1Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! 2For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 3They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. 4In return for my love they are my adversaries, but I am in prayer. 5Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. 6Set a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand. 7When he is judged, let him be found guilty, and let his prayer become sin. 8Let his days be few, and let another take his office. 9Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 10Let his children continually be vagabonds, and beg; let them seek their bread also from the waste. 11Let the creditors snare all that he has, and let strangers plunder his labor. 12Let there be no one to extend mercy to him, nor any to show favor to his fatherless children. 13Let his posterity be cut off, and in the following generation let their name be blotted out. 14Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before Jehovah, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. 15Let them be continually before Jehovah, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth; 16because he did not remember to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, even to kill the disheartened. 17As he loved cursing, so let it come upon him; as he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. 18As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, and like oil into his bones. 19Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, and for a girdle with which he girds himself continually. 20Let this be the reward to my adversaries from Jehovah, and to those who speak evil against my soul. 21But You, O Jehovah the Lord, deal with me for Your name's sake; because Your mercy is good, rescue me. 22For I am lowly and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. 23I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like a locust. 24My knees totter from fasting, and my flesh has become lean of fatness. 25I also have become a reproach to them; when they look at me, they shake their heads. 26Help me, O Jehovah my God! O deliver me according to Your mercy, 27that they may know that this is Your hand; that You, Jehovah, have done it! 28Let them curse, but You will bless; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let Your servant rejoice. 29Let my adversaries be clothed with disgrace, and let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a cloak. 30I will give abundant thanks unto Jehovah with my mouth; yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. 31For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those who condemn his soul.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 The writer complains of his virulent enemies, on whom he imprecates God's righteous punishment, and to a prayer for a divine interposition in his behalf appends the expression of his confidence and a promise of his praises. This Psalm is remarkable for the number and severity of its imprecations. Its evident typical character (compare
Ps 109:8) justifies the explanation of these already given, that as the language of David respecting his own enemies, or those of Christ, it has respect not to the penitent, but to the impenitent and implacable foes of good men, and of God and His cause, whose inevitable fate is thus indicated by inspired authority. (Psa. 109:1-31)
God of my praise--its object, thus recognizing God as a certain helper. Be not silent (compare
Ps 17:13;
Ps 28:1).
2 For the mouth . . . opened--or, "They have opened a wicked mouth"
against me--literally, "with me," that is, Their intercourse is lying, or, they slander me to my face (
Matt 26:59).
3 (Compare
Ps 35:7;
Ps 69:4).
4 They return evil for good (compare
Ps 27:12;
Pro 17:13).
I give myself unto prayer--or literally, "I (am) prayer," or, "as for me, prayer," that is, it is my resource for comfort in distress.
6 over him--one of his enemies prominent in malignity (
Ps 55:12).
let Satan stand--as an accuser, whose place was the right hand of the accused (
Zech 3:1-
Zech 3:2).
7 The condemnation is aggravated when prayer for relief is treated as a sin.
8 The opposite blessing is long life (
Ps 91:16;
Pro 3:2). The last clause is quoted as to Judas by Peter (
Acts 1:20).
office--literally, "charge," Septuagint, and Peter, "oversight" [
1Pet 5:2].
9 Let his family share the punishment, his children be as wandering beggars to prowl in their desolate homes, a greedy and relentless creditor grasp his substance, his labor, or the fruit of it, enure to strangers and not his heirs, and his unprotected, fatherless children fall in want, so that his posterity shall utterly fail.
13 posterity--literally, "end," as in
Ps 37:38, or, what comes after; that is, reward, or success, or its expectation, of which posterity was to a Jew a prominent part.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered, &c.--Added to the terrible overthrow following his own sin, let there be the imputation of his parents' guilt, that it may now come before God, for His meting out its full consequences, in cutting off the memory of them (that is, the parents) from the earth (
Ps 34:16).
16 Let God remember guilt, because he (the wicked) did not remember mercy.
poor and needy . . . broken in heart--that is, pious sufferer (
Ps 34:18;
Ps 35:10;
Ps 40:17).
17 Let his loved sin, cursing, come upon him in punishment (
Ps 35:8), thoroughly fill him as water and oil, permeating to every part of his system (compare
Num 5:22-
Num 5:27), and become a garment and a girdle for a perpetual dress.
20 Let this . . . reward--or, "wages," pay for labor, the fruit of the enemy's wickedness.
from the Lord--as His judicial act.
21 do . . . for me--that is, kindness.
wounded--literally, "pierced" (
Ps 69:16,
Ps 69:29).
23 like the shadow--(Compare
Ps 102:11).
tossed up and down--or, "driven" (
Exod 10:19).
24 Taunts and reproaches aggravate his afflicted and feeble state (
Ps 22:6-
Ps 22:7).
26 Let my deliverance glorify Thee (compare
Ps 59:13).
28 In confidence that God's blessing would come on him, and confusion and shame on his enemies (
Ps 73:13), he ceases to regard their curses, and anticipates a season of joyful and public thanksgiving; for God is near to protect (
Ps 16:8;
Ps 34:6) the poor from all unrighteous judges who may condemn him.