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Psalm 109
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 109
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 109[a]
Prayer for One Falsely Accused
1 For the director.[b] A psalm of David.
[c]O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent.
2 Wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;[d]
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 They confront me with words of hatred
and assail me without cause.
4 In return for my love they denounce me
even as I offer up prayers for them.[e]
5 They give me back evil in exchange for good
and hatred in place of my love.[f]
6 [g]They say:[h]
“Choose a wicked man to oppose him,
an accuser to stand on his right.
7 At his judgment, let him be found guilty,
with even his prayers deemed sinful.[i]
8 “May his remaining days be few,
with someone else appointed to take his office.[j]
9 May his children become fatherless
and his wife become widowed.
10 “May his children be vagrants and beggars,
driven from the ruins they use for shelter.
11 May the creditor seize all he has,
and strangers abscond with his life savings.
12 [k]“May no one extend mercy to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his posterity be doomed to extinction
and his name be blotted out within a generation.
14 “May the iniquity of his ancestors be remembered by the Lord,
and the sin of his mother never be wiped out.
15 May their guilt be continually before the Lord,
and may he banish all remembrance of them from the earth.
16 [l]“For he never thought of showing mercy;
rather, he hounded to death
the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to level curses[m] at others;
may they recoil on him.
He took no pleasure in blessing;
may no blessing be his.
18 [n]“He clothed himself with cursing as his garment;
it seeped into his body like water
and into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like the robe that envelops him,
like the belt that encircles him every day.”
20 May these evils my accusers wish for me
be inflicted upon them by the Lord.[o]
21 [p]But you, O Lord, my God,
treat me kindly for your name’s sake;[q]
deliver me because of your overwhelming kindness.
22 For I am poor and needy,[r]
and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am fading away[s] like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting;
my flesh is wasting away.
25 I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;
upon seeing me, they toss their heads.[t]
26 Come to my aid, O Lord, my God;
save me because of your kindness.[u]
27 Let them know that your hand has done this,
that you, O Lord, have accomplished it.
28 When they curse, you will bless;
when they attack, they will be put to shame,
and your servant will rejoice.[v]
29 My accusers will be clothed in disgrace,
wrapped in their shame as in a cloak.
30 I will thank the Lord with my lips,
and before all the people I will praise him.[w]
31 For he stands at the right hand of the poor
to save him from his accusers who pass judgment on him.[x]
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:1 The Psalter contains other cries of hatred or revenge (Pss 9; 35; 137; 139), but none is harsher than this one (Ps 109:6-19). It is ordinarily attributed to the psalmist who has been speaking from the beginning of the psalm. However, an attentive examination of the context leads some scholars to attribute these imprecations to another person—most likely, the leader of the psalmist’s enemies.
It is a fact, of course, that in the East people enjoy exaggerated expressions, and it is also a fact that it was written before the Christian faith changed the harsh law of revenge or law of talion. But the Gospel itself contains curses (see Mt 23:13-26; Lk 6:24-26), and while it is true that Jesus and the apostles were able to forgive their enemies, they also saw the “ancient serpent” (Rev 12:9) at work against God’s will and for their destruction.
In taking up these imprecatory psalms, the Church invites Christians to commence an unceasing struggle against the spirit of evil (see Eph 6:12). Except for a few details, the formulas of this prayer were suitable for Jesus to express his own situation and sentiments and to describe the attitude and machinations of his enemies. In fact, the evangelists record that his enemies fulfilled certain passages to the letter (v. 25; see Mt 27:39; Mk 15:20). - Psalm 109:1 For the director: these words are thought to be a musical or liturgical notation.
- Psalm 109:1 This psalmist has never said and done anything other than good; will betrayal, hatred, and slander be his recompense? Bitter is the calumny that crushes the righteous.
- Psalm 109:2 Opened their mouths against me: see note on Ps 5:10.
- Psalm 109:4 I offer up prayers for them: the psalmist is not a man of evil and slander; he even prays for his foes, as in Ps 35:13f.
- Psalm 109:5 The psalmist has done nothing but good to his enemies whereas they have repaid him with evil in exchange for goodness and hatred in exchange for friendliness. The psalmist puts this fact before the Lord. Will God the Judge overlook such wicked behavior? This verse recalls Pss 35:12, 22; 38:20-21; 69:5; Jer 18:20.
- Psalm 109:6 Pitiless are the words of those who curse the innocent psalmist; he has taken them to heart and remembered every one. See note on Ps 5:11 concerning redress for wrongs.
- Psalm 109:6 They say: these words are lacking in the Hebrew, but they are called for by the context. Wicked man: or “the evil one.” Accuser: i.e., a “satan” (see Job 1:6), a name later given to the devil (see 1 Chr 21:1). He stood as an advocate (Ps 109:31) at the right of the accused (see Zec 3:1).
- Psalm 109:7 With even his prayers deemed sinful: another possible translation is: “with even his pleas being in vain.”
- Psalm 109:8 With someone else appointed . . . office: applied to Judas in Acts 1:20.
- Psalm 109:12 The Law, the Prophets, and the Gospel all give warnings of what the sins of ancestors can bring down upon the children (see Ex 20:5; 1 Sam 2:31ff; Lk 19:41ff). Name be blotted out: see note on Ps 69:29.
- Psalm 109:16 No other place expresses with such vivid intensity the terrible logic of judgment whereby what humans choose, they ultimately receive to the full.
- Psalm 109:17 Curses: see note on Ps 10:7.
- Psalm 109:18 These words, leveled at the psalmist by his enemies, claim that cursing was his clothing as well as his food and drink; he lived, so to speak, by cursing (see Prov 4:17). Cursing was intended to destroy a person, his position, his family, and the remembrance of his name.
- Psalm 109:20 May these . . . by the Lord: literally, “May this be the recompense of my accusers from the Lord / and of those who speak evil against me.” Accordingly, the preceding curses may be understood as spoken either by the psalmist against his primary foe or by his enemies first and then willed by him to recoil against them. Another translation for the verse is also possible: “This is the work of those / who wish to call down harm upon me from the Lord.” In that case, the only imprecations of the psalmist would be the mild ones in verse 29.
- Psalm 109:21 The poem seems to begin again at this point. The poor man once again invokes God, reveals his distress, asks for health, cries out his imprecations, and promises to give thanks. It is the rhythm of the prayer of a persecuted person. It testifies to a conviction: in the time of God’s judgment, the evil one will return in defeat to the world of darkness where he willed to swallow up everything, but the righteous will obtain access to the glory of the Lord.
- Psalm 109:21 For your name’s sake: see note on Ps 5:12. The Lord’s kindness is one of his most defining attributes (see notes on Pss 5:8; 6:5; Ex 34:6; see also Pss 25:10-11; 69:17; 79:8-9; 86:15; 103:8; Num 14:18; Joel 2:13). Kindness is also the love of the covenant between the Lord and his people, and it includes the sentiments that are found in each (grace and love on the part of the Lord and piety on the part of the faithful). It specifically refers to all that God promised to his people (see Deut 7:9, 12) through the Davidic dynasty (see Ps 89:25, 29, 34; 2 Sam 7:15; Isa 55:3).
- Psalm 109:22 Poor and needy: see note on Ps 22:27. Heart: see note on Ps 4:8.
- Psalm 109:23 I am fading away: the psalmist’s illness draws the scorn of enemies (see note on Ps 5:10). Like an evening shadow: similar to Ps 102:12. Shaken off like a locust: allusion to the custom of brushing locusts off the plants in order to kill them on the ground. Another translation possible is: “swept away like a locust,” an image similar to Job 30:22; in Palestine a strong wind sometimes ends a plague of locusts by blowing them out into the sea (see Ex 10:19; Joel 2:20).
- Psalm 109:25 His accusers seek the psalmist’s downfall by casting scorn on him (see Pss 31:12; 79:4; 89:42) and by rejecting him ([tossing] their heads: see Ps 22:8; Mt 27:39).
- Psalm 109:26 Kindness: see note on Ps 6:5.
- Psalm 109:28 This is a good prayer to turn the edge of an attack (see Rom 8:31ff).
- Psalm 109:30 A vow to praise the Lord for his deliverance (see note on 7:18).
- Psalm 109:31 The final verse puts everything in perspective. At the beginning of this psalm, the enemies of the psalmist are seeking for someone to stand at his right hand in order to accuse him (v. 6) according to the custom of the time. Here we see that the Lord himself is already at the psalmist’s right hand—not to accuse but to defend him. The Lord is ever “near to all who call out to him” (Ps 145:18; see also Deut 4:7; Isa 55:6; 58:9; Jer 29:13).
Psalm 109
New King James Version
Psalm 109
New King James Version
Plea for Judgment of False Accusers
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
109 Do(A) not keep silent,
O God of my praise!
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful
Have opened against me;
They have spoken against me with a (B)lying tongue.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,
And fought against me (C)without a cause.
4 In return for my love they are my accusers,
But I give myself to prayer.
5 Thus (D)they have rewarded me evil for good,
And hatred for my love.
6 Set a wicked man over him,
And let (E)an [a]accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,
And (F)let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be (G)few,
And (H)let another take his office.
9 (I)Let his children be fatherless,
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children [b]continually be vagabonds, and beg;
Let them [c]seek their bread also from their desolate places.
11 (J)Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,
Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13 (K)Let his [d]posterity be cut off,
And in the generation following let their (L)name be blotted out.
14 (M)Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And let not the sin of his mother (N)be blotted out.
15 Let them be continually before the Lord,
That He may (O)cut off the memory of them from the earth;
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,
But persecuted the poor and needy man,
That he might even slay the (P)broken in heart.
17 (Q)As he loved cursing, so let it come to him;
As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,
So let it (R)enter his body like water,
And like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,
And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.
20 Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers,
And to those who speak evil against my person.
21 But You, O God the Lord,
Deal with me 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.
23 I am gone (S)like a shadow when it lengthens;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My (T)knees are weak through fasting,
And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.
25 I also have become (U)a reproach to them;
When they look at me, (V)they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Oh, save me according to Your mercy,
27 (W)That they may know that this is Your hand—
That You, Lord, have done it!
28 (X)Let them curse, but You bless;
When they arise, let them be ashamed,
But let (Y)Your servant rejoice.
29 (Z)Let my accusers be clothed with shame,
And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;
Yes, (AA)I will praise Him among the multitude.
31 For (AB)He shall stand at the right hand of the poor,
To save him from those [e]who condemn him.
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:6 Heb. satan
- Psalm 109:10 wander continuously
- Psalm 109:10 So with MT, Tg.; LXX, Vg. be cast out
- Psalm 109:13 descendants be destroyed
- Psalm 109:31 Lit. judging his soul
Psalm 109
The Message
Psalm 109
The Message
109 1-5 My God, don’t turn a deaf ear to my hallelujah prayer.
Liars are pouring out invective on me;
Their lying tongues are like a pack of dogs out to get me,
barking their hate, nipping my heels—and for no reason!
I loved them and now they slander me—yes, me!—
and treat my prayer like a crime;
They return my good with evil,
they return my love with hate.
6-20 Send the Evil One to accuse my accusing judge;
dispatch Satan to prosecute him.
When he’s judged, let the verdict be “Guilty,”
and when he prays, let his prayer turn to sin.
Give him a short life,
and give his job to somebody else.
Make orphans of his children,
dress his wife in widow’s black;
Turn his children into begging street urchins,
evicted from their homes—homeless.
May the bank foreclose and wipe him out,
and strangers, like vultures, pick him clean.
May there be no one around to help him out,
no one willing to give his orphans a break.
Chop down his family tree
so that nobody even remembers his name.
But erect a memorial to the sin of his father,
and make sure his mother’s name is there, too—
Their sins recorded forever before God,
but they themselves sunk in oblivion.
That’s all he deserves since he was never once kind,
hounded the afflicted and heartbroken to their graves.
Since he loved cursing so much,
let curses rain down;
Since he had no taste for blessing,
let blessings flee far from him.
He dressed up in curses like a fine suit of clothes;
he drank curses, took his baths in curses.
So give him a gift—a costume of curses;
he can wear curses every day of the week!
That’s what they’ll get, those out to get me—
an avalanche of just deserts from God.
21-25 Oh, God, my Lord, step in;
work a miracle for me—you can do it!
Get me out of here—your love is so great!—
I’m at the end of my rope, my life in ruins.
I’m fading away to nothing, passing away,
my youth gone, old before my time.
I’m weak from hunger and can hardly stand up,
my body a rack of skin and bones.
I’m a joke in poor taste to those who see me;
they take one look and shake their heads.
26-29 Help me, oh help me, God, my God,
save me through your wonderful love;
Then they’ll know that your hand is in this,
that you, God, have been at work.
Let them curse all they want;
you do the blessing.
Let them be jeered by the crowd when they stand up,
followed by cheers for me, your servant.
Dress my accusers in clothes dirty with shame,
discarded and humiliating old ragbag clothes.
30-31 My mouth’s full of great praise for God,
I’m singing his hallelujahs surrounded by crowds,
For he’s always at hand to take the side of the needy,
to rescue a life from the unjust judge.
Psalm 109
New International Version
Psalm 109
New International Version
Psalm 109
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 My God, whom I praise,(A)
do not remain silent,(B)
2 for people who are wicked and deceitful(C)
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.(D)
3 With words of hatred(E) they surround me;
they attack me without cause.(F)
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.(G)
5 They repay me evil for good,(H)
and hatred for my friendship.
6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser(I) stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,(J)
and may his prayers condemn(K) him.
8 May his days be few;(L)
may another take his place(M) of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.(N)
10 May his children be wandering beggars;(O)
may they be driven[a] from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor(P) seize all he has;
may strangers plunder(Q) the fruits of his labor.(R)
12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity(S) on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,(T)
their names blotted out(U) from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers(V) be remembered before the Lord;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before(W) the Lord,
that he may blot out their name(X) from the earth.
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy(Y) and the brokenhearted.(Z)
17 He loved to pronounce a curse—
may it come back on him.(AA)
He found no pleasure in blessing—
may it be far from him.
18 He wore cursing(AB) as his garment;
it entered into his body like water,(AC)
into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped(AD) about him,
like a belt tied forever around him.
20 May this be the Lord’s payment(AE) to my accusers,
to those who speak evil(AF) of me.
21 But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name’s sake;(AG)
out of the goodness of your love,(AH) deliver me.(AI)
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;(AJ)
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give(AK) way from fasting;(AL)
my body is thin and gaunt.(AM)
25 I am an object of scorn(AN) to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.(AO)
26 Help me,(AP) Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
27 Let them know(AQ) that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
28 While they curse,(AR) may you bless;
may those who attack me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.(AS)
29 May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame(AT) as in a cloak.
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:10 Septuagint; Hebrew sought
New King James Version (NKJV) 
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.