Psalms 109:1-31 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

CIX. A Psalm of Cursing. This Ps. is further than anything else in the whole Psalter from the spirit of Christianity. It falls into three parts: Psalms 109:1-5. The Psalmist's distress in persecution; Psalms 109:6-20. Bitter curses against his foes; in Psalms 109:21-31 he recurs to his suffering but is confident of final deliverance. Note that in Psalms 109:6-20 he does not merely assert that God will punish. Had he done so, he would have felt his pain of body and soul much softened. As it is, he is in utter wretchedness, and curses his foes in the anguish of his spirit. No doubt he regards his enemies as utterly wicked. But we do not know how far he was justified in so doing, nor even who his enemies were. The curses strongly resemble those in the Psalms of Solomon (Psalms 4), which are probably pointed at Alexander Jannæ us (p. 608), the Sadducee leader, and must have been written before 80 B.C.

Psalms 109:2. wicked: read, wickedness.

Psalms 109:4 b. literally, and I [am] prayer (note italics). The Heb. makes no better sense than the English. The text is corrupt.

Psalms 109:6. Read perhaps, Let his wickedness be sought out in him.

Psalms 109:10 b. Read with LXX, and let them be driven out of their ruins.

Psalms 109:11 a. Read, search out all that he hath.

Psalms 109:13 b. Read, in one generation.

Psalms 109:16. Syr. has those that were sorrowful of heart even unto death.

Psalms 109:23. The poet is thinking of a swarm of locusts driven helpless before the storm and at last, it may be, drowned in the sea.

Psalms 109:24 b literally, My flesh faileth, because there is no fat upon it.

Related Commentaries of Psalms 109:1

Psalms 109:1-31

1 Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfula 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 Satanb stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned:c and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.d

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 bowelse 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.