mercy upon him, 21-31.
NOTES ON PSALMS CIX
The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, has already often occurred, and on it the Versions offer nothing new. The Syriac says it is "a Psalm of David, when the people, without his knowledge, made Absalom king; on which account he was slain: but to us (Christians) he details the passion of Christ." That it contains a prophecy against Judas and the enemies of our Lord, is evident from Ac 1:20. Probably, in its primary meaning, (for such a meaning it certainly has,) it may refer to Ahithophel. The execrations in it should be rendered in the future tense, as they are mere prophetic denunciations of God's displeasure against sinners. Taken in this light, it cannot be a stumbling-block to any person. God has a right to denounce those judgments which he will inflict on the workers of iniquity. But perhaps the whole may be the execrations of David's enemies against himself. See on Ps 107:20. Ahithophel, who gave evil counsel against David, and being frustrated hanged himself, was no mean prototype of Judas the traitor; it was probably on this account that St. Peter, Ac 1:20, applied it to the case of Judas, as a prophetic declaration concerning him, or at least a subject that might be accommodated to his case.
Verse 1. Hold not thy peace] Be not silent; arise and defend my cause.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 6, 8, 9, 11, 13, 16, 17, 21, 23, 24, 26, 30 Psa 109:1. Hold not thy peace — Do not…
Psa 109:1. Hold not thy peace — Do not neglect me, but take notice of my extreme danger and misery, and let my sentence come forth from thy presence, Psa 17:2. Delay not to give judgment upon the appeal made to thee. O God of my praise — The author and matter of all my praises: in whom I glory, and not in any wisdom or strength of my own: who hast given me continual occasion to praise thee; whom I have praised, and will praise while I live, and hope to praise to all eternity.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–31 Hold not thy peace - That is, Speak for…
Hold not thy peace - That is, Speak for my defense - as if God had looked with unconcern on the wrongs which were done to him. See the notes at Psa 83:1.
O God of my praise - The God whom I praise; whom I worship and adore. It implies that he was accustomed to praise him, and desired still to praise him. He sought that God would interpose now that he might have new occasion for praise.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 109
Psalms 109
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
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Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred;
And fought against me without a cause.
4 For my love they are my adversaries:
But I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
6 Set thou a wicked man over him:
And let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned:
And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few;
And let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:
Let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath;
And let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him:
Neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off;
And in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with 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 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the broken in heart.
17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him:
As he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment,
So let it come into his bowels like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him,
And for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord,
And of them that speak evil against my soul.
21 But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake:
Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
And my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth:
I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
And my flesh faileth of fatness.
25 I became also a reproach unto them:
When they looked upon me they shaked their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God:
O save me according to thy mercy:
27 That they may know that this is thy hand;
That thou, Lord, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but bless thou:
When They arise, let them be ashamed;
But let thy servant rejoice.
29 Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame;
And let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
Yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor
To save him from those that condemn his soul.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The Psalmist calls upon God not to be silent with regard to his complaint (Psa_109:1-5) against his enemies, who are deceitful and filled with enmity, and who persecute him causelessly and unrelentingly, for he is innocent and pious, and who reward both his good deeds and his love towards them with ingratitude and hatred. The retributive justice of God, with all its terrible consequences, is then invoked upon an enemy, who is thereafter designated in the singular number, and upon his family (Psa_109:6-20). He then implores from God’s mercy his own deliverance, describing his personal weakness and dishonor (Psa_109:21-25), and, with faith in Divine help, entreats a victorious issue of this suffering (Psa_109:26-29), and unites with this a vow of public thanksgiving (Psa_109:30-31).
In these prayers, as well as in the introduction, a plurality of foes is spoken of. We might therefore be inclined to regard the singular designation of the enemy, which appears in the prayer for punishment, as a rhetorical figure. Yet the whole picture is of such a character that it cannot be intended for a number of persons, but only for an individual. But there is no occasion for maintaining that this section interrupts the connection, and regarding it as an interpolation (Hupfeld). From the band of enemies one could very well have been singled out for special punishment, since one actually appears as having been specially hardened in wickedness. In favor of this is the circumstance that Satan, as the accuser, is to stand at his right hand (Psa_109:6), as God the Defender of his servant stands at his right (Psa_109:31). Psa_109:8 also speaks of the loss of his occupation. The Apostle Peter took the same view (Act_1:20) in referring this verse, along with Psa_69:26, to Judas Iscariot, of whom the Holy Ghost had prophesied by the mouth of David (Act_1:16). Accordingly it is best to refer this Psalm to the typico-prophetical (Calvin, Venema, Stier, Del.), and not to the Messianic class. For the speaker is not presented as a type of the Messiah (many of the older commentators), or of the suffering righteous (Hengst., Clauss.) It is the enemy who is treated as the type of Judas, and that in a relation altogether definite, and only manifested as existing, when viewed from the stand-point of the prophetical conception of history, and not until it was brought out by the fulfilment. It is understood, of course, that actual history must furnish corresponding events, which, without seeking too far, can be naturally brought into connection with the situation described. Such events are found in the relations of David to Doeg the Edomite (Kimchi), to Ahithophel (Grotius, Knapp) to Shimei (Dathe) although the individual case in question cannot be established from the text. But, by regarding such a special case as no more than an extreme heightening of the contrast between the theocratic ruler of Israel and his adversary, who has fallen into the power of Satan, and by treating it typico-prophetically, not only may the attempts, inadequate by themselves, of a moral (Ewald) or psychological (Olshausen) or poetical (Döderlein) explanation of the fearful imprecations be assigned their relative worth, but also the absurd and unsuccessful efforts to justify them in the mouth of David as a type of Christ in His judicial office (J. H. Mich., Hengst.) may be avoided. For the contradiction between these imprecations, and the actions, as well as the commands, of Jesus Christ (Clericus, Grotius), cannot be removed by any effort of skill, or concealed by referring to Mat_26:24, and similar passages. The announcement and execution of the Divine judgment, and even prayer for its coming, may be in agreement with the Divine will, and may coexist with a righteous desire for its actual realization. But in such a relation there are manifested grief, moral indignation, and holy anger (comp. our remark at Psalms 69) Here, on the contrary, a spirit is displayed which is not free from carnal passion, and which invokes injuries of such a kind upon the person, and even upon the wife and offspring of the enemy, that some expositors have been able to discover no other way out of the difficulty, than by placing these words in the mouths of the ungodly adversaries of the Psalmist (J. D. Mich., Muntinghe). Others, acknowledging that such a view cannot be admitted, seek the origin of the Psalm in the fanatical and revengeful spirit of later Judaism. Those who hold the last view consider the poetical style, which delights in redundancies and exaggerations, to be further evidence of a late period and degenerate taste (De Wette, Hitzig). But we would be inclined to regard these as characteristics of the style employed in imprecations, rather than as a genuine expression of the feelings (Hupfeld).
[Alexander: “This Psalm is remarkable on two accounts: first, as containing the most striking instances of what are called the imprecations of the Psalms; and, then, as having been applied in the most explicit manner to the sufferings of our Saviour from the treachery of Judas, and to the miserable fate of the latter. These two peculiarities are perhaps more closely connected than they may at first sight seem. Perhaps the best solution of the first is afforded by the second, or at least by the hypothesis that the Psalmist, under the instruction of the Spirit, viewed the sufferings of Israel which furnished the occasion of the Psalm, as an historical type of the Messiah’s sufferings from the treachery of Judas, and that, with this view, he expresses his abhorrence of the crime, and acquiesces in the justice of its punishment, in stronger terms than would have been, or are elsewhere, employed in reference to ordinary criminals.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_109:1-5. God of my praise, that is, God, who art my praise (Jer_17:14). The translation of the Vulg.: God, be not silent to my praise! is against the Heb. Text, and its translation in Psa_109:4 : instead of the love due to me, is against the context; for it is clearly not the objective genitive, but the subjective, which occurs in Psa_109:5, as in Psa_38:21. The change of tenses indicates a hostile course of action of very long duration, hardening itself against affection in repeated actions. The slight correction of Böttcher in Psa_109:4 b, in order to gain the sense: I am a loathing to them, is ingenious but unnecessary. [This is done by pointing תִּפְלָה. The literal rendering of the received text is: I (am) prayer. The expression probably means, I give forth my whole being in prayer. This is proposed as interpreting the form of the sentence (comp. the Heb. of Psa_110:3) better than the common explanation.—J. F. M.]
Psa_109:6-7. Can Psa_109:6 mean: pronounce against him: guilty (Hitzig)? [Hupfeld says this is against the usage of the verb, and anticipates verse 7.—J. F. M.] Since it is not a human judgment but a Divine one that is spoken of, and the expressions closely resemble Zec_3:1, and שׂטן occurs without the article, as in 1Ch_21:1, the adversary placed in the usual position at the right hand of the accused, is hardly to be resolved, if we regard 1Sa_29:4; 2Sa_19:23, into the more general idea of an accuser, and is certainly not to be explained into that of an unrighteous accuser, according to the usual conception of the wicked man as being placed over the accused, as an unrighteous judge. God is rather to be supposed as the Judge, after Psa_109:7 b, and the punitive power is to be transferred to a wicked man (Lev_26:16; Jer_15:3), perhaps the power to drag him to judgment; a Satan to appear as the accuser. The Devil in the strict sense is probably not yet alluded to, but still, in all likelihood, an enemy with superhuman wickedness and power is intended. The objection which many take to the wish that the prayer might become sin, disappears when it is perceived that it is not the prayer of a penitent, but of one unconverted and despairing. Hence we are not to translate: let his prayer be a failure, that is, unavailing (Then.).
Psa_109:8-11. Instead of: office, or position as overseer (Sept. ἐπισκοπὴ) there is no sufficient occasion to translate: property, savings, with reference to Isa. 15:17 (Syr., J. D. Mich., Knapp, De Wette, Hitzig). The usual explanation (Num_3:36; Num_4:16) is the more to be preferred, as the loss of property is not mentioned till Psa_109:11. In Psa_109:10 b the Sept. have probably read גֹרְוּ instead of the present דָּרְשׁוּ, for they translate: may they be cast out. This agrees so well with the context, as also in Exo_12:39; Job_30:5, that it is natural to conjecture that it was the original reading (Houbigant, Knapp, Hupfeld). It is certainly much more simple and justifiable than the arbitrary correction of Hitzig, in order to gain the rendering: and may they get ready their baskets, that is, for begging. The whole passage is wanting in the Syriac Version. [In Psa_109:11 instead of: extortioner, translate: creditor.—J. F. M.]
Psa_109:14-15. The iniquity of his fathers.—There is presented here something more than a poetical variation (Hupfeld) of the imprecation that even the name of the family might be blotted out (Hengstenberg). Even this would be more than a “dull play of wit with conceptions which have no inner reality.” The speaker wishes that the guilt of the fathers may be remembered to the disgrace of the son, Lam_5:8. Since he himself is loaded with guilt, that of his fathers may be imputed to him also, Exo_20:5; Psa_69:28 (Hitzig). [Perowne: “The curse goes backward as well as forward. The whole race of man is involved in it; root and branch he is accursed. Not the guilt of the individual only, but the guilt of all his guilty ancestors is to be remembered and visited upon his posterity. For the great law comp. Mat_23:32-36. Hupfeld objects that ‘the curse on the fathers’ is pointless, as it could no longer reach them, but if I see rightly, the object is to heighten the effect of the curse as it falls upon the children mentioned in Psa_109:13.”—J. F. M.]
Psa_109:17-19. Verse 19 desires, that according to the law of retribution, there may be experienced what in Psa_109:18 is related as already accomplished. The law itself is stated already in Psa_109:17, and the different images in Psa_109:18 represent its operation. [The true construction in Psa_109:17-18 is to take all the verbs as describing past events: “And he loved cursing, and it came upon him,” etc., and then in Psa_109:19 comes the imprecation explained above. The Vav Conversive at the beginning of Psa_109:17, and repeated, proves the correctness of this construction.—J. F. M.]
Psa_109:21-24. Do thou for me, namely, good, as is expressly added in Psa_119:165. But perhaps the expression is absolute, as in Jer_14:7, since the idea is furnished from the context (Geier, Hengst,, Hupfeld). The renderings which follow are less to be commended: do with me (Rudinger), or: act with me (Del), namely, helpfully=be with me (Luth), in which we are referred to the construction of this word with the dative, 1Sa_14:6 (De Wette and others).—In Psa_109:24 b it is doubtful whether שֶמֶן is to be taken as meaning: oil, as usual, and especially anointing oil, in contrast to the fasting and mourning (2Sa_12:16; 2Sa_12:20; 2Sa_14:2; Mat_6:16-17), and then the מִן causally=because of (the want of) oil (Sept., Vulg. and others, Hengst.), or whether the preposition is to be taken in a privative sense, and oil as equivalent to fat (the recent expositors).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. A religious and righteous life does not protect a man from calumny and persecution at the hands of envious and wicked men; nor can love and friendship be secure against hatred and ingratitude. But piety and love lead him to prayer, in the midst of the trials thence resulting, and to commit revenge, as well as deliverance, to the Holy God as the true Avenger, who will not remain silent, either to the lying words and calumnies of the enemies, or to the sighs and prayers of His servant, but will give renewed occasion for the ever-extending proclamation of His ancient glory.
2. The law of retribution has not merely its Old Testament foundation (Exo_21:23 f.), but its New Testament application (2Ti_4:14). But he who has recourse to it, and demands and entreats that God would put it into practice, should see well to it, that he himself be not seized and crushed by it. For “cursing as well as swearing is both good and bad. For we read in the Scriptures that holy men have often cursed—therefore none can offer the Lord’s Prayer rightly without also cursing. For when he prays, ‘hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,’ etc., he must include in the same outpouring of his desires all that is opposed to these, and say: cursed and execrated and dishonored must all other names be, and all kingdoms which are opposed to Thee must be destroyed and rent in pieces, and all devices, wisdom, and purposes, formed against Thee fall to the ground” (Luther, Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount). This cursing, as correlated to blessing, is just a testimony to the energy of opposition in a heart and of a life wholly devoted to God, and was uttered by Prophets and Apostles with the full consciousness that, as God’s servants, they were justified and obligated in doing so, and that they acted in the name and under the commission and commands of God, and with His authority and power. The scruples of many expositors, arising from over-delicacy and sentimentality, are shorn of their force by these considerations, and the principle must be firmly held, that the servants of God are to make His threatenings as well as His promises an article of their belief, and that when they say “amen” to them, they must in deed and in truth, set themselves for the earnest execution of the Divine will. For “the kingdom of God comes not only through the salvation of the penitent, but also through the condemnation of the impenitent” (Kurtz). But still we have to lay to heart these two qualifications, first, that it is not every one who is called to curse in God’s kingdom, and secondly, that those who are called must allow nothing that proceeds from their own flesh and heart to influence them in their Divine office. There are curses which do not fall upon those at whom they are cast, but recoil upon the heads of those who pronounce them.
3. When children continue in the sins of their parents, judicial hardening may then come upon them, in which the whole family is miserably ruined and destroyed, even to its name. The powers of evil, by whose aid such a race hoped to rule according to its pleasure and to the ruin of others, have gained dominion over it and its several members, and buried it beneath the burden of its iniquities. Persistent scorn of love has heaped up for itself a treasure of wrath; growing despite of goodness has exhausted patience; the increased abuse of the day of grace ripens for that judgment in which the unconverted sinner receives the fulness of that which he sought his whole life long, as though he could never be satiated with it, while that which he despised ever remains far from him; both of these being the consequences of his wickedness and the punishment of his obduracy. In such fearful judgments they will experience the force of the truth, that there is a sin unto death, and that there are sinners for whom there is no place for prayer (1Jn_5:16), and whose own prayer becomes sin, because it is not the expression of a religious need or condition.
4. The history of the lives of the righteous may be a history of suffering, and a long narrative of distress and peril, dishonor and persecution, sorrow and trial. But it attains at last a blessed and joyful issue, and becomes a history of victory. And this is accomplished, not according to any pretended law of the reversing of fortune in the changes and fluctuations of earthly things, not by accident or by human power, but by the hand of God. And the servant of God can never cease to confess His name and invoke his mercy, to proclaim His glory and praise His benefits, in the Church, and before the world.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
God hears thee, oh child of man! and does not keep silence: are thy words pleasing to Him?—If thou art in distress, peril, and anxiety, do not cease to praise God’s glory, to call upon His name, to trust His hand.—Never let go of the hand of God, it is thy only help; but submit also to its guidance.—He who persists in scorning love will reach the place where he can no longer receive it.—The suffering, the conflict, the delight of love.—He who acts with cursing as though it were his daily food and his raiment, need not wonder if his prayer becomes sin.—It befits the servant of God to bewail to God his distress, but also, when God is on his side, to venture against all foes, and even to beat Satan off the field.
Starke: He who extends God’s glory by celebrating it and praising it, will never be permitted by Him to come to shame beneath the calumnies of the ungodly.—Satan and his followers contend against the right with the weapons of unrighteousness and falsehood; let us oppose to them the weapons of righteousness and truth.—Love and prayer are united like the tree and its fruit.—It is the law of retribution to punish the wicked by means of the wicked.—He who has Satan as an accuser, and has not Jesus as his Intercessor, cannot escape the sentence of condemnation from God.—The wicked bequeath to their descendants nothing but cursing and judgments.—The Lord can curse none who earnestly seek His blessing (Gen_32:26; Gen_32:28), nor can He bless any who labor for His curse (Isa_24:5-6).—In all our actions, and therefore in our prayers, the glory of the Divine name must be our final and highest aim.—Osiander: Although the Christian is sometimes condemned as guilty by worldly judgment, and though its sentence is inflicted upon him, as happened also to Christ, yet the Lord stands by him, and pronounces him free, and leads him through death to eternal joy.—Selnecker: Why does God keep His own under the rod and the cross? (1) That they may be continually tried and exercised in the fear of God, in faith, in calling upon Him, in patience, in confession, in holding fast to the end; (2) That they may know His anger against the sins of all men, of believers as well as of the ungodly; (3) That they may be conformed to the image of Christ; (4) That they may think upon His gracious presence, help, and deliverance.—Frisch: The poison of the world finds its strongest antidote in prayer.—Tholuck: All the consequences of sin are punishments, and they come from the living God. And is it not allowable for men to wish for the fulfilment of that which God does, provided only that it be wished in the same sense as that in which God does it?—Richter: He who despises Christ’s intercession, experiences His curse.—Judicial hardening is not inflicted upon transgressors, until the Lord’s love to them has spent itself in loving, and has been offered in vain.—All prayer for deliverance, unless preceded by true repentance and penitence, and every despairing prayer, are sins before God.—Diedrich: Mankind lasts only by God’s mercy; he who hates it must vanish from the earth like the family of Saul.—The ungodly cannot be happy in any possession, for they have forfeited God’s blessing in everything.—Their works follow the wicked merely as the demands of justice.—Taube: A prayer of David for the manifestation of God’s retributive justice upon the enemy of the Lord and his companions, and for the assistance of God’s gracious help for himself in his distress.—He who rejects the love of Christ, the only Mediator and Intercessor, has the eternal God over him as an angry Judge, and Satan beside him as a strict accuser; the end of his road is night.—The self-chosen reward of the ungodly.—The matter rests here: he who would be a companion of saints in God’s kingdom must be their companion in affliction here.
[Matt. Henry: His prayer becomes sin, as the clamors of a condemned malefactor not only find no acceptance, but are looked upon as an affront to the court.—Men’s curses are impotent; God’s blessings are omnipotent. J. F. M.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 1. Hold not thy peace—Be not a silent witness…
1. Hold not thy peace—Be not a silent witness of my wrongs.
God of my praise—Taken in the genitive, for the object of “my praise,” the fundamental passage is Deu_10:21. Compare Jer_17:14. But the Septuagint and Vulgate read the whole line, “O God, pass not over my praise in silence.” Do not omit to speak in my praise while others slander me. This would accord with Psa_109:2, but the former is to be preferred.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–31 1. Hold not thy peace] Or, Be not silent,…
1. Hold not thy peace] Or, Be not silent, but answer my prayer by pronouncing and executing judgement upon my persecutors. Cp. Psa_35:22; Psa_39:12; Psa_50:3; Psa_83:1. God’s silence is contrasted with the noisy clamour of his foes.
O God of my praise[65]] Thou, Who art the object of my praise, Whom I have had cause to praise in times past, leave me not without cause to praise thee now. Cp. Psa_109:30; Psa_22:25; and particularly Jeremiah’s prayer (Psa_17:14) “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise,” based on Deu_10:21.
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[65] In most editions of the Prayer Book the Latin heading is wrongly given as Deus laudum, which appears to have been introduced as a rendering of this phrase, the proper heading Deus laudem [meam ne tacueris]; ‘O God, pass not over my praise in silence’, seeming to be unintelligible.
1–5. The Psalmist appeals to God to interpose and defend him from his persecutors, whose hostility is not only causeless, but aggravated by gross ingratitude.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31 (1) God of my praise.—That is, God to whom…
(1) God of my praise.—That is, God to whom as covenant God it was a privilege to make tehillah. (See Deu_10:20-21, where Jehovah is said to be “the praise” of those who “swear by His name.” Comp. also Psa_106:2-3, and Note, and Psa_33:1. Perhaps “God of my glory or boast” would more nearly give the force of the original. The psalmist prays that Jehovah’s silence may not make his confident glorifying in the covenant promises vain.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–31 THE title of this psalm the chief musician, a…
THE title of this psalm the chief musician, a psalm of David is thought to be not inappropriate. We may have here David"s own appeal to God against his persecutors, and especially against a chief persecutor, who may be Saul, or Doeg, or Ahithophel, or Shimei. The psalm opens with mingled complaint and prayer. The adversaries are spoken of in the plural (vers. 2-5). They have abused and maligned the writer, have returned evil for the good that he has sought to do them, and given him hatred for his love (ver. 5). The psalmist, in return, utters against them, or rather against his chief persecutor, a series of male dictions (vers. 6-15) which constitute a standing difficulty to all biblical apologists. They are certainly entirely alien to the Christian, though not perhaps to the Jewish spirit. (comp. 2Ki_1:10-12 Luk_9:54-56) It is impossible to read or re hearse them without pain. The attempt made to explain them as the utterances of David"s adversaries (Kennicott, Mendelssohn, Westcott) is unsatisfactory. We must admit that they are the psalmist"s own anathemas, and judge them from this standpoint (see the comment on vers. 6-15). They are followed by an analysis of the evil tern-per in the adversaries which has led them into their evil courses (vers. 15-20). The psalmist then turns to God in prayer, on-treating his help, and setting forth his own necessities (vers. 21-29). Finally, he winds up with a short burst of praise, since he is confident that his prayer is heard, and that he will be delivered from his persecutors (vers. 30, 31).
Vers. 1-5. The initial prayer and complaint. The prayer occupies one verse only (ver. 1); the complaint four verses (vers. 2-5).
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Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise. (comp. Psa_28:1 Psa_35:22 Psa_39:12) If God makes no sign when men arc grievously persecuted, he seems to be indifferent to their sufferings. Surely he will not thus treat one who praises him continually. (Psa_22:26 Psa_71:6)
Vers. 1-31. Explanation, warning, encouragement.
This psalm of David contains
I AN EXPLANATION TO BE SOUGHT. How came these strong imprecations to be used by the servant of the Lord? Are they worthy to find a place in the pages of Holy Scripture? Two things, at least, have to be considered in defense of them.
1. David identifies his own cause with that of God, and therefore his own enemies with God"s. He is animated by the spirit which breathes in the words, "Do not I hate them that hate thee?... I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies". (Psa_139:21, Psa_139:22) So that his bitterness is not so much personal as public; it is moral indignation rather than individual and personal resentment. He speaks as one who feels that what is said and done against himself is aimed at the cause of Jehovah; there is more of righteousness than rancor in his soul. But if, as may be fairly urged, this does not provide a full explanation, it must be further considered:
2. That David could indulge wishes and take action against his enemies which are impossible to us, without injury to his conscience. He had not sat at the feet of Jesus Christ. He had not read, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt... hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies," etc. (Mat_5:43) He felt that he was well within the limits of the Law, if indeed he was not eagerly and dutifully championing the cause of God and of righteousness, by uttering these maledictions.
II A WARNING TO BE HEEDED. It did not need that David should imprecate thus in order that his adversaries should be humbled.
1. Evil would certainly overtake them. They were guilty of unprovoked assault (see vers. 4, 5); they were utterly heartless in their course of cruelty (see ver. 16); they would inevitably meet with the condemnation of a righteous God, and with the visible and tangible tokens of his displeasure. All sin has to pay its penalty sooner or later; and it is certain that they who wantonly injure the people of God, and mercilessly afflict the poor and the un-befriended, will have to meet their doom. (Psa_33:16)
2. The penalty which the wicked have to pay answers closely to the character of their crimes (vers. 17-19). He that curses others will himself be cursed of man, as well as condemned of God. "With what measure ye mete," etc. The hard-hearted and close-fisted will have no pity shown them in their hour of need. He that taketh the sword may expect to perish by the sword. To none are we so apt to be uncharitable as to those who have no charity in their hearts towards others. Every one is inclined to excuse cruelty when it is shown to the cruel. Whatsoever we sow, that shall we reap.
III AN EXAMPLE TO BE FOLLOWED. Not, indeed, in these imprecations; we have not so learned Christ; we have been taught the much more excellent way of pitying those who are wrong (even when they have wronged us), and of seeking to turn their hearts, that they may be saved from the consequences of their own sins. But:
1. In maintaining innocency in the midst of transgression. The psalmist had the peace-bringing consciousness that the wrongs inflicted on him had not been provoked by him; his hands were clean. In the darkest hour of our distress it is a priceless consolation that we have preserved our own integrity, that nothing has left a stain upon our soul. "Poor and needy, and wounded in heart," we may be (ver. 22), but we are true and pure, and our heart is right with God.
2. In looking to God for Divine succor (vers. 1, 4, 26-28). We, too, must "give ourselves to prayer," and look to the Strong for strength. Let who will curse us, if God bless us we shall be blessed indeed.
3. In a joyful assurance that all will be well at last (vers. 30, 31). Whatever the situation now, the future will show a Divine Redeemer at our right hand, rescuing and exalting us.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-31. The dreadful psalm.
It is by no means easy to imagine the whole nation of Israel singing such dreadful imprecations as those contained in vers. 6-19. "Thousands of God"s people," says Mr. Spurgeon, "are perplexed by it." Not a few would like to be rid of it altogether. And the explanation given by many of the old commentators, that these fearful curses are those of the Lord Jesus Christ on Judas, who betrayed him, has only made the difficulties connected with this psalm ever so much worse. What is to be said? The solution we have to offer is that given by a learned theological writer, Mr. J. Hammond; and it is this that these frightful cursings are not David"s at all, but Shimei"s. (see 2Sa 16) They are what he heaped upon David, not David upon him. For
I SUCH CURSING IS UNLIKE DAVID. No doubt David was capable of saying and doing terrible things. Still, such brutal malignity, such diabolic depths of cruelty, as are reached in these cursings, are not what David"s life, even where the worst has been said of it, would lead us to expect. He was not himself, though passionate, a vindictive man. And if David"s dying injunctions concerning Joab and Shimei be cited, we venture to say that, deplorable as they were, they are mildness and meek ness itself compared with what we find here. They do not take in the parents and innocent children, nor stretch into the far future, as these delight to do; they are limited to the individual criminal and to the present life. But this cannot be said of the curses of this psalm. No, they are not like David; we do not believe they could have come from him.
II AND THEY ARE INCONSISTENT WITH THE PSALM ITSELF WHEN TAKES IN ITS ENTIRETY. There are three plainly marked divisions in the psalm. The first, vers. 1-5; the second, containing these imprecations, vers. 6-19; and the third, ver. 20 to the end. Now, nothing could be in greater contrast than the central, the cursing portion, and that which both precedes and follows. The first and last sections tell of "adversaries," many of them; but the central one points to one solitary individual: "Let him be condemned;" "He loved cursing," etc. And not in form only, but how utterly different in spirit! See the frequent references to God in the first and last sections; but they are scarcely to be found in the central one. In ver. 4, in the first section, David meekly says, "I give myself unto prayer;" which assuredly he did not, but to something very different, if vers. 6-19 are the utterances of his mind. Is it likely that all at once, as by a leap, he would pass from the spirit of meek devoutness and lowly trust in God, to the very spirit of hell, which breathes and burns in vers. 6-19? And if such were his spirit, would he at ver. 20 suddenly return to the bitter spirit of the beginning of this psalm? We think not.
III THEIR AUTHORSHIP CAN BE SETTLED ONLY BY THE CONTEXT, and that is in favor of the view we have maintained. Note:
1. That in Hebrew there are no quotation marks. Such contrivances as inverted commas and the like, to make clear when the words of another are given, were unknown to Hebrew writers. You can tell only by the context and the general sense when such quotations occur. Hence:
2. Our translators continually add some word or words to mark them. (Cf. Psa_2:2 Psa_22:7 Psa_27:8 Psa_41:8 Psa_59:7 Psa_105:15 Psa_137:3, and many more)
3. And there are numbers of passages where such signs should be given but are not: e.g. Psa_2:6 Ps 14 Ps 20 and Ps 21 (liturgical psalms); Psa_22:22 Psa_39:4; and the writer I am indebted to for these references says, "I have counted a score of passages in Perowne"s translation of the Psalms where he employs either the one or the other." And then:
4. The reproaches of enemies are cited frequently: e.g. Psa_10:6 Psa_22:8 Psa_35:21, etc. Now, may we not ask, that seeing the Hebrew has no quotation marks, and that the context only can decide when they should be inserted, could any context more plainly indicate that these vers. 6-19 form an instance in which our translators should, as they have done elsewhere, have given such signs?
IV IN DAVID"S OWN HISTORY WE HAVE AMPLE EXPLANATION OF THIS PSALM, and confirmation of the view we have maintained. The correspondencies between the history and the psalm are clear, constant, and minute, as well as obvious. The history is in 2Sa 16. Take the vers. 1-5, and what could more faithfully depict the condition, the spirit, and the enemy of David at the time of Absalom"s revolt, and when he was cursed by Shimei? And if, as we believe we should, we introduce the word "saying " after ver. 5, then do we not get a vivid representation of the curses that Shimei heaped upon him? And the imprecations themselves are just those that would have been spoken. They indicate the fact that he against whom they were directed held some great office; ver. 8 shows this.
Ver. 14 points to facts told of in the Book of Ruth. David"s ancestors were Israelites, but they had committed the great sin of marrying Moabitish women. This was "the iniquity of his fathers." Then ver. 16, which at first sight seems not to correspond with David"s character, finds its warrant in that dark page of his history when he slew Uriah, having first taken from him his wife. Nathan distinctly charged him with having "no pity." What wonder that the foul-mouthed Shimei should exaggerate and enlarge this with the charge which ver. 16 contains? But in the closing section of the psalm how exact the correspondences are with the moral history l The earnest pleading of ver. 21 seems but the echo of the words in the history, "It may be that the Lord will look upon mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day". (2Sa_16:12) Thus, then, from first to last the psalm fits into the folds of the narrative of David"s flight; the key turns without the slightest strain in the wards of the lock," and the whole of these correspondences go to show that the impious speeches in vers. 6-19 are not those of David against Shimei, but his and others against David.
V BUT, IT WILL BE SAID, ST. PETER DISPROVES ALL THAT HAS BEEN MAINTAINED. And doubtless the common interpretation has been upheld by his words in Act_1:16. But "the Scripture" (not "this" Scripture, see Revised Version) which "it was needful should be fulfilled" is not that in Psa_69:25 and Psa_109:8, but that in Psa_41:9 (see reference), which is plainly concerning Judas; and the quotations further down in ver. 20 are not concerning Judas, but are simply applied as apposite to him just as we constantly quote texts and sentences when they suit any particular case, without any idea that they were designed specially for such case. And even if this be questioned, and it be said, "the quotations do refer to Judas," it does not follow that David actually spoke the words. The psalm was his, and as a whole it is assigned to him the part which belonged to his enemy, as well as those bitter portions which undoubtedly belonged to him. But we do not believe that they do refer to Judas in any other way than that which we have said; for if so, then the dreadful denunciations upon him must be attributed to our Lord Jesus Christ! But that he who when on the cross prayed for his murderers, "Father, forgive them," etc., should utter such cursings as these, is altogether and horribly unbelievable.
VI AND THE INTERPRETATION IS WELL SUPPORTED. It is that of many Jewish rabbis, of Mendelssohn, of Kennicott, Lowth, etc. (see Mr. Hammond"s article); and, above all, it must commend itself to the heart and conscience of those who love God"s Word, and desire that others should love it too. The view we have combated lays a burden grievous to be borne on those who believe that in the Scriptures "holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." And this burden we have thus tried somewhat to relieve. S.C.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-31. Awful Imprecations.
This is a psalm of the most awful imprecations, in which the writer unrestminedly pours forth the fiercest hatred of his enemy, and pleads with God to load him with the most dreadful curses. He justifies his vindictive spirit by pleading that his enemy had fought against him without a cause; had rewarded his good with evil, and his love with hatred. He says he will give himself unto prayer; but the words which follow breathe a spirit such as we wonder that a man dare utter before God the God of mercy. The best commentary on the whole psalm would be a sermon on Mat_5:43-46, and another on Rom_12:17-21. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 To The Chief Musician. Intended therefore to be sung,…
To The Chief Musician. Intended therefore to be sung, and sung in the temple service! Yet is it by no means easy to imagine the whole nation singing such dreadful imprecations. We ourselves, at any rate, under the gospel dispensation, find it very difficult to infuse into the Psalm a gospel sense, or a sense at all compatible with the Christian spirit; and therefore one would think the Jews must have found it hard to chant such strong language without feeling the spirit of revenge excited; and the arousal of that spirit could never have been the object of divine worship in any period of timeunder law or under gospel. At the very outset this title shows that the Psalm has a meaning with which it is fitting for men of God to have fellowship before the throne of the Most High: but what is that meaning? This is a question of no small difficulty, and only a very childlike spirit will ever be able to answer it.
A Psalm of David. Not therefore the ravings of a vicious misanthrope, or the execrations of a hot, revengeful spirit. David would not smite the man who sought his blood, he frequently forgave those who treated him shamefully; and therefore these words cannot be read in a bitter, revengeful sense, for that would be foreign to the character of the son of Jesse. The imprecatory sentences before us were penned by one who with all his courage in battle was a man of music and of tender heart, and they were meant to be addressed to God in the form of a Psalm, and therefore they cannot possibly have been meant to be mere angry cursing.
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Unless it can be proved that the religion of the old dispensation was altogether hard, morose, and Draconian, and that David was of a malicious, vindictive spirit, it cannot be conceived that this Psalm contains what one author has ventured to call "a pitiless hate, a refined and insatiable malignity." To such a suggestion we cannot give place, no, not for an hour. But what else can we make of such strong language? Truly this is one of the hard places of Scripture, a passage which the soul trembles to read; yet as it is a Psalm unto God, and given by inspiration, it is not ours to sit in judgment upon it, but to bow our ear to what God the Lord would speak to us therein.
This psalm refers to Judas, for so Peter quoted it; but to ascribe its bitter denunciations to our Lord in the hour of his sufferings is more than we dare to do. These are not consistent with the silent Lamb of God, who opened not his mouth when led to the slaughter. It may seem very pious to put such words into his mouth; we hope it is our piety which prevents our doing so. (See our first note from Perowne in the Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings.)
In the first five verses (Ps 109:1-5) David humbly pleads with God that he may be delivered from his remorseless and false hearted enemies. From Ps 109:6-20, filled with a prophetic fervour, which carries him entirely beyond himself, he denounces judgment upon his foes, and then from Ps 109:21-31 he returns to his communion with God in prayer and praise. The central portion of the Psalm in which the difficulty lies must be regarded not as the personal wish of the psalmist in cool blood, but as his prophetic denunciation of such persons as he describes, and emphatically of one special "son of perdition" whom he sees with prescient eye. We would all pray for the conversion of our worst enemy, and David would have done the same; but viewing the adversaries of the Lord, and doers of iniquity, As Such, and as incorrigible we cannot wish them well; on the contrary, we desire their overthrow, and destruction. The gentlest hearts burn with indignation when they hear of barbarities to women and children, of crafty plots for ruining the innocent, of cruel oppression of helpless orphans, and gratuitous ingratitude to the good and gentle. A curse upon the perpetrators of the atrocities in Turkey may not be less virtuous than a blessing upon the righteous. We wish well to all mankind, and for that very reason we sometimes blaze with indignation against the inhuman wretches by whom every law which protects our fellow creatures is trampled down, and every dictate of humanity is set at nought.
Ver. 1. Hold not thy peace. Mine enemies speak, be thou pleased to speak too. Break thy solemn silence, and silence those who slander me. It is the cry of a man whose confidence in God is deep, and whose communion with him is very close and bold. Note, that he only asks the Lord to speak: a word from God is all a believer needs.
O God of my praise. Thou whom my whole soul praises, be pleased to protect my honour and guard my praise. "My heart is fixed", said he in the former psalm, "I will sing and give praise", and now he appeals to the God whom he had praised. If we take care of God's honour he will take care of ours. We may look to him as the guardian of our character if we truly seek his glory. If we live to God's praise, he will in the long run give us praise among men.
Whole Psalm. Mysterious was the one word written opposite this psalm in the pocket Bible of a late devout and popular writer. It represents the utter perplexity with which it is very generally regarded. Joseph Hammond.
Whole Psalm. In this psalm David is supposed to refer to Doeg the Edomite, or to Ahithophel. It is the most imprecatory of the psalms, and may well be termed the Iscariot Psalm. What David here refers to his mortal enemy, finds its accomplishment in the betrayer of the Son of David. It is from the 8th verse that Peter infers the necessity of filling up the vacancy occasioned by the death of Judas: it was, says he, predicted that another should take his office. Paton J. Gloag, in "A Commentary on the Acts, "1870.
Whole Psalm. We may consider Judas, at the same time, as the virtual head of the Jewish nation in their daring attempt to dethrone the Son of God. The doom pronounced, and the reasons for it, apply to the Jews as a nation, as well as to the leader of the band who took Jesus. Andrew A. Bonar.
Whole Psalm. Is it possible that this perplexing and distressing Psalm presents us after all, not with David's maledictions upon his enemies, but with their maledictions upon him? Not only do I hold this interpretation to be quite legitimate, I hold it to be by far the more natural and reasonable interpretation. Joseph Hammond.
(In Dr. Cox's Expositor, Vol. 2. pg 225, this theory is well elaborated by Mr. Hammond, but we cannot for an instant accept it. C.H.S.
The Imprecations of the Psalm. The language has been justified, not as the language of David, but as the language of Christ, exercising his office of Judge, or, in so far as he had laid aside that office during his earthly life, calling upon his Father to accomplish the curse. It has been alleged that this is the prophetic foreshadowing of the solemn words, "Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born" (Mt 26:24). The curse in the words of Chrysostom is, "a prophecy in the form of a curse", (profhteia en eidei arav).
The strain which such a view compels us to put on much of the language ought to have led long since to its abandonment. Not even the words denounced by our Lord against the Pharisees can really be compared to the anathemas which are here strung together. Much less is there any pretence for saying that those words so full of deep and holy sorrow, addressed to the traitor in the gospels, are merely another expression of the appalling denunciations of the psalm. But terrible as these undoubtedly are, to be accounted for by the spirit of the Old Dispensation, not to be defended by that of the New, still let us learn to estimate them aright. J.J. Stewart Perowne.
The Imprecations. These imprecations are not appropriate in the mouth of the suffering Saviour. It is not the spirit of Zion but of Sinai which here speaks out of the mouth of David; the spirit of Elias, which, according to Lu 9:58, is not the spirit of the New Testament. This wrathful spirit is overpowered by the spirit of love. But these anathemas are still not on this account so many beatings of the air. There is in them a divine energy, as in the blessing and cursing of every man who is united to God, and more especially of a man whose temper of mind is such as David's. They possess the same power as the prophetical threatenings, and in this sense they are regarded in the New Testament as fulfilled in the son of perdition (Joh 17:12). To the generation of the time of Jesus they were a deterrent warning not to offend against the Holy One of God, and this Psalmus Ischarioticus (Ac 1:20) will ever be such a mirror of warning to the enemies and persecutors of Christ and his church. Franz Delitzsch.
The Imprecations. Respecting the imprecations contained in this psalm, it will be proper to keep in mind what I have said elsewhere, that when David forms such maledictions, or expresses his desire for them, he is not instigated by any immoderate carnal propensity, nor is he actuated by zeal without knowledge, nor is he influenced by any private personal considerations. These three matters must be carefully weighed, for in proportion to the amount of self esteem which a man possesses, is he so enamoured with his own interests as to rush headlong upon revenge. Hence it comes to pass that the more a person is devoted to selfishness, he will be the more immoderately addicted to advancement of his own individual interests. This desire for the promotion of personal interest gives birth to another species of vice: for no one wishes to be avenged upon his enemies because such a thing would be right and equitable, but because it is the means of gratifying his own spiteful propensity. Some, indeed, make a pretext of righteousness and equity in the matter; but the spirit of malignity, by which they are inflamed, effaces every trace of justice, and blinds their minds.
When the two vices, selfishness and carnality, are corrected, there is still another thing demanding correction: we must repress the ardour of foolish zeal, in order that we may follow the Spirit of God as our guide. Should any one, under the influence of perverse zeal, produce David as an example of it, that would not be an example in point; for to such a person may be very aptly applied the answer which Christ returned to his disciples, "Ye know not what spirit ye are of", Lu 9:55. How detestable a piece of sacrilege is it on the part of the monks, and especially the Franciscan friars, to pervert this psalm by employing it to countenance the most nefarious purposes! If a man harbour malice against a neighbour, it is quite a common thing for him to engage one of these wicked wretches to curse him, which he would do by daily repeating this psalm. I know a lady in France who hired a parcel of these friars to curse her own and only son in these words. But I return to David, who, free from all inordinate passion, breathed forth his prayers under the influence of the Holy Spirit. John Calvin.
The imprecations. It is possible, as Tholuck thinks, that in some of the utterances in what are called the vindictive psalms, especially the imprecations in Ps 109:1-31, unholy personal zeal may have been mingled with holy zeal, as was the case seemingly with the two disciples James and John, when the Lord chided their desire for vengeance (Lu 9:54-56). But, in reality, the feeling expressed in these psalms may well be considered as virtuous anger, such as Bishop Butler explains and justifies in his sermons on "Resentment and the Forgiveness of Injuries", and such as Paul teaches in Eph 4:26, "Be ye angry, and sin not." Anger against sin and a desire that evildoers may be punished, are not opposed to the spirit of the gospel, or to that love of enemies which our Lord both enjoined and exemplified. If the emotion or its utterance were essentially sinful, how could Paul wish the enemy of Christ and the perverter of the gospel to be accursed (anayema, 1Co 16:22 Ga 1:8); and especially, how could the spirit of the martyred saints in heaven call on God for vengeance (Re 6:10), and join to celebrate its final execution (Re 19:1-6)? Yea, resentment against the wicked is so far from being necessarily sinful, that we find it manifested by the Holy and Just One himself, when in the days of his flesh he looked around on his hearers "with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts" (Mr 3:5); and when in "the great day of his wrath" (Re 6:17), he shall say to "all workers of iniquity" (Lu 13:27), "Depart from me, ye cursed" (Mt 25:41). Benjamin Davies (1814-1875), in Kitto's Cyclopaedia.
Imprecations. It is true that this vengeance is invoked on the head of the betrayer of Christ: and we may profit by reading even the severest of the passages when we regard them as dictated by a burning zeal for the honour of Jehovah, a righteous indignation and a jealousy of love, and generally, if not universally, as denunciations of just judgment against the obstinate enemies of Christ, and all who obey not the Gospel of God. At the same time, these passages cannot be fully accounted for without a frank recognition of the fact that the Psalter was conceived and written under the Old Covenant. That dispensation was more stern than ours. God's people had with all other peoples a conflict with sword and spear. They wanted to tread down their enemies, to crush the heathen; and thought it a grand religious triumph for a righteous man to wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Ps 8:10 68:23. Now the struggle is without carnal weapons, and the tone of the dispensation is changed. Donald Fraser. 1873.
Imprecations. Imprecations of judgment on the wicked on the hypothesis their continued impenitence are not inconsistent with simultaneous efforts of to bring them to repentance; and Christian charity itself can do no more than labour for the sinner's conversion. The law of holiness requires us to pray for the fires of divine retribution: the law of love to seek meanwhile to rescue the brand from the burning. The last prayer of the martyr Stephen was answered not by any general averting of doom from a guilty nation, but by the conversion of an individual persecutor to the service of God. Joseph Francis Thrupp.
Imprecations. That explanation which regards the "enemies" as spiritual foes has a large measure of truth. It commended itself to a mind so far removed from mysticism as Arnold's. It is most valuable for devout private use of the Psalter. For, though we are come to Mount Sion, crested with the eternal calm, the opened ear can hear the thunder rolling along the peaks of Sinai. In the Gospel, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness. Sin is utterly hateful to God. The broad gates are flung wide open of the city that lies foursquare towards all the winds of heaven; for its ruler is divinely tolerant. But there shall in no wise enter it anything that defileth, neither whatever worketh abomination; for he is divinely intolerant too. And thus when, in public or private, we read these Psalms of imprecation, there is a lesson that comes home to us. We must read them, or dishonour God's word. Reading them, we must depart from sin, or pronounce judgment upon ourselves. Drunkenness, impurity, hatred, every known sin of flesh or spiritthese, and not mistaken men, are the worst enemies of God and of his Christ. Against these we pray in our Collects for Peace at Morning and Evening prayer"Defend us in all assaults of our enemies, that by thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness." These were the dark hosts which swept through the Psalmist's vision when he cried, "Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed", Ps 6:10. William Alexander, in "The Witness of the Psalms to Christ and Christianity", 1877.
Imprecations. I cannot forbear the following little incident that occurred the other morning at family worship. I happened to be reading one of the imprecatory psalms, and as I paused to remark, my little boy, a lad of ten years, asked with some earnestness: "Father, do you think it right for a good man to pray for the destruction of his enemies like that?" and at the same time referred me to Christ as praying for his enemies. I paused a moment to know how to shape the reply so as to fully meet and satisfy his enquiry, and then said, "My son, if an assassin should enter the house by night, and murder your mother, and then escape, and the sheriff and citizens were all out in pursuit, trying to catch him, would you not pray to God that they might succeed and arrest him, and that he might be brought to justice?" "Oh, yes!" said he, "but I never saw it so before. I did not know that that was the meaning of these Psalms." "Yes", said I, "my son, the men against whom David plays were bloody men, men of falsehood and crime, enemies to the peace of society, seeking his own life, and unless they were arrested and their wicked devices defeated, many innocent persons must suffer." The explanation perfectly satisfied his mind. F.G. Hibbard, in "The Psalms chronologically arranged", 1856.
Title. It is worth noting, that the superscription, to the chief Musician, to the precentor (xunml), proves it to have been designed, such as it is, for the Tabernacle or Temple service of song. Joseph Hammond, in "The Expositor", 1875.
Title. Syriac inscription. The verbs of the Hebrew text through nearly the whole of the imprecatory part of this Psalm are read in the singular number, as if some particular subject were signified by the divine prophet. But our translators always change the verbs into the plural number; which is not done by the Seventy and the other translators, who adhere more closely to the Hebrew text. But without doubt this has arisen, because the Syriac Christians explain this Psalm of the sufferings of Christ, which may be understood from the Syriac inscription of this Psalm, and which in Polyglottis Angl. reads thus: "Of David: when they made Absalom king, be not knowing: and on account of this he was killed. But to us it sets forth the sufferings of Christ." For this reason all these imprecations are transferred to the enemies or murderers of Jesus Christ. John Augustus Dathe, 1731-1791.
Ver. 1. Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise. All commendation or manifestation of our innocence is to be sought from God when we are assailed with calumnies on all sides. When God is silent, we should cry all the more strongly; nor should we because of such delay despair of help, nor impatiently cease from praying. Martin Geier.
Ver. 1. Hold not thy peace. How appropriately this phrase is applied to God, with whom to speak is the same as to do; for by his word he made all things. Rightly, therefore, is he said to be silent when he seems not to notice the things which are done by the wicked, and patiently bears with their malice. The Psalmist begs him to rise up and speak with the wicked in his wrath, and thus take deserved vengeance on them; which is as easy for him to do as for an angry man to break forth in words of rebuke and blame. This should be to us a great solace against the wickedness of this last age, which God, our praise, can restrain with one little word. Wolfgang Musculus.
Ver. 1. O God. As the most innocent and holy servants of God are subject to heavy slanders and false calumnies raised against them, so the best remedy and relief in this case is to go to God, as here the Psalmist doth. David Dickson.
Ver. 1. God of my praise. Thou, who art the constant object of my praise and thanksgiving, Jer 17:14. William Keatinge Clay.
Ver. 1. O God of my praise. In denominating him the God of his praise, he intrusts to him the vindication of his innocence, in the face of the calumnies by which he was all but universally assailed. John Calvin.
Ver. 1. The God of MY praise. Give me leave, in order to expound it the better, to expostulate. What, David, were there no saints but thyself that gave praise to God? Why dost thou then seem to appropriate and engross God unto thyself, as the God of thy praise, as if none praised him else but thee? It is because his soul had devoted all the praise he was able to bestow on any, unto the Lord alone; as whom he had set himself to praise, and praise alone. As of a beloved son we use to say, "the son of my love." And further, it is as if he had said, If I had all the ability of all the spirits of men and angels wherewith to celebrate him, I would bestow them all on him, he is the God of my praise. And as he was David's, so he should be ours. Thomas Goodwin.
Ver. 1. The silence of God. What it may mean: what it involves: how we may endeavour to break it.
Ver. 1. God of my praise. A text which may be expounded in its double meaning.
Ver. 1-3.
1. God is for his people when the wicked are against them (Ps 109:1); (a) for his people's sake; (b) for his own sake.
2. The wicked are against his people when he is for them (Ps 109:2-3); (a) from hatred to God; (b) from hatred to his people. G.R.
Psalms 109:2*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 8, 21 Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise.
Psa_109:1-31
Hold not Thy peace, O God of my praise.
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A song of imprecation
I. The misdeeds of the wicked (Psa_109:1-5).
II. The imprecation of wrath (verses 6-20).
III. The cry for mercy (Psa_109:21-25). The thunder and lightning are now followed by deep, sorrowful complaint like a flood of tears.
IV. The display of the Divine righteousness (Psa_109:26-31). In this concluding strophe the cry for help is renewed, together with a confident assurance of being answered. The suppliant asks relief in such way as to show that it came from Gods own hand. Gods blessing is set in sharp contrast with mens cursing. The efforts of the ungodly shall end in disappointment and shame, but the Lords servant will only rejoice. This deliverance will call forth his thanks, which will not be private, but expressed in the presence of a multitude. (T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 109
Psalms 109
THIS is the last and the most terrible of the imprecatory psalms. Its central portion (Psa_109:6-20) consists of a series of wishes, addressed to God, for the heaping of all miseries on the heads of one "adversary" and of all his kith and kin. These maledictions are enclosed in prayers, which make the most striking contrast to them; Psa_109:1-5 being the plaint of a loving soul, shrinkingly conscious of an atmosphere of hatred, and appealing gently to God; while Psa_109:21-31 expatiate in the presentation to Him of the suppliants feebleness and cries for deliverance, but barely touch on the wished for requital of enemies. The combination of devout meekness and trust with the fiery imprecations in the core of the psalm is startling to Christian consciousness, and calls for an effort of "historical imagination" to deal with it fairly. The attempts to attenuate the difficulty, either by making out that the wishes are not wishes, but prophecies of the fate of evildoers, or that Psa_109:6-20 are the psalmists quotation of his enemies wishes about him, or that the whole is Messianic prediction of the fate of Judas or of the enemies of the Christ, are too obviously makeshifts. It is far better to recognise the discordance between the temper of the psalmist and that enjoined by Christ than to try to cover it over. Our Lord Himself has signalised the difference between His teaching and that addressed to "them of old time" on the very point of forgiveness of enemies, and we are but following His guidance when we recognise that the psalmists mood is distinctly inferior to that which has now become the law for devout men.
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Divine retribution for evil was the truth of the Old Testament, as forgiveness is that of the New. The conflict between Gods kingdom and its enemies was being keenly and perpetually waged, in most literal fashion.
Devout men could not but long for the triumph of that with which all good was associated, and therefore for the defeat and destruction of its opposite. For no private injuries, or for these only in so far as the suffering singer is a member of the community which represents Gods cause, does he ask the descent of Gods vengeance, but for the insults and hurts inflicted on righteousness. The form of these maledictions belongs to a lower stage of revelation; the substance of them, considered as passionate desires for the destruction of evil, burning zeal for the triumph of Truth, which is Gods cause, and unquenchable faith that He is just, is a part of Christian perfection.
The usual variety of conjectures as to authorship exists. Delitzsch hesitatingly accepts the superscription as correct in assigning the psalm to David. Olshausen, as is his custom, says, "Maccabean"; Cheyne inclines to "the time of Nehemiah (in which case the enemy might be Sanballat), or even perhaps the close of the Persian age" ("Orig. of Psalt.," 65). He thinks that the "magnanimous David" could not have uttered "these laboured imprecations," and that the speaker is "not a brave and bold warrior, but a sensitive poet." Might he not be both?
To address God as the "God of my praise," even at such a moment of dejection, is a triumph of faith. The name recalls to the psalmist past mercies, and expresses his confidence that he will still have cause to extol his Deliverer, while it also pleads with God what He has done as a reason for doing the like in new circumstances of need. The suppliant speaks in praise and prayer; he asks God to speak in acts of rescuing power. A praying man cannot have a dumb God. And His mighty Voice, which hushes all others and sets His suppliants free from fears and foes, is all the more longed for and required, because of those cruel voices that yelp and snarl round the psalmist. The contrast between the three utterances-his, Gods, and his enemies-is most vivid. The foes have come at him with open mouths. "A wicked mans mouth" would read, by a slight alteration, "a mouth of wickedness": but the recurrence of the word "wicked man" in Psa_109:6 seems to look back to this verse, and to make the rendering above probable. Lies and hatred ring the psalmist round, but his conscience is clear. "They have hated me without a cause" is the experience of this ancient sufferer for righteousness sake, as of the Prince of all such. This singer, who is charged with pouring out a flood of "unpurified passion," had, at any rate, striven to win over hatred by meekness; and if he is bitter, it is the pain and bitterness of love flung back with contumely, and only serving to exacerbate enmity. Nor had he met with evil the first returns of evil for good, but, as he says, "I was [all] prayer". {compare Psa_120:7, "I am-peace"} Repelled, his whole being turned to God, and in calm communion with Him found defence and repose. But his patient meekness availed nothing, for his foes still "laid evil" on him in return for good. The prayer is a short record of a long martyrdom. Many a foiled attempt of patient love preceded the psalm. Not till the other way had been tried tong enough to show that malignity was beyond the reach of conciliation did the psalmist appeal to the God of recompenses. Let that be remembered in judging the next part of the psalm.
The terrible maledictions (Psa_109:6-20) need little commentary. They may be left in all their awfulness, which is neither to be extenuated nor degraded into an outburst of fierce personal vindictiveness. It is something far more noble than that. These terrible verses are prophecy, but they are prayers too; and prayers which can only be accounted for by remembering the spirit of the old dispensation. They are the more intense, because they are launched against an individual, probably the chief among the foes. In Psa_109:6-15 we have imprecations pure and simple, and it is noteworthy that so large a part of these verses refers to the family of the evildoer. In Psa_109:16-20 the grounds of the wished for destruction are laid in the sinners perverted choice, and the automatic action of sin working its own punishment is vividly set forth.
Psa_109:6-8 are best taken in close connection, as representing the trial and condemnation of the object of the psalmists imprecations, before a tribunal. He prays that the man may be haled before a wicked judge. The word rendered "set" is the root from which that rendered "office" in Psa_109:8 comes, and here means to set in a position of authority-i.e., in a judicial one. His judge is to be "a wicked man" like himself, for such have no mercy on each other. An accuser is to stand at his right hand. The word rendered adversary (the verb cognate with which is used in Psa_109:4) is "Satan"; but the general meaning of hostile accuser is to be preferred here. With such a judge and prosecutor the issue of the cause is certain-"May he go out [from the judgment hall] guilty." A more terrible petition follows, which is best taken in its most terrible sense. The condemned man cries for mercy, not to his earthly judge, but to God, and the psalmist can ask that the last despairing cry to Heaven may be unanswered, and even counted sin. It could only be so, if the heart that framed it was still an evil heart, despairing, indeed, but obdurate. Then comes the end: the sentence is executed. The criminal dies and his office fails to another: his wife is a widow, and his children fatherless. This view of the connection gives unity to what is otherwise a mere heap of unconnected maledictions. It also brings out more clearly that the psalmist is seeking not merely the gratification of private animosity, but the vindication of public justice, even if ministered by an unjust judge. Peters quotation of Psa_109:8 b in reference to Act_1:20 does not involve the Messianic character of the psalm.
Psa_109:10-15 extend the maledictions to the enemys children and parents, in accordance with the ancient strong sense of family solidarity, which was often expressed in practice by visiting the kindred of a convicted criminal with ruin, and levelling his house with the ground. The psalmist wishes these consequences to fall in all their cruel severity, and pictures the children as vagabonds, driven from the desolation which had, in happier days, been their home, and seeking a scanty subsistence among strangers. The imprecations of Psa_109:11 at first sight seem to hark back to an earlier stage in the wicked mans career, contemplating him as still in life. But the wish that his wealth may be "ensnared" by creditors and stolen by strangers is quite appropriate as a consequence of his sentence and execution; and the prayer in Psa_109:12, that there may be no one to "draw out lovingkindness" to him, is probably best explained by the parallel clause. A dead man lives a quasi-life in his children, and what is done to them is a prolongation of what was done to him. Thus helpless, beggars, homeless, and plundered, "the seed of evildoers" would naturally be short-lived, and the psalmist desires that they may be cut off, and the world freed from an evil race. His wishes go backwards too, and reach to the previous as well as the subsequent generation. The foe had come of a bad stock-parents, son, and sons sons are to be involved in a common doom, because partakers of a common sin. The special reason for the terrible desire that the iniquity of his father and mother may never be blotted out seems to be, the desire that the accumulated consequences of hereditary sin may fall on the heads of the third generation-a dread wish, which experience shows is often tragically fulfilled, even when the sufferers are far less guilty than their ancestors. "Father, forgive them" is the strongest conceivable contrast to these awful prayers. But the psalmists petition implies that the sins in question were unrepented sins, and is, in fact, a cry that, as such, they should be requited in the "cutting off the memory" of such a brood of evildoers "from the earth."
In Psa_109:16 a new turn of thought begins, which is pursued till Psa_109:20 -namely, that of the self-retributive action of a perverted choice of evil. "He remembered not" to be gracious to him who needed compassion; therefore it is just that he should not be remembered on earth, and that his sin should be remembered in heaven. He deliberately chose cursing rather than blessing as his attitude and act towards others; therefore cursing comes to him and blessing remains far from him. as others attitude and act to him. The world is a mirror which, on the whole, gives back the smile or the frown which we present to it. Though the psalmist has complained that he had loved and been hated in return, he does not doubt that, in general, the curser is cursed back again and the blesser blessed. Outwardly and inwardly, the man is wrapped in and saturated with "cursing." Like a robe or a girdle, it encompasses him; like a draught of water, it passes into his inmost nature; like anointing oil oozing into the bones, it steals into every corner of his soul. His own doings come back to poison him. The kick of the gun which he fires is sure to hurt his own shoulder, and it is better to be in front of the muzzle than behind the trigger. The last word of these maledictions is not only a wish. but a declaration of the Law of Divine Retribution. The psalmist could not have found it in his heart to pray such a prayer unless he had been sure that Jehovah paid mens wages punctually in full. and that conviction is the kernel of his awful words. He is equally sure that his cause is Gods-because he is sure that Gods cause is his, and that he suffers for righteousness and for the righteous Jehovah.
The final part (Psa_109:21-31) returns to lowly, sad petitions for deliverance, of the kind common to many psalms. Very pathetically, and as with a tightening of his grasp, does the singer call on his helper by the double name "Jehovah, Lord," and plead all the pleas with God which are hived n these names. The prayer in Psa_109:21 b resembles that in Psa_69:16, another of the psalms of imprecation. The image of the long, drawn out shadow recurs in Psa_102:11. The word rendered "am I gone" occurs here only, and implies compulsory departure. The same idea of external force hurrying one out of life is picturesquely presented in the parallel clause. "I am shaken out," as a thing which a man wishes to get rid of is shaken out of the folds of a garment. The psalmist thinks of himself as being whirled away, helpless, as a swarm of locusts blown into the sea. The physical feebleness in Psa_109:24 is probably to be taken literally, as descriptive of the havoc wrought on him by his persecutions and trouble of soul, but may be, as often, metaphor for that trouble itself.
The expression in Psa_109:24 b rendered above "falls away from fatness" is literally "has become a liar," or faithless, which is probably a picturesque way of saying that the psalmists flesh had, as it were, become a renegade from its former well-nourished condition, and was emaciated by his sorrow.
Others would keep the literal meaning of the word rendered "fatness"-i.e. oil-and translate "My flesh has shrunk up for lack of oil" (so Baethgen and Kay).
One more glance at the enemies, now again regarded as many, and one more flash of confidence that his prayer is heard, close the psalm. Once again God is invoked by His name Jehovah, and the suppliant presses close to him as "my God"; once again he casts himself on that lovingkindness, whose measure is wider than his thoughts and will ensure him larger answers than his desires; once again he builds all his hope on it, and pleads no claims of his own. He longs for personal deliverance: but not only for personal ends, but rather that it may be an undeniable manifestation of Jehovahs power. That is a high range of feeling which subordinates self to God even while longing for deliverance, and wishes more that He should be glorified than that self should be blessed. There is almost a smile on the psalmists face as he contrasts his enemies curses with Gods blessing, and thinks how ineffectual are these and how omnipotent is that. He takes the issue of the strife between cursing men and a blessing God to be as good as already decided. So he can look with new equanimity on the energetic preparations of his foes; for he sees in faith their confusion and defeat, and already feels some springing in his heart of the joy of victory, and is sure of already clothing themselves with shame. It is the prerogative of Faith to behold things that are not as though they were, and to live as in the hour of triumph even while in the thick of the fight.
The psalm began with addressing "the God of my praise"; it ends with the confidence and the vow that the singer will yet praise Him. It painted an adversary standing at the right hand of the wicked to condemn him; it ends with the assurance that Jehovah stands at the right hand of His afflicted servant, as his advocate to protect him. The wicked man was to "go out guilty"; he whom God defends shall come forth from all that would judge his soul. "If God be for us, who can be against us? It is God that justifieth: who is he that condemneth?"
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “This,” says Perowne, “is the last of the Psalms…
INTRODUCTION
“This,” says Perowne, “is the last of the Psalms of imprecation, and completes the terrible climax. In the awfulness of its anathemas, the Psalm surpasses everything of the kind in the Old Testament. Who the person was who was thus singled out for execration, it is in vain to conjecture. Those who hold, in accordance with the Inscription, that the Psalm was written by David, suppose that Doeg or Cush, Shimei or Ahithophel, is the object of execration.
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“In Act_1:20, St. Peter combines a part of the 8th verse of this Psalm, ‘His office let another take,’ with words slightly altered from the 25th [Heb. 26th] verse of the 69th Psalm, and applies them to Judas Iscariot. Hence the Psalm has been regarded by the majority of expositors, ancient and modern, as a prophetic and Messianic Psalm. The language has been justified not as the language of David, but as the language of Christ, exercising His office of Judge, or, in so far as He had laid aside that office during His earthly life, calling upon His Father to accomplish the curse. It has been alleged that this is the prophetic foreshadowing of the solemn words, ‘Woe unto that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed; it were good for that man if he had not been born’ (Mat_26:24). The curse, in the words of Chrysostom, ‘is a prophecy in form of a curse.’
“The strain which such a view compels us to put on much of the language of the Psalm ought to have led long since to its abandonment. Not even the woes denounced by our Lord against the Pharisees can really be compared to the anathemas which are here strung together. Much less is there any pretence for saying that those words, so full of holy sorrow, addressed to the traitor in the Gospels, are merely another expression of the appalling denunciations of the Psalm. But, terrible as these undoubtedly are—to be accounted for by the spirit of the Old Dispensation, not to be defended by that of the New—still let us learn to estimate them aright. This is the natural voice of righteousness persecuted. These are the accents of the martyr, not smarting only with a sense of personal suffering, but feeling acutely, and hating nobly, the triumph of wickedness.”
THE PITIABLE, THE COMMENDABLE, AND THE REPREHENSIBLE, IN THE TROUBLED LIFE OF A GODLY MAN
(Psa_109:1-20)
I. The pitiable in the troubled life of a godly man. The Psalmist is to be commiserated because of the cruel treatment he received at the hands of unprincipled enemies. He complains of their—
1. Slander. “The mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.” (See “Hom. Com.” on Psa_41:5-8; Psa_101:5.)
“No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure ’scape; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes: what king so strong,
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?”
—Shakespeare.
Again—
“Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes.”
And again—
“Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.”
2. Malignity. “They compassed me about also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.” Hengstenberg says: “The words of hatred are malignant accusations. The swords with which they fight are their tongues. The language used in the Psalm refers only to false accusations, not to deeds.” Their bitter hostility to the Psalmist was unprovoked. He had given them no cause for it. He had done them no wrong.
3. Ingratitude. He had done them good, and they injured him in return. “For my love they are my enemies. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.” This is base and atrocious wickedness, yet David often suffered from such conduct. “At the battle of Alma, in September 1854, a wounded Russian was calling piteously for water. Captain Eddington, whose heart was kind and charitable, ran to him, and, stooping, gave him the much-desired beverage. The wounded man revived. The captain ran forward to join his regiment, when the wretch, who had just been restored by his kindness, fired, and shot him who had been his friend in the time of need.”
“Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man’s ingratitude;
Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Although thy breath be rude.”
—Shakespeare.
Kind and godly men are still exposed to the slander, malignity, and base ingratitude of the wicked. When they suffer from these they should be sustained by the sympathy of all true men. A good man smarting under the unmerited assaults of the wicked should be encouraged and defended by all upright men.
II. The commendable in the troubled life of a godly man. The troubled Psalmist is to be commended because he committed his cause to the Lord in prayer. Notice—
1. The object of his prayer. He prayed that God would vindicate him from the slanders of his enemies. “Hold not Thy peace.” Hengstenberg and Perowne: “Be not silent.” The desire of the Psalmist was that God would interpose for his help, and so witness for him against his adversaries.
2. The intensity of his prayer. “ ‘But I give myself unto prayer,’ lit. ‘I (am) prayer,’ i.e., one who prays, having recourse to no other means of defence.”—Perowne. Matthew Henry, Barnes, and others are wrong in representing him as praying continually for his enemies. The spirit which breathes through the Psalm is utterly irreconcilable with such a view. In the most terrible manner he prays against his enemies, not for them. He devoted himself entirely to prayer; his supplications were continuous and absorbing.
3. The ground of his prayer. “O God of my praise,” i.e., the God whom I praise. This title contains the ground of the prayer. In former times the Lord had given the Psalmist reason to praise Him, and He will now interpose for him, and so give him fresh reason for praise. Hengstenberg: “The representation of all that the Lord has already done for us, and the appeal to it, form a sure ground of answer, and a mighty quickening of hope. He cannot be unlike Himself.”
For thus committing his cause to God in prayer, the Psalmist is to be commended. His example is well worthy our imitation. Let the good man who is slandered and calumniated by the wicked commit his cause to God, and in due time he shall be amply vindicated.
III. The reprehensible in the troubled life of godly man. Psa_109:6-20. Various attempts have been made to free the Psalmist from the charge of revengefulness. Some have said that in these verses he speaks as a prophet, and simply declares what would come upon his enemies, and not what he desired concerning them. Others seek to get rid of the difficulty by regarding the Psalm as Messianic, and Christ as the speaker; others by supposing the words to be merely recorded by him as the words of his enemies. We have met with no satisfactory explanation which seeks to exonerate the Psalmist from blame. To us these laboured and strained attempts to exculpate the Psalmist do not seem very creditable to their authors, or in any way necessary. Religious experiences find utterance in the Psalms which are not commendable. In them the poets express their doubts as well as their confidences, their depressions as well as their exultations. Many things are recorded which are also condemned. The Bible faithfully records the defects and sins of the best men. One of the chief elements of the worth of the Psalms is that in them we have a faithful utterance of the varying religious experiences of imperfect yet unquestionably godly men. But it is essential to bear in mind that it is not just to judge David by the principles and spirit of this Christian dispensation. His utterances must be estimated in the light of the Decalogue, not in that of the Sermon on the Mount. But, after we have made every legitimate allowance tending to mitigate the harshness and bitterness of spirit here manifested, still the Poet appears to us here as a beacon, not as a pattern. His spirit and its expressions are to us things not to be imitated, but to be sedulously avoided. Without entering into a detailed exposition of these verses we would call attention to three considerations which they have suggested to us.
1. To pray for the wrath of God on any one is (to say the least) unbecoming in man. A due sense of our own sin and demerit ought effectually to repress such petitions. “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?”
2. To pray that even a man’s prayer might “become sin” is much worse than unbecoming. “Let his prayer become sin.” Perowne: “His prayer, not addressed to the human judge for mitigation of the sentence, but here, as always, prayer to God. The criminal, looking in vain for pity or justice at the hands of man, turns in his extremity to God; but even there, at the very fount of mercy, let mercy fail him, let his prayer aggravate his guilt. The utterance of such a wish is the most awful part of the imprecation. That prayer may thus draw down not forgiveness but wrath, see Isa_1:15; Pro_15:8; Pro_21:27; Pro_28:9. But it is one thing to recognise this as a fact in the Divine government of man, it is another thing to imprecate it.”
3. To pray for such curses as are here invoked on the wife and children of an enemy is to us unspeakably dreadful. We shudder as we read Psa_109:10; Psa_109:12, and are reminded of the words of Shakspeare:—
“Oh that the slave had forty thousand lives;
One is too poor, too weak for my revenge!
I would have him nine years a killing.”
So unappeasable seems the revenge of the Psalmist. Antoninus well says, “The best sort of revenge is not to be like him who did the injury.” But David resembled his enemies in this, that they “fought against him without a cause,” and he invokes the most dreadful injuries upon those who had done him no wrong, because they were related to one who had. Let good men as they read this portion of the Psalm take warning. The holiest of men in the present state may be tempted into the manifestation of a most unbecoming and sinful spirit. There is a revenge which is noble and God-like. Let us greet our enemies with it. “If thine enemy hunger, feed him,” &c. (Rom_12:20-21).
COMPLAINT, PRAYER, AND CONFIDENCE
(Psa_109:21-31)
In this portion of the Psalm we have—
I. A mournful complaint. The Poet complains of—
1. Mental distress. “I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.” He was miserable and in need of help. His troubles had pierced his heart as with a sword. It is trying to be troubled in our circumstances, or to be afflicted in body, but the sorest trials are those of the heart. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?”
2. Physical exhaustion. “My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness.” “Or it may be rendered, hath fallen away from fat.”—Perowne. The fasting spoken of is probably that of penitence, because of sin; or humiliation, because of suffering. It was a voluntary, not a compulsory fasting. By reason of this the Poet’s strength had failed. The knee joints no longer afforded him firm support, and his body was wasting to mere skin and bones.
3. Approach to death. “I am gone like the shadow when it declineth; I am tossed up and down as the locust.” Henstenberg: “I must go hence like the shadow when it declineth, I am carried away like the locust.” Perowne: “As a shadow, when it lengtheneth, am I gone hence, I have been driven away as the locust.” As the lengthening shadows of evening show the near approach of night, so the afflictions of the Psalmist seemed to indicate his learness to death and the grave. The Poet gives special prominence to the irresistibleness of his approach to death. He says literally, “I am made to go hence.” And as the locusts are seized and carried away by the wind, being powerless against its force, so he was being urged towards the gates of death by a force which he was unable to resist.
4. The reproach of his enemies. “I became also a reproach unto them, they looked upon me, they shaked their heads.” The wicked reviled the Poet as a bad man, and shook their heads in insult and mockery. Or it may be, as Henstenberg says, that they shook the head to express the desperateness of the Poet, saying by the movement, “It is all over with him.”
Such is the mournful complaint of the Psalmist. It is sometimes a relief to express our afflictions and griefs to God. It lightens the burden of the heart, &c. This is especially so when complaint is followed by prayer.
II. An earnest prayer. Consider here—
1. The objects sought in his prayer. The Psalmist petitions God for
(1) Salvation from his afflictions. “Deliver Thou me. Help me, O Lord my God; O save me according to Thy mercy.” He seeks support from God in his trouble, and deliverance from his trouble. The Lord can turn the shadow of the darkest night into the light of joyous day.
(2) Vindication from reproach. “That they may know that this is Thy hand, that Thou, Lord, hast done it.” In the view of the Psalmist, if the interposition he sought from God were granted unto him, it would completely silence the reproaches of his enemies.
(3) Confusion for his enemies. “When they arise, let them be ashamed, let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.” Baffle their dark designs, and clothe them with shame from head to foot.
2. The pleas by which he urges his prayer. “Do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’s sake; because Thy mercy is good, deliver Thou me. O save me according to Thy mercy.” The grace of God is the grand plea of the Psalmist. He urges his petition not on the ground of his own merit, but of God’s mercy. This he sets forth
(1) As the reason of salvation. “Do Thou for me, for Thy name’s sake; because Thy mercy is good,” &c. The originating cause of salvation is the infinite generosity of God.
(2) As the measure of salvation. “Save me according to Thy mercy.” The salvation that is measured by the infinite grace of God will be gloriously complete. The pleas urged by the Psalmist (α) Indicate confidence in God. (β) Honour God. (γ) Are mighty with God. We shall do well to imitate them.
III. An encouraging confidence. The Poet expresses—
1. An assurance of salvation from God. “For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.” He shall stand at the right hand of His afflicted people, to plead their cause against those who would unjustly judge them, and to deliver them. Take heart, ye tried and true, ye suffering and godly souls, for your Deliverer is mighty and your salvation sure.
2. A determination to offer praise to God. “I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth, yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.” He resolves that he will offer praise, and that it shall be
(1) Hearty. “I will greatly praise the Lord.”
(2) Expressed. “With my mouth.”
(3) Public. “Among the multitude.”
“Awake, my soul! not only passive praise
Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears,
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy! awake,
Voice of sweet song! awake, my heart,
awake!”—Coleridge.
A PATTERN PRAYER
(Psa_109:21. “But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, for Thy name’s sake.”)
This is a brief yet a model prayer for a good man.
I. It is true in its direction. It is addressed to “God the Lord.” There is but One all-sufficient being to whom we can address our prayers. Think what is requisite to be able to answer prayer at all times—infinite intelligence, unlimited goodness, universal sovereignty, &c. The petition of the Psalmist indicates his belief that he was approaching such a being; if he could but secure the help of God, he would leave everything else to Him. He could do so only in approaching a being of whose perfection he had no doubt. Only the Lord God can hear and answer prayer.
II. It is personal in its aim. “Do Thou for me.” Man’s first business is to secure the blessing of God for himself. We should not keep the vineyard of another and neglect our own. We should not attempt to lead others unto Jesus Christ until we know Him as our own Saviour. Unless we are assured of the Divine blessing, we should seek it first for ourselves, and then for others. This is not selfish, but benevolent. Show this.
III. It is submissive in its spirit. The Psalmist leaves everything to God, only praying that His interposition may be “for” him. He leaves the manner of the interposition to God. God delivers His people by different methods; sometimes by removal of their afflictions, and sometimes by increase of their strength. He blesses His people by different means; sometimes by adversity, and sometimes by prosperity. The wise and good man leaves the means and the manner of the blessing to God. He leaves the time also to God. Now or in the future, early or late, as may seem good unto Him. This submission is both wise and pious.
IV. It is powerful in its place. “For Thy name’s sake.” The name represents the character of God. The honour of the Divine name is bound up with His treatment of His people. If any one trusting in God were to perish the glory of His name would be sullied. This is a plea which prevails with God.
This prayer is suitable for all occasions; it is brief and comprehensive. And if it is answered in our experience, we shall “have all, and abound.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 As often as we keep St. Matthias’ Day, we…
Psa 109:8
As often as we keep St. Matthias’ Day, we keep the memorial of the sin and misery of the traitor Judas also; and our thoughts are carried back to that severe and awful Psalm, the hundred and ninth, which contains at large the sentence of the everlasting Judge on such wickedness as his, that kind of wickedness which is properly called apostacy, when such as have been brought unusually near to God fall away from Him, and their fall, by a most just judgment, brings a curse proportionate to their first blessing.
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I. Two circumstances of the punishment of such as Judas are expressed in the text: "Let his days be few, and let another take his office," or bishopric. The words in themselves sound simple enough; they might seem to speak of no more than all human beings must undergo by the necessity of their mortal nature. All our days are few; they are but as grass; they are gone almost before we can count them. All our places, stations, and offices, whatever they may be, must soon pass away from us, and another take them in our place. But this, the common lot of all, is here turned into a fearful and peculiar curse for those who slight high privileges and betray sacred trusts.
II. These very circumstances are means in God’s hand to lessen the quantity of mischief which is done by those who fall from Him. Christ so ordained that the very downfall of one of His own Apostles, which beforehand one would expect to be well nigh the ruin of the Church, was made consistent with its continuance and prosperity.
III. The Scriptures appear to signify that this dispensation concerning Judas was a kind of type or pattern of God’s dealings with the whole Jewish people when they proved unfaithful. Whereas it is written of Judas, "Let another take his office," we know that the Christian Church, gathered from among both Jews and Gentiles, has been put in the place of Israel, to be God’s minister, and by its union with Christ to be priest, prophet, and ruler on earth. Now it is a serious and alarming thought for us all, If Judas Iscariot, who, favoured as he was, had never received the Holy Ghost; if the Jewish people, whose highest privileges were but a shadow of what we receive in baptism—if they had their days cut off by so dreadful a sentence, and their place in God’s world given over to others, what are Christian pastors to expect should they after all prove unclean and unworthy? It is a fearful thought how near we may go—how near, alas! we have gone—towards forfeiting our privileges and bringing the traitor’s curse upon us.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times" vol. vi., p. 41.
The Psalmist’s words declared the utter overthrow of the house of Judas, but the continuation of the office which he held. His house was to be desolate, but not so his apostolical throne. Such was the prophetic intimation of the Spirit of God; and in obedience thereto, the eleven disciples proceeded to the election of a successor to the lost Apostle. "The lot fell upon Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles." There is a fearful light, as it were, around the apostleship of Matthias. We cannot think of him without recalling him who went before. Surely, we imagine, he must have gone about the work of an apostle with a fear and a trembling which even Peter never knew.
I. Consider how far the case of Matthias is our own, and how far therefore his feelings should be ours also. (1) The whole Christian Church stands to the Jewish race as Matthias to Iscariot. The Israelites were the first called to be God’s special servants; to them was the commission given to keep alive the remembrance of His name, to make His praise to be glorious. They betrayed the trust; they adhered not to His worship; they gave His honour to another; they stoned His prophets; they rejected His Son. And then went forth the decree, "Let their days be few, and let another take their office." There is a voice from the past to the present, from the old Israel to the new, which bids us not to be high-minded, but fear, as those who fill a traitor’s place. (2) Not only is the Christian Church the successor of the repudiated Jewish Church, but the whole race of man is the successor upon trial to the fallen armies of the sky. Before us now is placed the choice which ages ago was given to Satan and his legions: the choice whether in sincerity and truth we will be the servants of the Son of God.
II. From what has been advanced we learn in a most striking manner: (1) the sureness with which God’s will is accomplished sooner or later; (2) the wonderful uniformity of the test to which God has subjected all His creatures. The test is simply loyalty to the only-begotten Son.
Bishop Woodford, Occasional Sermons, vol. i., p. 67.
References: Psa 109:8.—J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, pp. 154-165. Psalm 109—J. Hammond, Expositor, 1st series, vol. ii., p. 325. Psa 110:1.—J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 58; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 269; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 129.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Enmity self-caused.
Enmity self-caused.
To the chief musician, a psalm of David.
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On the other hand, men His adversaries display the awful reality of evil which is remediless because it rejects the only remedy. Of the imprecatory psalms, this is the strongest, being indeed a glimpse into the mouth of hell. And this I say in full view of the fact that it is not hell that is before us, but (according to the manner of the Old Testament) rather the government of God on earth: to which the law, imbedded in a covenant with a nation in the flesh, naturally appealed.
Yet it is in Gehenna, according to the import of that word (see Jos 15:8, notes), the self-caused doom to which,without other cause, men doom themselves. So is the enmity here self-caused, the hatred of good as good, brought to its highest thus by that which is good in its fullest display. For such it is not an arbitrary appointment that all things should in result declare themselves against them. It is only the declaration of the righteousness inherent in the framework of things; that is, that it is framed by the God of righteousness. So that, again, we must not shrink when we hear it affirmed by God that it is His judgment, or when it is looked for and besought by men suffering on earth, the cry of the widow, as the Lord Himself puts it, which must vex even the unjust judge to answer at last, and which God recognizes as the cry of His elect, and which, though He bear long, He will at length fully respond to.
Here the application of the eighth verse by the apostle to Judas (Act 1:20), and no less the connection with the following psalm, show us that it is the voice of the Prince of martyrs that is to be heard, though it may well be not alone, but identified with the cry which from Abel runs throughout all history. Nor is this contrary to the grace which failed not from His lips while hope was left, but which He always declared had its limit, and if refused would only avail to increase men’s condemnation. Of Judas He Himself declared: "good were it for that man if he had not been born." And while this application may in no wise be the whole, it shows at least sufficiently the character of that limit which there surely is. But we shall gain clearer understanding by the examination of the psalm.
1. The appeal is to God to open His mouth. Men’s mouths are opened wide; but only deceit and hatred are poured out! For himself, he only pours out his heart to God. It is for good they are requiting evil, -enmity for love.
Causeless enmity is, of course, enmity that has its cause only in the condition of heart from which it arises, and whose state it shows. But this is not merely such; it is love that awakens it; it is moral antagonism to that which is good and lovely; it is corruption such as the sun that invigorates the living breeds in the dead. And this is death, and naturally hopeless, as death is: for only from that which is good can good be looked for, and yet here the good itself produces but evil. All means, therefore, fail; hope fails; if it be fully proved, judgment alone can be invoked; and the next ten verses are accordingly a cry for judgment.
2. The judgment is first personal. He is to be put into the hands of a wicked one; and at his right hand, when he would put it forth for aid, he is to find an adversary. This is only congruous dealing, finding others toward him just what he had been to them. Then; when he is judged, there can be no plea made for one who is beyond the reach of hope. His prayer for himself is only a struggle against the righteous government of God, and not repentance or submission: thus it may well be treated as sin. His sentence is to death, not long delayed; and his office passes over to another.
It is not here that conscience can make any plausible objection. When we turn to the relation of his sin to others there come in many; and to remove them the light must be brought in from elsewhere. But God has provided for it, and we may be sure that there can be no contradiction between His nature and His acts.
He has Himself assured us that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation," but then it is added as most necessary guarding of what would be otherwise misconstrued, "of them that hate Me"; and elsewhere the proverb which Israel had taken up from just such misconstruction is reprobated most emphatically by the Lord: "the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge." (Eze 18:1-32.) He not only says, but swears, that they shall have no occasion to use such a proverb; that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the father bear the iniquity of the son; that the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him; while the repentance of any shall avert his doom.
On the other hand, it is familiar to us all that the character of the father may have much to do with the temporal condition of the children; and that thus the warp and woof of human history proclaim the far-reaching consequences of sin. And all this is a witness from God as to it that could not be silenced without the worst results upon men at large. If we take, then; these guides and guards on either hand, we shall avoid serious mistake as to the moral character of what we have in this psalm, with all its solemn imprecations of judgment on the transgressor. So far as this affects his children it is overruled for blessing to them; as surely as they heed the lesson; nor can sin be bound upon Any, apart from the consent of their own character. And this the 14th verse here definitely shows: for the very prayer that the iniquity of his fathers may be remembered before Jehovah is grounded upon his own character in this way (ver. 16).
3. Accordingly, the moral reason is given in the third division; where the equal government of God is clearly seen; and then —
4. The need and poverty which appeal to God, and for which He is besought to come in; according to His Name and title over all, and deliver. There is, all through, no thought of suffering from God, nor therefore of atonement: nothing that cannot be applied, in measure, to His people as to Christ Himself; and there is little need of comment as to it.
5. A final appeal to God to be with him, and give convincing proof that He is so, closes the psalm. If they curse, may God bless; and may the adversaries be clothed with shame. Then will he give thanks to Him with his mouth, and praise Him amid the multitude: for He standeth at the right hand of the needy, -where the outstretched hand can also find Him, -to save him from those that judge his soul.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The strongest of the imprecatory Pss. (see Intro.). Probably…
The strongest of the imprecatory Pss. (see Intro.). Probably it is just to regard the Psalmist as speaking in the name of the whole nation, vexed and harried by foreign enemies, e.g. Antiochus Epiphanes. The theory that the Psalmist recounts the curses used against him by his enemies is untenable. Calvin notes the awful use of this Ps. by certain monks, who hired themselves out to recite it against private enemies.
6. Satan] RV 'an adversary.' The word has both meanings in Hebrew. Satan was the accuser who blamed men before God: cp. Job 1, 2; Zechariah 3.
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7. Let his prayer become sin] truly a horrible curse: cp. Pro_15:8.
8. Let another take his office] cp. the reference to Judas Iscariot (Act_1:20). Hence this was known to the early Fathers as 'Psalmus Iscarioticus.'
10. Let them seek, etc.] better, 'let them be driven out far from their desolate homes.'
11. Spoil] better, 'make spoil of.'
23. I am tossed up and down] better, 'I am shaken off like a locust.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 109-113
Psalm 109-113
Psalm 109 Christ in Humiliation
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1. Despised and rejected (Psa 109:1-5)
2. The rejectors and their fate (Psa 109:6-20)
3. The Christ in His sorrow (Psa 109:21-25)
The five Psalms which are next grouped together belong to the most interesting in the whole collection. They give a marvellous prophecy concerning Christ, His rejection, exaltation and coming glory. In Psa 109:1-31 we see Him rejected. In Psa 110:1-7 He is at the Right hand of God, waiting till His enemies are made His footstool, returns as the victorious King and becomes the Priest after the order of Melchisedec. The three Psalms which follow, all Hallelujah Psalms, show forth His glory and His kingdom.
Psa 109:1-31 gives us once more the story of His rejection. We hear the complaints from Himself, indited by His Spirit. He is the hated One. They fight against Him without a cause. They reward Him with evil for good, and His love, the love which sought them, they answer with hatred. Verses 6-15 have reference to Judas who betrayed Him and applies to all those who reject Him. Psa 109:8 is quoted by Peter in Act 1:20. Of the betrayer it is said, “He loved cursing, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.” But this is true of all who reject Christ. All the cursing and punishment which come upon the rejectors of Christ are self-chosen. In the closing verses we hear the weeping, sorrowful voice of the Rejected One.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Lament of the Righteous Against Traitors and Enemies.
Lament of the Righteous Against Traitors and Enemies.
To the chief musician, for use in the liturgical part of worship, a psalm of David, in which he indeed may have reference to conditions of his own time, in his relation to Doeg, to Ahithophel, or to Shimei, but which at the same time is prophetical and typical of the relation in which Christ stood to the Jews and especially to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him. This is evident from the remarks of Peter at the election of Matthias, Act 1:16-20.
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v. 1. Hold not Thy peace, as if God’s silence were an indication of His indifference, O God of my praise, the object of his praise, of whose help he was so sure that he could proclaim His glory even in advance;
v. 2. for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful, literally, "of deceit," said in an emphatic statement, are opened, that is, have the enemies opened, against me, as though in an effort to discredit him in court; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue, literally, "with a tongue of lies or falsehood," since their entire being was wrapped up in lying, since they knew nothing else.
v. 3. They compassed me about also, coming against him from all sides, with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause, without his having given provocation to them.
v. 4. For my love, that is, in return for all the love which he has shown them, they are my adversaries; but I give myself unto prayer, literally, "I am prayer," that is, he gives forth his whole being in prayer, placing himself in the care of God in absolute trust.
v. 5. And they have rewarded me evil for good, which he, on his part, showed toward them in all his dealings, and hatred for my love. Having thus set forth the wickedness of the adversaries, David singles out one of them, the type of Judas Iscariot, asking the Lord to punish him as he deserved.
v. 6. Set Thou a wicked man over him, a power of punishment, an executioner, to drag him to judgment, and let Satan, in this case practically as the servant of God in carrying out the punishment fixed by Him, stand at his right hand, the usual position of the accusing witness. The court scene is further pictured.
v. 7. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin, since it was not the crying of a penitent sinner, but of one in the depths of blasphemous despair. We are here reminded of the cry of Judas Iscariot: "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," Mat 27:4.
v. 8. Let his days be few, his life coming to an end before the time normally set for its length; and let another take his office, this statement being directly applied by Peter to the apostleship lost by Judas Iscariot, Act 1:20.
v. 9. Let his children be fatherless, orphaned by his violent death, and his wife a widow, his family sharing in the punishment of his guilt.
v. 10. Let his children, who evidently followed their father in his wickedness, be continually vagabonds, wandering vagrants, and beg; let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places, prowling about at a distance from their ruined home.
v. 11. Let the extortioner, the heartless creditor, catch all that he hath, as in a net or snare; and let the strangers spoil his labor, making that their plunder or booty over which he toiled with so much work.
v. 12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him, showing love to his children; neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
v. 13. Let his posterity be cut off, by exterminating his family; and in the generation following, in the second generation, let their name be blotted out, so annihilated that not even a remembrance would be left.
v. 14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
v. 15. Let them be before the Lord continually, the iniquities of the father being unforgotten and unforgiven by the Lord, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth, to the everlasting disgrace of the entire family, all of whose members, on account of their own wickedness, are burdened also with the guilt of their forbears,
v. 16. because that he, the chief and representative enemy, remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, one who was already bowed down with suffering, that he might even slay the broken in heart. The Messianic character of this passage is seen from the corresponding section of Psalms 69, especially vv. 20-29.
v. 17. As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him, it struck him with full force when he, in despair, took his own life; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. His fate was the result of his own choice, made in spite of better knowledge and repeated warnings.
v. 18. As he clothed himself with cursing, as one wrapping himself closely in it, happy in feeling it all about himself, like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, the curse penetrating into the innermost parts of his body, and like oil into his bones, saturating everything and bringing condemnation and punishment upon him.
v. 19. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually. All these imprecations are now summarized.
v. 20. Let this be the reward, the well-deserved punishment, of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul, in repaying the love shown them with enmity in word and deed. They have brought the curse and punishment upon themselves, they have chosen the evil. The inspired singer now turns to lament and prayer.
v. 21. But do Thou for me, O God the Lord, taking his part, showing him blessings, for Thy name’s sake; because Thy mercy, the grace of Jehovah, the God of salvation, is good, the source and foundation of all true spiritual blessings, deliver Thou me.
v. 22. For I am poor and needy, this being particularly descriptive of the Messiah in His suffering as our Substitute, and My heart is wounded within Me, as when He Himself complained that His soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death, Mat 26:38.
v. 23. I am gone like the shadow when it declineth, toward evening, just before it is swallowed up by darkness; I am tossed up and down as the locust, driven away like grasshoppers before the wind, Exo 10:19.
v. 24. My knees are weak through fasting, His deep grief causing Him to loath all food; and My flesh faileth of fatness, emaciation following deep and sustained sorrow.
v. 25. I became also a reproach unto them, Psa 69:11-12; Mat 27:39-44; when they looked upon Me, they shaked their heads.
v. 26. Help Me, O Lord, My God, the Messiah’s own prayer being recorded here as in Psalms 22, 69; O save Me according to Thy mercy,
v. 27. that they, the enemies, may know that this is Thy hand, that Thou, Lord, hast done it, His deliverance thus resulting in the glorification of Jehovah.
v. 28. Let them curse, in a vain attempt to bring evil upon the Lord’s servant, but bless Thou, since God’s blessing more than offsets any curse on the part of men; when they arise, in order to carry out their evil designs, let them be ashamed; but let Thy Servant rejoice, knowing that the end of His suffering is near.
v. 29. Let Mine adversaries be clothed with shame, on account of the fact that their evil plans miscarried, and let then cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle, with the disgrace which their evil deeds brought upon them.
v. 30. I will greatly praise the Lord with My mouth, for the deliverance which is bound to come; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude, in the midst of His congregation
v. 31. For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to wage war in His behalf, to save Him from those that condemn His soul. Thus God, the righteous Judge, would eventually pronounce the sentence of justification upon His Servant. Cf Isa 53:8.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, 19, 21, 24, 26, 28, 30 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
For the wicked and deceitful
The words "wicked" and "deceitful" refer to people. They have similar meanings and emphasize how bad these people are. AT: "For wicked and deceitful men" (See: Nominal Adjectives and Doublet)
translationWords
chief
psalm
David
God
praise
evil
deceive
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 26, 28, 29 Ps 109 The psalmist begins this lament with a…
Ps 109 The psalmist begins this lament with a general charge against his accusers: They do evil in return for good (109:1-5). At the end of the psalm, he turns to the Lord in prayer, asking for his protection (109:21-25) and vengeance (109:26-31).
109:1 The psalmist sees no evidence that God cares (see 28:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.