MAY GOD BLESS WHEN PEOPLE CURSE
Psalm 109:1-31 / Keywords 109:4
In
return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
109:1 My God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for people who are wicked and deceitful
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
5 They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.
6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
8 May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven[a] from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before the Lord,
that he may blot out their name from the earth.
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to pronounce a curse—
may it come back on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing—
may it be far from him.
18 He wore cursing as his garment;
it entered into his body like water,
into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
like a belt tied forever around him.
20 May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,
to those who speak evil of me.
21 But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name’s sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
27 Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
28 While they curse, may you bless;
may those who attack me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.
29 May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save their lives from those who would condemn them.
Footnotes
a. Psalm 109:10 Septuagint; Hebrew sought
1.
The Psalmist urges God to intervene for him because of personal attacks and
accusations from those he considered his friends. Having ugly rumors spread
about us may be one of the most painful kinds of suffering. Then, the psalmist
prays for God to curse his accuser, with a detailed description of how he wants
him to be utterly crushed and forsaken (6-20). The Psalmist may not be
practicing “love
your enemy” here,
but at least he is taking his struggle to God and not taking revenge with his
own hands. Then, he sends an earnest plea for help to God, confessing how weak
he is (21-29). When our strength is almost gone, our prayers may not sound very
gracious; still, God will answer in the best way. The Psalmist ends with praise
for God who saves the needy (30-31).
2.
The apostles understood this Psalm as a description of Jesus’
betrayal and suffering to pay the price for our sins, and of the condemnation
that came upon Judas Iscariot. We may take comfort in knowing that Jesus has
experienced all the pain that we have, even the pain of betrayal.
Prayer Father, help me pour out my heart
to you when I am unfairly treated. Thank you for Jesus who was betrayed in
order to take the punishment for our sins.
One Word God saves the needy from accusers
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