"To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
Be not silent, O God of my praise!
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!
16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the broken-hearted, to put them to death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps round him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!
21 But you, O God my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name's sake;
because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love!
27 Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it!
28 Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonour;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death."
Psalm 109
This Psalm presents us with considerable problems, because of its central section (6-20), a passage full of imprecations and cursings. Its outline - 1-5, the complaint; 6-20, the cursings; 21-29, the prayer; 30, 31, the vow of praise - gives a striking, contrasting combination of thoughts: 'The plaint of a loving soul, shrinkingly conscious of an at- mosphere of hatred, and appealing gently to God (1-5); while 21-31 expatiate in the presentation to Him of the suppliant's feebleness and cries for deliverance' (Maclaren). Taken together, these two sections, and omitting 6-20, paint a familiar enough picture, which we have seen in other Psalms, with the Psalmist under pressure, with baseless and unjust accusations brought against him. Kidner aptly entitles the Psalm 'The Character Assassin'. The depth of the Psalmist's hurt is seen in 22 - 'My heart is wounded within me'. The hurt that evil men can inflict on God's servant is often very deep and very terrible, and the clinging faith shown in this Psalm is very moving indeed, as cf 4b, 28a, 31. It is this sensitive, spiritual attitude of the Psalmist's in 1-5 and 21-31, which serves to make the problem of 6-20 even greater. How are we to square these imprecations and cursings with such a spiritual and gracious attitude? As Maclaren says, 'The combination of devout meekness and trust with the fiery imprecations in the core of the Psalm is startling to the Christian consciousness'. Because this is so, attempts have been made to 'explain away' or attenuate the difficulty, in different ways. We shall look at some of these attempts at explanation in the Notes which follow. In the meantime, however, we should not become so preoccupied with the problems that 6-21 raise that we lose sight of the deep spiritual content of the rest of the Psalm. Let us, for today, therefore, read 1-5 and 21-31 together, and savour the pathos of the psalmist's attitude. This may be a better background than we realise to our examination of the imprecations in 6-20.