Bird's-eye view
Psalm 109 is one of the great imprecatory psalms, which is to say it is a psalm that calls down curses upon the enemies of God. This can be jarring to the modern reader, but it is essential that we understand what is happening. This is not a man losing his temper and venting his spleen. This is a formal, legal appeal to the high court of heaven. In these opening verses, David, as the plaintiff, lays out his opening statement. He establishes the grounds for his lawsuit. He has been met with a torrent of lies, baseless hatred, and a gross requital of evil for his good. His response is not personal vengeance but prayer, a prayer that will soon turn to calling for God's righteous judgment. This psalm is profoundly christological; the baseless hatred David experienced is a type and shadow of the ultimate baseless hatred that was directed at the Lord Jesus. These verses establish the complete injustice of the situation, thereby justifying the severe judgments that the psalmist is about to request from the Divine Judge.
The core issue is a complete moral inversion on the part of the wicked. They return hatred for love and evil for good. David finds himself surrounded by a world gone mad, where basic decency is repaid with malice. His only recourse is to the God he praises, the one who knows the truth and who is the ultimate arbiter of justice. This sets the stage for the rest of the psalm, grounding the imprecations not in personal spite, but in a zeal for God's honor and a world set right.
Outline
- 1. The Plaintiff's Appeal (Ps 109:1-5)
- a. The Appeal to the Judge (Ps 109:1)
- b. The Accusation: A Campaign of Lies (Ps 109:2)
- c. The Nature of the Attack: Baseless Hatred (Ps 109:3)
- d. The Injustice: Love Met with Accusation (Ps 109:4)
- e. The Summary of the Crime: Evil for Good (Ps 109:5)
Context In Psalms
Psalm 109 is a Davidic psalm that stands in a long line of biblical prayers for vindication. It belongs to the category of psalms known as the imprecatory psalms, where the psalmist calls for judgment and curses upon his enemies (e.g., Psalms 35, 58, 69, 83). These psalms are crucial for a robust understanding of biblical justice. They are not expressions of sinful, personal revenge but are inspired prayers for God, the just Judge, to act against covenant-breakers and the implacably wicked. This particular psalm is quoted in the New Testament by Peter in Acts 1:20, applying the curse of verse 8 directly to the traitor Judas Iscariot. This apostolic application confirms that we are to read this psalm with Christ at the center. David, the anointed king, suffered this betrayal as a type, but the ultimate fulfillment is found in the betrayal of Jesus Christ, the true King, by His enemies. The injustice described here is a perfect picture of how the world treated the Son of God.
Key Issues
- The Nature of Imprecatory Prayer
- Responding to Slander and False Accusation
- The Problem of Baseless Hatred
- The Christian's Response to Injustice
- The Christological Fulfillment of the Psalm
- The Relationship Between Love and Justice
The Righteous Indictment
Before a judge can pronounce a sentence, the prosecuting attorney must first present the indictment. The charges must be laid out plainly, the evidence presented, and the injustice of the crime made manifest. This is precisely what David does in these opening verses. He is not flying off the handle. He is calmly, methodically, and devastatingly laying out his case before the God of all justice. The force of the curses that will follow depends entirely on the strength of the case he builds here. And the case he builds is airtight. This is not a petty squabble between neighbors. This is a fundamental assault on the created order, where love is met with hatred and good with evil. Such a state of affairs cannot be allowed to stand, and so David appeals to the only one who can set things right.
Verse by Verse Commentary
1 O God of my praise, Do not be silent!
The psalm opens with David's appeal, and notice how he addresses God: "O God of my praise." This is not the address of a stranger. David's life is characterized by praise to God. God is the object, the content, and the sum of his praise. This established relationship is the foundation of his confidence in prayer. He is not coming to God for the first time in a crisis; he is coming to the God he has always worshiped. On the basis of this relationship, he makes his request: "Do not be silent!" When the righteous are slandered and God says nothing, it can appear to the world that God condones the slander. David is asking God to speak, to act, to intervene publicly so that His justice is seen and David's name is cleared. The silence of God in the face of wickedness is a trial for the saints.
2 For they have opened a wicked mouth and a deceitful mouth against me; They have spoken to me with a lying tongue.
Here we get the first charge. The attack is verbal. David is being assaulted by mouths and tongues. He uses three distinct descriptors for this talk. It is a wicked mouth, meaning it is fundamentally opposed to God's law and character. It is a deceitful mouth, meaning it is calculated to mislead and trap. And it is a lying tongue, meaning its content is factually untrue. This is not a simple misunderstanding. This is a deliberate, malicious campaign of character assassination, waged with the weapons of wickedness, deceit, and lies. This is what the Pharisees did to Jesus, and it is what the world continues to do to His people.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without cause.
The attack is not just a few errant comments; David is surrounded. He feels besieged by these words. And the motivation behind the words is laid bare: it is pure hatred. This is not a principled disagreement. This is not a conflict over a disputed claim. This is raw, unadulterated malice. And to make it worse, it is entirely baseless. They fought against him without cause. There is no justification for their animosity. This is a key phrase. In John 15:25, Jesus says of His enemies, "They hated Me without a cause," quoting this very sentiment from the Psalms. The world's hatred for Christ and His church is ultimately irrational. It is the darkness hating the light for no other reason than that it is light.
4 In return for my love they accuse me; But I am in prayer.
This verse contains the central injustice and the righteous response. The moral order has been turned on its head. David's posture toward these people was one of love. Their response to that love was accusation. The Hebrew word for "accuse" here is related to the word "Satan," who is the great accuser. They are doing the devil's work. They are satan-ing him. Faced with this diabolical inversion, what does David do? He does not return accusation for accusation. He does not plot his own revenge. The text simply says, "But I am in prayer." Some translations render it, "I give myself to prayer." Prayer is his refuge, his response, and his weapon. And we must understand that the prayer he gives himself to is this very psalm, including the fierce imprecations that follow. His prayer is not a quietistic resignation; it is an appeal for divine, covenantal justice.
5 Thus they have set upon me evil for good And hatred for my love.
David concludes his opening statement with this summary. He is simply summing up the case. The charge is clear. My actions toward them were good; their actions toward me were evil. My disposition toward them was love; their disposition toward me was hatred. The lines are drawn clearly. There is no moral ambiguity here. This is a stark conflict between good and evil, between the righteous man and his wicked enemies. It is on the basis of this profound and undeniable injustice that he will proceed to call down the judgment of God. God is a God of justice, and this is a situation that cries out for it.
Application
The Christian life is not a playground; it is a battlefield. And one of the primary weapons the enemy uses against us is the lying tongue. Believers who seek to live faithfully will inevitably face slander, misrepresentation, and baseless hatred. The world hated our Master without cause, and we should not be surprised when it hates us without cause.
What is our response to be? David shows us the way. First, our relationship with God must be established in times of peace. He must be the "God of our praise" before He becomes our only refuge in the storm. Second, when attacked, we must see it for what it is: a spiritual assault rooted in hatred for the light we represent. We must not be naive. Third, our response must not be carnal retaliation. We are not to start our own slanderous counter-campaigns. Our response is to be prayer. "But I am in prayer."
This does not mean we roll over and play dead. It means we take our case to the highest court. We lay out the injustice before our God, who is the righteous Judge. We entrust our vindication to Him. This includes praying the imprecatory psalms. We pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done, which necessarily means praying for the overthrow of His enemies. We pray that their wicked mouths would be stopped and their evil plans brought to nothing. We do this not out of personal spite, but out of a zeal for the glory of God and the good of His people. Like David, and like the Lord Jesus, we suffer the injustice, and we trust our cause to the One who judges justly.