Can I Really Pray Like This? – Psalm 109
Psalm 109
1 Be not silent, O God of my praise!
2 For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
3 They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
4 In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
5 So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.6 Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office!
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
10 May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
11 May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
12 Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
13 May his posterity be cut off;
may his name be blotted out in the second generation!
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out!
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth!16 For he did not remember to show kindness,
but pursued the poor and needy
and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.
17 He loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
19 May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!
20 May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life!21 But you, O God my Lord,
deal on my behalf for your name's sake;
because your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
23 I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.26 Help me, O Lord my God!
Save me according to your steadfast love!
27 Let them know that this is your hand;
you, O Lord, have done it!
28 Let them curse, but you will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!
29 May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!30 With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
NOTE: Today’s commentary is by Dr. Kevin Watson, who is coming to Tulsa to become the Director of Academic Growth and Formation at the Tulsa Extension Site for Asbury Theological Seminary, as well as joining our staff at Asbury Church as Scholar-in-Residence. I wrote a post announcing and explaining this move.-Andrew
Psalm 109 is the intense prayer of a person who has been falsely accused by enemies. The psalmist cries out to God to act. And what is asked for can shock our sensibilities about what ought to be in Scripture.
For example:
May his days be few;
may another take his office!
May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!
May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children! (v. 8-12)
Can we really pray like this?
This is a question that nearly every interpreter of Psalm 109 has wrestled with. Here is an example from Nancy deClaissé-Walford I find helpful:
How then, indeed, shall we read and appropriate the harsh words of this psalm? How does the psalm contribute to the “story” of Book Five of the Psalter? This writer reads Psalm 109 as an imprecatory psalm, calling on God to condemn the foe and vindicate the psalmist. Is such language permissible in the context of the biblical text? The overwhelming consensus seems to be “Yes; by all means, yes.” People are accused unjustly; goodness is sometimes rewarded with bad; justice is not always served. How should the people of God respond? With silence? With indifference? With long-suffering? Yes – sometimes. And yet at other times, God calls upon us to speak out, to protest, and to say, “This is not right!” ….
In the act of protesting vehemently to God, the psalmist points out the acts of violence that so often accompany injustice and unexplainable suffering. The psalmist calls out to God to prosecute and condemn the adversary, thereby obviating the need of the psalmist to take matters into his own hands.
Notice how the Psalm ends:
With my mouth I will give great thanks to the Lord;
I will praise him in the midst of the throng.
For he stands at the right hand of the needy one,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
This prayer is intense because it is standing with God in favor of the one who defends the righteous and the defenseless. And it is standing with God in firm opposition to the evil who unjustly condemn others to death.