Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Psalm 109:1) (To the chief musician, a Psalm of David) Hold not Your peace, O God of my praise, (2) For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
In the last post, David had composed Psalm 52 after he learned that Doeg had told Saul about him meeting with Ahimelech, and then Saul killed all the priests at Nob because he believed they helped David. This psalm begins with the same message as Psalm 52, so it may have been composed at the same time. David asked the Lord whom he praised and worshiped, not to be silent, but to defend his cause. The mouth of the wicked and deceitful had spoken against him with lies.
(3) They compassed me about also with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.
Those wicked and deceitful men, especially Doeg and Saul and his servants, surrounded him with their lies and hate and fought against him without cause.
(4) For my love they are my adversaries, but I pray. (5) And they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love.
In return for David's love toward them, especially Saul and his servants, they had become his adversaries. They had rewarded his good toward with them with evil against him.
(6) Set a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
David prayed that a wicked man be set over his adversary. His meaning may not be as harsh as it sounds. Satan here may not have been a name, as "satan" means "adversary, opponent," so he may have meant that he wished his adversary be opposed and thwarted in his purposes against David.
(7) When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
Again, this might sound harsher than what David meant. When his adversary was judged, he wanted his wickedness to be made manifest. Shine the light on his wickedness; let it be known. Let his prayer be sin. The fact that an evil man prays to God against the righteous is already sin. Attempting to use God to fulfill his evil plans is a sin against God!
Then again, as so many of David's psalms are said to be prophetic, these could be the words of the Lord against a rebellious people who had turned away from God. In that case, the words are just and right as they are as they are coming from the righteous Judge.
(8) Let his days be few; let another take his office.
While David may have meant these words to be about Saul and his desire that he be removed from his office and no longer a threat to David, through inspiration of the Lord, these words and the following verses definitely seem to refer to Judas Iscariot. Peter referred specifically to Judas and this psalm in Acts 1:20, "For it is written in the book of Psalms, 'Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell in it, and his bishopric let another take.'" The bishopric is the diocese or office of a bishop. These and the following words could also be Jesus's and applied to the scribes and Pharisees.
(9) Let his children be fatherless and his wife, a widow. (10) Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek bread also out of their desolate places.
If a wicked man is taken out of the land of the living, his children will naturally become fatherless and his wife a widow. They may then become poor and have to beg for their food. This was not meant to be a curse upon his wife and children, but a natural occurrence of what would follow if an evil man was taken out. This could have referred to Judas, as well, as some of the disciples did have families.
(11) Let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labor.
This curse upon the wicked might be said of Judas who may have died in debt after throwing away the thirty pieces of silver he had been given to betray Jesus. It surely might be said of the coming destruction of Jerusalem by the extortioners, the Roman soldiers.
(12) Let there be none to extend mercy to him, neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
This is a judgment in general to the wicked and may be well applied to Judas and to the destruction of Jerusalem when the Israelites were shown no mercy.
(13) Let his posterity be cut off; in the generation following, let their name be blotted out.
Let the posterity of the wicked be cut off and their name blotted out. Interestingly, Adam Clarke wrote in his Commentary on the Bible, "It is a fact that the distinction among the Jewish tribes is entirely lost. Not a Jew in the world knows from what tribe he is sprung; and as to the royal family, it remains nowhere but in the person of Jesus the Messiah. He alone is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Except as it exists in Him, the name is blotted out."
(14) Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with 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.
This is akin to the verse before. Not only should the posterity of the wicked be cut off, but the iniquity of their fathers should be continually remembered by the Lord and the memory of them cut off. This would be in line with the fact that no Jew knows from which tribe he came. His ancestors have been forgotten.
These verses could be attributed to Jesus. When all the people cried out for the crucifixion of Jesus, they said, "His blood be on us and on our children." In addition, the Lord said in His commandments, "For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me." While this may seem harsh, I believe it just reinforces the fact that children learn from their parents and continue in the evil ways of their parents. Although that was the natural progression of sin through the generations, it didn't have to be that way. God always provided a way out through repentance (1Samuel 12:10-11). And of course, that continues now through Jesus Christ. A Christian is a new creation, and the old is passed away (2 Corinthians 5:17). A child of God is no longer under a generational curse: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
(16) Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
The Lord would remember the iniquity of the wicked because he showed no mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy and desired to kill the broken in heart. This could definitely be David's feelings about Saul, but it also can be attributed to Judas, who did not care for the poor (John 12:6) and betrayed Jesus to have Him killed.
(17) As he loved cursing, so let it come to him; as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.
As the wicked seemed to love curses as they continually did things that would bring curses upon them, David's prayer was that curses come to them. As they had no pleasure in blessing others, let blessing upon them be far from them. These could be prophetic words of the Lord against the wicked, perhaps specifically Judas, as he scorned the woman who poured ointment on Jesus's head (John 12:5). So the chief priests and scribes were displeased with the children crying praises to Jesus in the temple (Matthew 21:15).
(18) As 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. (19) Let it be to him as the garment covering him and for a belt with which he is girded continually.
As the wicked one clothed himself in cursing, wearing it continually as he would his garments, so let cursing penetrate his body through and through continually.
(20) This the reward of my adversaries from the Lord and of them who speak evil against my soul.
Those were the desires for David's adversaries that he sought from the Lord, to those who spoke evil against him. These words definitely seem to be prophetic words of Jesus and a lesson to us about who is behind all the wickedness against us in general. The word translated as "adversaries" here is "satan." This original Hebrew word is not always used to mean adversary. Often the word used is "tsar" or "tsarar." The adversary who speaks against Jesus's soul is Satan, and he is behind all enemies of the Lord and Christians.
(21) But You do for me, O God the Lord, for Your name's sake; because Your mercy is good, deliver me. (22) For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
David prayed that the Lord do for him, help him and fight for him, for His own glory and honor because He was faithful in His promises to be there for His saints. Because the Lord was so loving, kind, and merciful, David had faith that He would deliver him from his troubles, because he was one of the poor and needy and broken in heart (verse 16), and the Lord would remember his enemies.
(23) I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down as the locust.
David felt like his life was soon disappearing like the shadow when the sun was gone. He was tossed about like a locust in the wind.
(24) My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails of fatness.
David was weak from lack of food, and he had become very thin with no more fatness of his flesh.
(25) I became also a reproach to them; they looked upon me, they shaked their heads.
David had become an object of scorn and contempt to his enemies, although this seems more an allusion to Christ on the cross. Matthew 27:39 says, "And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads."
(26) Help me, O Lord my God, O save me according to Your mercy,
David cried out to the Lord to save him. According to God's mercy, is the only way we should dare to ask for His help. It's because of His loving kindness and mercy; it has nothing to do with what we deserve. We sinners do not deserve God's help but deserve only death. However, because He loves those who look to Him and do their best to follow Him, in His mercy, He will help them.
(27) That they may know that this Your hand, You, Lord, have done it!
David wanted all glory to go to God. He desired that God save him in a way that left no doubt that the Lord God of the universe had intervened for him. Once again, when thought of as the words of Christ on the cross, they take on a slightly different meaning. Jesus had not been destroyed on the cross as the scribes and Pharisees and Romans thought they were accomplishing. This was God's plan for salvation that was fulfilled in His dying on the cross. And boy, did God show that that was His hand! Immediately after Jesus died, the earth quaked with such violence that the veil of the temple was torn in two, and the graves of the saints were opened, and many of their bodies arose, demonstrating that Christ had conquered death and would raise all His saints (Matthew 27:51-52).
(28) Let them curse, but You bless; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let Your servant rejoice. (29) Let my adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
Let his enemies curse him all they wanted, for he knew that God blessed him. He wished for them to be ashamed, doing things that brought shame on themselves. Let them be so confused that they became all wrapped up in it, as if they had wrapped a cloak of confusion around them. Once again, the word for adversaries here is the Hebrew word "satan." Satan is the author of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33, John 8:44, 2 Corinthians 4:4).
(30) I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise Him among the multitude.
David would greatly and vocally praise the Lord, publicly acknowledging His goodness and mercy.
(31) For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those who condemn his soul.
And the reason David would sing the Lord's praises was because He was the champion of the poor and needy, and He would save them from those who wished to destroy them.
This psalm is one of the imprecatory psalms. To imprecate is to call down a curse on someone. It definitely appears to be pure inspiration of God prophesying what Jesus would endure and God's righteous judgment. From the beginning of the psalm, it spoke of "satan" who fought against Him without cause. Jesus came for only good to save the world, but Satan rewarded evil for good and hatred for His love. We can see how Judas Iscariot may have been meant in many of the verses. Satan had entered into Judas according to Luke 22:3. And of course, many of the verses reflecting on His persecution sound as if they could have been spoken by Jesus on the cross. But in the end, Christ is victorious against Satan and death. The last verse that speaks of "the right hand" may be an allusion to Christ at the right hand of the Father who saves the poor from condemnation of their souls.
