A Psalm for the Persecuted – Psalm 109

“To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. Do not keep silent, O God of my praise! For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love they are my accusers, but I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.” Psalm 109:1-5

“Heavenly Father, in Your grace and mercy, please help the Gospel proclaimers who serve You among hateful people. Please grant them the love, patience and forgiveness that they need to keep shining for You. Please make a way of escape for them if any trial becomes too great for them to endure. And Father, please set free the slaves of the devil. Please rescue them from being instruments of hate and affliction to others. Holy Spirit, please grant them new birth. I pray this in the wonderful and powerful Name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

In 2 Thessalonians 2:7, 9, Paul wrote of the mystery of lawlessness that is at work in the world. He wrote of the coming of the lawless one, that is, the antichrist. How is it that someone who is made in God’s image can behave so devilish against those who praise, love and glorify the Lord?

David used his mouth to praise the Lord, but wicked and deceitful people used their mouths to speak lies and hateful words against him. The more David expressed God’s love for them, the more they hated him. How did David respond to such treatment? He gave himself to prayer. He asked God not to remain silent while all this was happening, but to intervene.

When David experienced hatred from people due to his love for God, the Lord helped him to process what was happening to him, and respond appropriately.

In John 15:24-25, Jesus told His disciples, “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin, but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

Graciously convicting a sinner of his or her sin so that he or she may repent and receive God’s forgiveness is an act of lovingkindness, but proud people do not receive it that way. Thus, they hate the one who is trying to help them without a cause.

In Matthew 10:22, Jesus prepared His disciples for unprovoked hatred. He said to them, “You will be hated by all for My Name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

In Matthew 24:9, when His disciples asked Jesus for signs of His second coming, He said to them, “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake.”

In Revelation 12:17, Satan is at war with those “who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Thus, in Ephesians 6:16-18, Paul urges us to “take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.”

Prayer invokes God’s help against the evil one. God is easily able to repel his attacks.

“Set a wicked man over him, and let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him be found guilty, and let his prayer become sin.” Psalm 109:6-7

David singles out a particular person who was worse than the rest of his enemies. The ringleader! [1] He zealously prays that God will deal with the man’s behavior.

This passage is particularly applicable to Judas who betrayed the Messiah and Savior of all people. In John 19:11, Jesus spoke of Judas to Pilate when He said, “The one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” [2] Judas knew that Jesus was the Messiah and yet betrayed Him for 30 pieces of silver. 30 pieces of silver was the common purchase price for a slave in those days.

Set the wicked one over him, that is, Satan. In John 13:27, Satan entered Judas, and deceived him to do evil against Jesus, against himself, and against humanity.

“Let his days be few and let another take his office.” Psalm 109:8

Soon after Judas betrayed Jesus for Satan, his life ended.

In Acts 1:18, Peter said of Judas, “This man purchased a field with the wages of iniquity, and falling headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out.” Judas traded the promised Messiah for an earthly property, and then, experienced a painful death there.

In Acts 1:20, Peter confirmed that Judas was the one of whom David prophesied in Psalm 109:8.

Those that mismanage their trusts will justly have their office taken from them and given to those that will show themselves faithful. [3]

In Acts 13:22, Paul noted in one of his sermons how God replaced King Saul with King David, saying, “When He [God] had removed him [Saul], He raised up David to be their king; to whom also He bare witness and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who shall do all My will.”

Judas Iscariot not only betrayed Jesus he betrayed himself and his family.

“Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children continually be vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy to him, nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.” Psalm 109:9-12

The children of wicked parents often suffer due to the bad choices of their parents, as well as due to the bad things that others may falsely assume about them because of their parents. [4]

“Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be continually before the Lord, that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth.” Psalm 109:13-15

In Revelation 20:15, it is written, “Anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.” This prophecy shall come to pass for all who reject Jesus the Savior from sin.

“Because he did not remember to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.” Psalm 109:16

Rather than being merciful to the poor and needy, he persecuted them. He broke their hearts.

In John 12:3-5, when Mary took a very expensive bottle of perfume and poured it on Jesus’ feet, Judas remarked, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for 300 silver coins and the money given to the poor?” But then in John 12:6, John tells us that “Judas did not really care about the poor. He asked this because he carried the moneybag and sometimes would steal from it.” Judas embezzled money that was given by others to help the poor. In John 12:7-8, Jesus rebuked his anger, saying to him, “Leave her alone! She has kept this perfume for the day of My burial. You will always have the poor with you, but you won’t always have Me.”

“As he loved cursing, so let it come to him. As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him. As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, so let it enter his body like water, and like oil into his bones. Let it be to him like the garment which covers him, and for a belt with which he girds himself continually. Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers, and to those who speak evil against my person.” Psalm 109:17-20

Water is good for the body, oil is good for the joints between the bones, a garment covers nakedness and a belt holds loose clothing in place. These are all blessings from God that a cursor takes for granted. David asked God to turn these blessings that the cursor took for granted and turn them into curses. Thus, it is not believers in Christ who need to be concerned about curses. Cursors of God and God’s people need to beware. In Genesis 12:3, the Lord said to Abraham, the man who believed in God, “I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“But You, O God the Lord, deal with me for Your Name’s sake, because Your mercy is good, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens. I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness. I also have become a reproach to them. When they look at me, they shake their heads.” Psalm 109:21-25

Rather than trying to get even with those who attacked him, David took the matter to God. [6]

Who could heal his wounds? He felt his life was a fading shadow. He was treated like a pesty locust by people who cursed God. His knees were weak due to fasting. But it is better to have leanness in body, while the soul prospers than vice versa. The people that David fasted and prayed for, shook their heads in disgust at him. [7]

In all this David was a type of Christ, who in His humiliation was thus wounded, thus weakened, and thus reproached. David was also a type of the Church, which is often afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted. [8]

“Help me, O Lord my God! O, save me according to Your mercy, that they may know that this is Your hand—that You, Lord, have done it!” Psalm 109:26-27

In Matthew 5:3, Jesus began His sermon on the mount with these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Blessed are those who can say to the Lord as David did, “Help me, O Lord my God, I am poor in spirit. I cannot make it without You.”

In Luke 1:47-49, a distant descendant of David declared, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.” These were the words of the Virgin Mary who gave birth to Messiah.

Whenever I have a dangerous mission before me, my “go-to prayer” is “God help me! Please be with me.” Like the tax collector in Luke 18, I know that I need God’s mercy. I need His hand to be with me. And when I return, I know it because His hand was with me.

“Let them curse, but You bless. When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let Your servant rejoice. Let my accusers be clothed with shame and let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.” Psalm 109:28-29

David valued the blessings of God as sufficient to counterbalance their curses. [9]

David asked God to reveal to his accusers the shamefulness of their ways. Proverbs 22:15 says, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.” Romans 2:4 says, “God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance.” Only by the grace of God can a malicious accuser of God’s people be separated from his foolishness.

In John 9:35-37, after the Pharisees ostracized a poor man from the synagogue for professing Christ, Christ found him, and affirmed his faith in Messiah, saying to the poor man, “You have now seen Him. In fact, He is the One speaking with you.”

“I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. Yes, I will praise Him among the multitude. For He shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those who condemn him.” Psalm 109:30-31

David concluded his psalm with joy, joy that his temporary trial ended well. He declared, “I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth.” Not in privacy only, but also among many people. [10]

God shall stand at the right hand of the poor. God says to the poor saint in Hebrews 13:5, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.’” Praise the Lord!


[1-10] Material developed and edited from Matthew Henry’s Commentary