Psalm 109--Help Me, O LORD My God

Psalm 109
English Standard Version

Help Me, O LORD My God
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
109 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 brokenhearted, 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 around 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 dishonor;
    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.

---

Once again, we find David in a desperate situation, surrounded by his enemies who want to destroy him--this time with their lies and slander.  He prays an urgent and passionate prayer to the LORD to come to his aide quickly, to save him and his reputation, to hear him, and to not delay in pronouncing summary judgment against these evildoers.  David wants an example made out of these men so that others may not follow in their footsteps, and although it is well within David's right as king to carry out judgment against these wicked men, he entrusts the LORD to take care of those who have personally wronged him.  David executes justice against those who have wronged his citizens, but he refuses to take vengeance for himself.

Strangely enough, the Holy Spirit told the apostles that these words described Judas Iscariot, the man of perdition.  He was evil and God had already judged him.  They cited the verse, "May his days be few, may another take his office!" as the reason why they needed to appoint another apostle to take his place.  All the curses of the Law were wished upon David's enemies here, but Jesus is the one who took all the curses of the Law upon Himself so that we might have the blessings that only He deserved.  David prays this person's life would be short, that his children would be orphaned, and that his line would not extend past the second generation (that his children would be childless).  He also prays that for as long as he lives that this man would owe more than he could pay and become enslaved to his creditors, forfeiting property, assets, and freedom (and likely even his family in this culture, as it was common for the head of the household to put his wife and children into slavery to try to pay off his debts).  David prays for the name of his enemies to be quickly forgotten (this has taken place, for we do not know of many of his enemies, but we are still talking about David and the covenant that the LORD made with him), and that the LORD would remember his sins when he came to try to offer atonement and would not let the man walk away justified.

David gives his reasons for why he feels this way.  The person or persons he's speaking of were cruel to the poor and powerless.  They refused to comfort those who were hurting, and instead they engaged in "mercy killings" to take the lives of those who were afflicted in body or spirit.  The man's vulgarity, profanity, and cursing were worn like an exterior garment.  Everything he said was to wish evil on someone else or to speak evil of someone else.  He did not desire the blessings of the LORD that come from being the kind of person that God commands His kingdom citizens to be.  David prays for the man's curses to return upon him--that the evil that he wished upon others would come upon him.

Daivd refuses to take vengeance himself but prays for the LORD to do so for him and do it quickly--not just for David's sake, but His own Name's sake.  What would it say about a God who made a special covenant with David and his family that He wasn't willing to fight for and enforce?  Yet God refused to take action against Jesus' enemies and let them have their way with Him so that we might be beneficiaries of the covenant of His blood.  Jesus had every right under the Davidic covenant to call on the Father to destroy His enemies (just like David did here), and one day the Father will tell the Son that it is time for Him to destroy all His enemies and set up His Kingdom for those who belong to Him.

David compares his life to things that are being eaten and wasting away--like a shadow that is about to disappear into the darkness at sunset, like the crops that the locusts have eaten, like the weak knees of someone who has been fasting and has no strength to stand (this last one is probably speaking literally and not figuratively).  It would seem David has been fasting so much that he has lost much weight.  He says that he can't find any fat on his body (rich people were fat and poor people were skinny back then because only the rich people ate meat and could have enough to get fat.  He looked like he was a pauper and not a king.

David knows if anything is going to happen, it is going to be because the LORD will be moved with compassion because of His steadfast covenant love--the kind of love that is defined by what it does.  He cries out for salvation, which may seem a bit dramatic in this situation for he is not being hunted down like he was by Saul, but the word "salvation" is much larger than just saving someone's physical life.  God wants us to have eternal and abundant life that starts now, and that is wrapped up in the idea of salvation too.  Part of salvation that we've been talking about throughout this psalm is the blessings (His unmerited favor) being poured out on God's people.  David says, "Let them curse, if You will bless."  That is powerful!  The blessing of God is more important and more powerful than all the curses of men.  They can do nothing to us unless God allows it and there is nothing that they can say or do that will separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Their wickedness will be their own downfall and will bring shame upon them and their family.

David promises He will give public thanks to the LORD for the salvation that He will provide.  The LORD saves those who have nothing to offer--the weak, poor, needy, and those who stand guilty and worthy of death.  The LORD has compassion on all of them, for while all of us were in this estate, Christ died for us!  It's only because His great love that we have so great a salvation! Let us too publicly praise the LORD for the great salvation that He has given to those of us who are His children by Adpotion.