Let Another Take His Office
1 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David. God of my praise, don’t remain silent, 2 for they have opened the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit against me. They have spoken to me with a lying tongue. 3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. 4 In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer. 5 They have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love. 6 Set a wicked man over him. Let an adversary stand at his right hand. 7 When he is judged, let him come out guilty. Let his prayer be turned into sin. 8 Let his days be few. Let another take his office. 9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 10 Let his children be wandering beggars. Let them be sought from their ruins. 11 Let the creditor seize all that he has. Let strangers plunder the fruit of his labor. 12 Let there be no one to extend kindness to him, neither let there be anyone to have pity on his fatherless children. 13 Let his posterity be cut off. In the generation following let their name be blotted out. 14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered by Yahweh. Don’t let the sin of his mother be blotted out. 15 Let them be before Yahweh continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth; 16 because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them. 17 Yes, he loved cursing, and it came to him. He didn’t delight in blessing, and it was far from him. 18 He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones. 19 Let it be to him as the clothing with which he covers himself, for the belt that is always around him. 20 This is the reward of my adversaries from Yahweh, of those who speak evil against my soul. 21 But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me; 22 for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me. 23 I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. 24 My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat. 25 I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they shake their head. 26 Help me, Yahweh, my God. Save me according to your loving kindness; 27 that they may know that this is your hand; that you, Yahweh, have done it. 28 They may curse, but you bless. When they arise, they will be shamed, but your servant shall rejoice. 29 Let my adversaries be clothed with dishonor. Let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe. 30 I will give great thanks to Yahweh with my mouth. Yes, I will praise him among the multitude. 31 For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
The most sustained curse in Scripture, quoted by Peter about Judas, spoken by a man whose only reply to hatred was prayer.
God of my praise, don't remain silent Psalms 109:1.
The hardest psalm in the collection, and the case behind it is stated before the curses begin.
3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause. 4 In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer.
The last clause is four words in Hebrew and it is the psalm's own defense. I am prayer — his entire response to being surrounded has been to pray. And the grievance is repaid love: they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love Psalms 109:5.
What follows is fourteen verses of imprecation against one man, and there is no softening it. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow Psalms 109:8–9. The curse extends to his family, his creditors, his memory, and his parents' record.
Three things have to be held together, and none of them dissolves the difficulty.
First, some readers take verses six to nineteen as a quotation — the curses his enemies have been pronouncing on him, which he then asks God to reverse in verse twenty. The Hebrew allows it and the abrupt switch to the singular him after five verses of plural they supports it. It cannot be proved.
Second, whatever the case, this is a prayer. He asks God to act, and lifts no hand himself. The man who wrote it is in the position of the powerless, and the alternative to handing the matter over is not forgiveness but taking his own revenge.
Third, Peter quotes verse eight when the apostles replace Judas Acts 1:20, which means the New Testament reads these words as prophetic of a specific betrayal. That does not license anyone to pray them at a neighbor.
because he didn’t remember to show kindness, but persecuted the poor and needy man, the broken in heart, to kill them.
The charge, given at the center of the curses. The man being cursed hunted people who were already broken.
He clothed himself also with cursing as with his garment. It came into his inward parts like water, like oil into his bones.
The psalm's account of how such a man ends: what he wore soaked into him.
21 But deal with me, Yahweh the Lord, for your name’s sake, because your loving kindness is good, deliver me; 22 for I am poor and needy. My heart is wounded within me.
The turn, and the psalmist's self-description is the collection's standard one.
For he will stand at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.
The last verse answers the sixth. There, an adversary was to stand at the wicked man's right hand; here God stands at the right hand of the needy — the position of the advocate, taken by the one who was asked to be the prosecutor.
one view among several What this mark means