1O God of my praise, do not be silent! … 30With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord; and in the midst of many I will praise Him. 31For He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
This individual lament displays the psalmist pouring out stark but honest feelings before God. Nothing in this psalm suggests that God rejects this prayer, which from a NT perspective, seems fleshly and vindictive. This seems shocking to our present-day sense of godliness. The writer does not repent of his feelings and desires—he just lays them out there. Nineteen of the thirty-one verses are saturated with negative thoughts and requests that God would take extreme vengeance and ultimately destroy his adversaries at every level of their lives. How can we make sense of such heightened emotions?
The Lord desires, above all else, authenticity in our relationship with Him. There is no point in hiding anything from God, pretending to be spiritual. As David wrote in another place, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all” (Ps. 139:4). Honesty at the deepest levels is paramount, even, and especially, when that includes our sinful nature. The prophet Jeremiah wrote: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it? (Jer. 17:9). However, God does indeed “understand it,” so we best bring it all out into the open with Him. We can’t hide our inner thoughts, even when they are less than godly. The psalmist knows the heart of God as recorded in Ps. 51:6 “Behold, You [Lord] desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” Only in such a heart-state can a person become, like David, a “man after God’s heart.”
We agree with one commentator who notes that, “this psalm reveals a delicate balance by keeping two polar expressions in tension: ‘faithful covenantal speech’ and ‘free, unrestrained speech of rage seeking vengeance,’ but always such that the latter is subordinated to the former” (EBC).
The opening verse and the closing two verses convey the godly bookends to the lament, so we see that the author is not writing in a spiritual vacuum bereft of any godly affections. His attitude must be seen in this enclosure of praise and thanksgiving to the God who saves the needy (like him) against those who raze him with severe judgment. He calls on God to “not be silent,” for both the OT and the NT make clear that vengeance is the Lord’s prerogative, not ours (Deut. 32:35, quoted in Rom. 12:19, Heb. 10:30). Our author of Psalm 109 hedges his feelings with this: any request for God’s severe judgment must always be subject to God’s will and purposes.
The Lord accepts our extreme feelings of anger as long as we are subjecting our desires to His omnipotence and authority. In casual language, we might put it this way, “God can handle our anger when we have been dealt with unrighteously.”
Verses 2-5 contain his opening complaint about those who could very well be described as narcissists. They verbally abuse him and continuously, intentionally lie about him. Their hatred is unabated and completely unjustified. To make matters worse, he had previously showered his adversaries with love, but they repaid his love by treacherously betraying him. Who of us could withstand such a personal onslaught? He could do nothing to counter the constant bitter and cruel charges against him.
We must be careful when trying to psychoanalyze David with quips like, “Well, he must have done something to set them off. After all, every conflict has two sides.” God doesn’t make that judgment or comment on it—and neither should we.
Verses 6-15 portray the psalmist’s first of what we call “imprecations,” the calling for harm on someone; with this, David does not hold back! He changes from referring to his adversaries as “them” to the singular “he.” There were many, but one was the spokesperson or primary instigator. David asks God to bring another wicked person to do the same to his main accuser as he had done to David—accuse and pass judgment. Let even that man’s prayer to God miss the mark. This “letting” (as the NASB conveys the succession of David’s requests) continues for several verses, laying out the specifics of what he would like to see happen to his detractor. It is not that David was easily provoked to anger but that the accusations were extreme, bitter, and hateful.
In verses 16-18, David’s complaint generalizes to include the injustices against not only him (“the afflicted and needy man”) but also “the despondent in heart, to put them to death.” It was God’s design that the people of Israel were to reflect the Lord’s “lovingkindness” to each other, just as He does to them. But instead, they “loved cursing” others, a behavior they bantered proudly like someone wearing ostentatious clothing. But it was more than an outward facade—it was the inward character of the heart, like osmosis, seeping deeply into their character. In faux repentance, such a person could never say, “That cursing is not who I really am.” Yes, it is! The difference between David’s acrimony and his accuser’s is that they bypassed God entirely in their cursing David, the ultimate despising of someone else and determination to destroy them. The godly man takes his complaints to the Lord and does not, in his own extreme reactions, resort to cursing his opponent.
In verses 19-20, David carries the clothing motif a bit further, wishing his accuser would fully wear the metaphorical garment and be seen for who he really is: a narcissistic, judgmental liar filled with unjustified vitriol and hatred.
David now turns to his own needs from God (vss. 21-26). His honesty shows his humble dependence on God, for even such a man as David, a mighty and victorious warrior, faced his own inability to stand up under such withering emotional conflict. It could very well be that the accusations were coming from an opposing military leader leading an army against David and his men and spreading propaganda ahead of time to demoralize David’s troops. Though the psalm doesn’t give us the details to support it, we can sense an affinity with the story of Absolom’s insurrection against David, his father (2 Sam. 15-18).
The psalmist asks for God’s lovingkindness and deliverance. He admits to being afflicted by the assault and wounded deeply (vs. 22). He feels old, “passing like a shadow when it lengthens” (vs. 23), and feeling like he is easily defeated, which he describes as “shaken off like the locust” (vs. 23). He is physically weak from fasting in prayer before the Lord (vs. 24) and he is being openly mocked (vs. 25). David was, to put it bluntly, under it!
But he was not without hope! He knows the “Lord my God” (vs. 26), and that is where he seeks help—it is in divine lovingkindness. That is what he holds onto in faith. His desire in verse 27 is not that he would be seen as a great warrior king but that his enemies would “know that this is Your hand; You, Lord, have done it.” He asks God to take over the battle, for His purposes of showing lovingkindness to those who follow and obey Him. Those who don’t will be covered with shame, which they will have to wear like “a robe.”
As for David, he stands ready in vs. 30-31 to give thanks and praise in anticipation of what his Lord will do. What faith! But this faith is based on a profound knowledge of the Lord!
Lord, let me be like David when others have betrayed me. May I not hide my feelings of resentment and anger from You but process them honestly by venting in Your presence. I trust in Your lovingkindness for me.
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