Psalms 109

David is surrounded by liars who repay his love with hatred, and he brings his case to God. The long middle section asks God for severe judgment on the one who hounded the poor. Christians read these lines as a cry for justice, and some read them as the enemies’ own curses quoted back. The psalm ends in trust, with God standing beside the needy.

Psalms 109:1

David opens by appealing to the God he has praised all his life. He fears God’s silence more than his enemies’ noise. He is asking God to speak up and act on his behalf.

BSA: praise (“public, joyful”): David’s praise has been open and glad, so he is calling on the God he has openly honored.

Hebrew: תְּהִלָּתִי (tehillati, H8416) — “my praise.” This is the root of the Hebrew name for the whole book, Tehillim, ‘Praises.’ God is both the one David praises and the reason he has anything to praise.

Psalms 109:2

Enemies are speaking against David, and what they say is false. The wound is slander, not a sword. It is the kind of attack only God can answer, because David cannot prove his innocence to everyone.

See also: Psalm 120:2.

Psalms 109:3

Hateful talk closes in on David from every side like a besieging army. He has done nothing to deserve it. He wants God to see that this hatred is unprovoked.

BSA: surround (“compass, encircle”): The picture is a city under siege, with no side left open.

See also: Psalm 35:7.

Psalms 109:4

David met friendship with accusation, yet his answer was prayer. The Hebrew is even stronger and says, in effect, ‘I am prayer.’ Prayer is what he does with his hurt, and it marks who he is.

BSA: accuse (“oppose, act as adversaries”): Their accusing is open opposition, not honest concern.

Hebrew: יִשְׂטְנוּנִי (yistenuni, H7853) — “they accuse me, they act as my adversary.” The verb shares its root with the word ‘Satan,’ which means adversary. These accusers are doing the accuser’s work.

See also: Psalm 35:12-13.

Psalms 109:5

David sums up the wrong done to him: good was answered with evil, and love with hatred. This is the heart of his complaint. It sets up the justice he asks for in the verses that follow.

BSA: love (“affection”): David gave real warmth and care, not mere duty, which makes the hatred more painful.

See also: Psalm 38:20.

Psalms 109:6

Here the psalm turns to a long run of severe requests. Some Christians take verses 6-19 as David’s own prayer against one chief enemy. Others take them as the curses his enemies spoke against him, which he then answers in verse 20. Either way, the section asks for a wicked man to be dealt with as he dealt with others.

BSA: accuser (“adversary, Satan”): The word can mean any adversary, and it can also be the name of the great Accuser.

Hebrew: שָׂטָן (satan, H7853) — “accuser, adversary.” In a court, the accuser stood at the right hand of the accused. David asks that this man face the same kind of hostile accuser he has been to others.

See also: Zechariah 3:1.

Psalms 109:7

The request is for a fair trial that ends in a guilty verdict. It also asks that even his prayer be counted as sin. A prayer that is not meant honestly, from a heart that does not turn from evil, gains nothing before God.

See also: Proverbs 28:9.

Psalms 109:8

May his life be cut short and his post go to another. The wicked who abuse power lose it. Peter later applied the second line to the replacement for Judas among the apostles.

BSA: position (“of authority, oversight, or office”): The loss is of a place of responsibility he misused.

Hebrew: פְּקֻדָּתוֹ (pequddato, H6486) — “his office, his oversight.” The word is about a charge entrusted to someone to watch over. The man is asked to lose what he was trusted with.

See also: Acts 1:20.

Psalms 109:9-10

The request now reaches his family: orphaned children, a widowed wife, and a household reduced to begging. These are hard words. They show how deeply sin harms others, and how serious the wrong was that David is answering. God’s own law shows special care for widows and orphans.

BSA: wander (“vagabonds, wanderers”): The children are left without a place or a protector.

See also: Exodus 22:22-24.

Psalms 109:11

May a ruthless lender take everything, and strangers strip the work of his hands. He lived by taking from the poor, and the prayer asks that he be taken from in turn. The image is of a lifetime’s gain swept away.

BSA: creditor (“extortioner, one who lends at excessive interest”): He is pictured as a hard moneylender who squeezes the poor.

Psalms 109:12

The prayer asks that no one show him kindness. He never gave any, so none returns to him. It is the plain law of sowing and reaping, spoken in grief.

See also: Galatians 6:7.

Psalms 109:13

The line of descendants is to end and the family name to be forgotten. In Israel a name carried on through the generations was a treasure. Losing it was a deep loss, and it shows how severe this man’s sin was in David’s eyes.

BSA: blotted out (“erased, wiped away, forgotten”): The name is to be wiped away like writing rubbed off a page.

Psalms 109:14-15

Past family sins are to stay before the LORD, so that God’s judgment is complete. Scripture also says each person answers for his own sin, so this is best read as asking that the whole bad family pattern come to an end. God’s judgments are always just.

See also: Exodus 20:5; Ezekiel 18:20.

Psalms 109:16

Now the charge is stated. This man never showed mercy. He chased the weak and the heartbroken until they died. The case rests on how he treated those God cares for most.

BSA: kindness (“mercy, pity, loving actions”): The missing thing is active mercy that does something for people, not just a kind feeling.

Hebrew: חֶסֶד (chesed, H2617) — “loyal, covenant love.” This is the same word used for God’s loving devotion in verse 21. The man refused to show the very thing David now begs God to show him.

See also: Psalm 34:18.

Psalms 109:17

He loved cursing and had no interest in blessing, so let him receive what he chose. This is poetic justice: a person is paid in the same coin he spent. It also shows what a life without blessing is.

See also: Proverbs 26:27.

Psalms 109:18-19

Cursing was his everyday clothing, worn as easily as a coat. May it now soak into him like water and oil, down to the bones, and bind him like a belt he can never take off. His own habit becomes his burden.

BSA: oil (“olive oil”): Oil soaks in and cannot be washed out, so the curse becomes part of him.

Psalms 109:20

David leaves the matter with the LORD. He does not take revenge himself but asks God to pay his accusers what they have earned. Handing judgment to God is still the way of faith. Jesus later taught believers to pray for their enemies too.

See also: Romans 12:19; Matthew 5:44.

Psalms 109:21

The tone changes with ‘But You.’ David stops describing the enemy and looks to God. He does not rest his plea on his own goodness. He asks for rescue because of God’s name and God’s faithful love.

BSA: loving devotion (“covenant loyalty, mercy”): God binds Himself by promise to His people, and David appeals to that promise.

Hebrew: חַסְדְּךָ (chasdekha, H2617) — “Your loving devotion.” This is the same word as the ‘kindness’ David’s enemy refused to give. David asks for the very thing his enemy lacked.

Psalms 109:22

David says plainly that he is poor and hurting. He does not hide his weakness from God. His heart is wounded, and he says so. That honesty is where help begins.

BSA: needy (“oppressed, in need of help”): He is not only short of things but pressed down by others.

See also: Psalm 40:17.

Psalms 109:23

David feels himself slipping away, like a shadow stretched thin at the end of day. He is shaken off like a locust, brushed aside as something of no worth. He knows how fragile he is.

BSA: shadow (“a dark area”): A long evening shadow is about to vanish into dusk, as his strength is.

See also: Psalm 102:11.

Psalms 109:24

Grief has shown in his body. His knees give way from fasting and he has grown thin. Prayer and fasting here are the signs of a man who has taken his trouble seriously to God.

BSA: fasting (“abstaining from food, spiritual discipline”): His fast is a form of prayer, a way of pleading, not just hunger.

Psalms 109:25

Those who accuse him mock him. Shaking the head was a sign of contempt, and the same gesture was later made at Jesus on the cross. David shares in the shame that God’s righteous sufferers have borne.

See also: Psalm 22:7; Matthew 27:39.

Psalms 109:26

David returns to prayer for help. He asks to be saved according to God’s loving devotion, not according to his own record. God’s character is the ground of his hope.

BSA: Help (“assist, come to the aid of”): He asks God to come alongside and act for him, not to watch from a distance.

Psalms 109:27

David wants his rescue to be so plain that even enemies cannot call it luck. When God’s hand is clearly at work, people see Who is behind it. The aim is that God be known.

BSA: hand (“an open hand; strength, a side or share”): The hand stands for God’s own power at work, not a human accident.

Psalms 109:28

People may curse, but when God blesses, their words do not stand. The proud who rise up will be shamed, and God’s servant will be glad. Jesus and Paul both tell believers to answer curses with blessing.

BSA: servant (“faithful follower, slave”): David calls himself one who belongs to God and is therefore under His care.

See also: Romans 12:14.

Psalms 109:29

The clothing picture returns. The accusers had worn cursing like a coat, and now they are asked to wear shame like a robe. What they chose to put on will show on them.

BSA: disgrace (“shame, dishonor”): Public shame is pictured as a garment they cannot take off.

Psalms 109:30

David promises to thank the LORD loudly and in front of crowds. He does not want to keep the rescue to himself. Public thanks tell others what God is like.

BSA: profusely (“much, very, exceedingly”): His thanks will be overflowing, not grudging or brief.

See also: Psalm 22:25.

Psalms 109:31

The psalm ends with a picture of God standing beside the needy man. His enemies had set an accuser at the right hand of the wicked in verse 6. Here God Himself takes that place for the poor, to save him from those who would condemn him.

BSA: stands (“to take a strong position, to uphold”): God does not merely watch but takes a firm place as the defender.

Hebrew: יַעֲמֹד (ya’amod, H5975) — “He stands.” It is the same word used of the accuser standing at the right hand in verse 6. God now stands there as defender, so the last word belongs to Him.

See also: Psalm 16:8; Romans 8:33-34.