BOOK 19 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Psalms 109

Psalms book home•Chapter 109 of 150•31 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

REVIEWED OVERVIEW

Psalms 109 Overview

David describes enemies who repay love with accusation, calls for judicial curses on a leading adversary, contrasts that with his own poverty and fasting, and asks public deliverance so people know God's hand.

PsalmsBook

109Chapter

31Verses

PoetryDivision

Before you read Psalms 109

Coming from

Psalm 108 centered on fixed-hearted praise and confidence in god's promise. Psalms is an anthology rather than a continuous chronological story, so the connection here is canonical and thematic.

In this chapter

Leads into

Psalm 110 turns to the lord's enthroned priest-king, continuing the Psalter’s arranged movement without requiring that the two psalms describe consecutive historical events.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Psalm 109 belongs to Book V of the Psalter (Psalms 107–150). Acts 1:20 applies Psalm 109:8 to Judas. The psalm's curses belong to a judicial appeal to God and should not become a template for personal vindictiveness.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

A severe appeal against a deceitful accuser.

Imprecatory truth

In Psalm 109, the psalm places the demand for justice before God rather than making private revenge the worshipper’s task.

Lament truth

In Psalm 109, biblical faith brings grief, fear, confusion, and need directly to God rather than hiding them.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Acts 1:20

Peter uses Psalm 109:8 concerning Judas’s vacated office.

Imprecatory connection

Romans 12:19 reserves vengeance to God rather than private retaliation. This connection helps frame Psalm 109.

Lament connection

Hebrews 4:15-16 invites believers to come boldly for mercy and grace in need. This connection helps frame Psalm 109.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep imprecatory in context

The severe petitions in Psalm 109 appeal to God’s justice; they do not authorize personal vengeance, cruelty, or violence by the reader.

Keep lament in context

Do not mistake every anguished sentence in Psalm 109 for the psalmist’s settled theological conclusion; lament often voices how the crisis feels before faith answers it.

Read Psalms 109 watching for…

mouth of wicked.

for my love adversaries.

let another take office.

poor and needy.

save for mercy.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-5David asks God not to be silent while lying accusers surround him 6-20David asks for severe judgment upon the wicked accuser 21-31David asks God to deal mercifully with his poverty and promises public praise

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

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.

They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

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 with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

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.

Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shaked their heads.

Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:

That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.

Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

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Psalms 109:13

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