Ziklag area, a Philistine city where David hid from Saul.

Psalm 109 is another of what are considered “imprecatory” psalms, which bible critics and skeptics love to denigrate. They are psalms that call for God’s righteous judgment on the enemies of the psalmist, who have done, or intend to do harm wrongfully to the psalmist and others (please see this previous post for our comments on the subject). One must always keep in mind that this is the word of God when reading some of these commentaries; and the Holy Spirit does have a reason for its inclusion.

For one thing, it should be noted that the psalmist (likely David, as the superscription says) is speaking not only of someone who has done, and intends to continue to do, great undeserved evil to him. This is someone who is leading others to do the same to the helpless, poor, and needy (i.e. verse 16 – “but pursued the poor and needy and the brokenhearted, to put them to death”). The psalmist is asking for God’s righteous judgment upon incredibly evil men. Furthermore, the pleas for help come from a faithful servant that has already told us in the psalm of his attempts to show love and kindness to these evil ones. One must be very careful about criticizing the pleas for justice contained in these psalms. God does not expect those in the psalmist’s position to have no emotion about such evil.

Finally, the connection of at least part of this psalm to prophecy, especially where Judas is concerned, cannot be ignored. Note verse 8 and its connection to Acts 1:17-20.

Read or listen to audio of ESV version of this selection from this link.

/Bob’s boy

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some images © V. Gilbert & Arlisle F. Beers

Please note: I did not design the reading plan that I am following in my blog.  All of my comments in this blog, however, are solely my responsibility.  When reading ANY commentary, you should ALWAYS refer first to the scripture, which is God’s unchanging and unfailing word. Reading schedules, as well as a link to the site where you can get the reading plan that I’m currently following for yourself can be found on the “Bible Reading Schedules” page of my website at http://graceofourlord.com.