Psalms 109

Do not stay silent, God. You are the one I praise.

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

Note"Do not stay silent" is courtroom language: the psalmist is asking God to speak up on his behalf, the way a witness or judge breaks silence. Much of this psalm is set as a trial, with accusers, testimony, a verdict and a defender.

2Wicked and lying mouths have opened against me. They have spoken about me with lying tongues.

2For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.

3They surrounded me with hateful words. They attacked me for no reason at all.

3They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4In return for my love they accuse me, but I keep on praying.

4For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

NoteThe Hebrew of the second half reads, very compactly, "but I, prayer," which translators render either as "I am a man of prayer" or "I keep on praying." The word behind "accuse" is the verb related to the noun in verse 6.

5They pay me back evil for good, and hatred in return for my love.

5And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6Put a wicked man in charge of him. Let an accuser stand at his right hand.

6Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

NoteThe word translated "accuser" is the Hebrew *satan*, which at this period meant a prosecutor or legal opponent rather than a proper name; at a trial the accuser stood at the defendant's right side. Note also that verses 6–19 are a long string of curses, and the Hebrew gives no marker of who is speaking them. They may be the psalmist cursing his enemy, or the psalmist quoting back the curses his accusers have been pronouncing on him. Ancient and modern translators divide on this, and both readings fit the Hebrew.

7When he is put on trial, let him be found guilty. Let even his prayer count as a sin.

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

Note"Let even his prayer count as a sin" means his appeal for mercy is not merely refused but is itself entered against him, as further evidence of guilt.

8Let his life be short. Let someone else take over his position.

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

NoteThe word behind "position" means an appointed office or charge of responsibility, a post someone holds by commission, not just a job.

9Let his children lose their father. Let his wife become a widow.

9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

NoteIn ancient Israel a household with no adult man had no legal standing and no one to press its case; widows and fatherless children were the standard example of people with no protection, which is why the curse takes this form.

10Let his children wander about and beg. Let them look for food far from their ruined homes.

10Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

NoteThe Hebrew of the second line is difficult. It can mean that the children search for food far from their ruined homes, or that they are driven out of the ruins where they are sheltering; the old Greek translation read it the second way.

11Let the man he owes money to seize everything he owns. Let strangers carry off what he worked for.

11Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12Let no one show him kindness. Let no one be good to his fatherless children.

12Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13Let his family line be cut off. Let their name be wiped out in the next generation.

13Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

NoteA man's name survived through his descendants; to have the family line cut off was to be erased entirely, which made it the most severe curse available. "Wiped out" pictures a name scrubbed off a written list or register.

14Let the LORD remember the wrong his fathers did. Let his mother's sin never be wiped away.

14Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

NoteAncient Israelite thinking could reckon a family's guilt as a single running account rather than person by person, so an ancestor's unpunished wrong could still be "on the books." "Remember" here does not mean recall to mind but act on, the opposite of wiping the record clean.

15Let their sins stay in front of the LORD all the time, so that he removes all memory of them from the earth.

15Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16He never thought about being kind. He hunted down people who were poor and needy and brokenhearted, even to the point of killing them.

16Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17He loved to curse others, so let cursing come to him. He took no pleasure in blessing, so let blessing stay far away from him.

17As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

NoteA spoken curse was treated as a real and potent thing, released into the world and able to attach itself to someone, not merely a rude wish. The request is that the curses the man let loose settle back onto him.

18He wore cursing the way a man wears a coat. So let it soak into his body like water and into his bones like oil.

18As 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.

NoteThe image is of a curse behaving like a substance: soaking through the body like drunk water, and like oil rubbed into the skin, which was thought to penetrate right down to the bones.

19Let it be like the robe he wraps around himself, like the belt he ties on every day.

19Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20Let this be what the LORD pays back to the men who accuse me, to those who say evil things about me.

20Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

21But you, LORD God, treat me well, for the sake of your name. Your faithful love is good, so rescue me.

21But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

Note"For the sake of your name" means for the sake of God's own reputation and standing, a name stood for the whole character a person was known by. "Faithful love" translates Hebrew *hesed*, the loyal, committed kindness owed within a binding relationship.

22I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded inside me.

22For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

Note"Poor and needy" in the Psalms is not only about money; it describes someone with no power, no protector and no standing to defend himself.

23I am fading away like a shadow at the end of the day. I am shaken off like a locust.

23I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

NoteTwo images of vanishing: the long shadow at the end of the day, which stretches out and then is gone at sunset, and a locust flicked off a garment or blown away by the wind.

24My knees are weak from going without food. My body has grown thin and bony.

24My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

NoteGoing without food was a recognized public act of mourning and of pressing an appeal before God, not an accident of poverty.

25The people who accuse me look down on me. When they see me, they shake their heads.

25I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

NoteShaking the head at someone was a gesture of scorn and mockery in this culture, the equivalent of a jeer, not the modern head-shake meaning "no" or "what a shame."

26Help me, LORD my God. Save me because of your faithful love.

26Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

27Then they will know that this is your hand at work, that you, LORD, have done it.

27That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

28Let them curse; you will bless. When they attack, let them be put to shame, but let your servant be glad.

28Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

29Let the men who accuse me be dressed in disgrace. Let them wear their own shame like a robe.

29Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

NoteClothing stands for what a person is publicly seen to be. To be "dressed in disgrace" is to have shame become the thing everyone sees when they look at you.

30I will thank the LORD out loud, again and again. I will praise him in front of the crowd.

30I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

NoteThanks for rescue was expected to be paid publicly, in front of the assembled worshipers, so that the witnesses who saw the trouble also heard the outcome.

31For he stands at the right hand of the needy man, to save him from those who condemn him.

31For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

NoteThis deliberately reverses verse 6. The right-hand position, occupied there by the prosecutor, is here taken by God, the same spot at a trial could be held by a defender or supporting witness.