I had a friend who had a genuine ministry
of God, but he became bitter and resentful over mistreatment
he received. He was correct in acknowledging the wrong
that was done to him, but instead of forgiving he was
overcome with bitterness and resentment. These attitudes
festered and began to affect others around him. He had
one particular Psalm that he used to justify his feelings
and bad attitudes. When he taught it he would gloat,
as he spoke of vengeance wishing vicious intent on those
who wronged him.
All of us may have and voice negative feelings
at times. Indeed we are encouraged by God to pour our
heart out to Him and cast our care upon Him. However,
the intent of those exhortations is our release from
the negative thinking and attitudes and not their fortification.
There is no better way to build strongholds of bitterness
and resentment than by maliciously wishing evil upon
others.
If David, "a man after God's own heart,"
breaths out the most awful imprecations and curses upon
his enemies and their posterity, what are we to think
that God’s will is? Does God do the same? Does
He curse the wicked and with glee, desire calamity to
fall upon them? The devil curses. It is his will that
seeks destruction, death, and loss. John 3:16 is very
clear and does not fit with a God intent on inflicting
evil.
John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
He does not want anyone
to perish. He has provided salvation from sin through
His son Jesus Christ. He wants everyone to accept His
gracious gift. He does not desire that the evil perish,
he wants them to accept His free gift of salvation through
the Lord Jesus Christ. However, their freewill choice
is required. God will not force wholeness upon anyone.
Ezekiel 33:11:
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the
wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye
from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of
Israel?
If read like my friend
read it, Psalm 109 reads like the anathemas of the Roman
Catholic inquisition. We should all find it utterly
irreconcilable with the heart of God. The explanation
of this psalm is very simple and reasonable. If we pay
attention to the pronouns, it will clears up all this
difficulty and show that David was never guilty of uttering
these curses. On the contrary, he is simply reporting
to the Lord in prayer the curses that his enemies pronounce
upon him.
The first five verses are a prayer to the Lord setting
forth how his enemies have been talking against him.
Psalm 109:1-5:{To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.}
Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; 2 For the mouth of the wicked
and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me:
they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. 3 They compassed me about
also with words of hatred; and fought against me without
a cause. 4 For my love they are my
adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. 5 And they have rewarded
me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
Notice what David says.
“The mouth of the wise and the mouth of the deceitful
are opened against me: they have spoken against me with
a lying tongue. They compassed me about also with words
of hatred." Just exactly what these words were
are not yet declared, but notice here that David refers
to himself by the first person, singular pronoun, "me,"
and to his enemies by the third person, plural pronoun,
"they." Now with the sixth verse David begins
to tell what his enemies are saying against him.
Psalm 109:6:
Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand
at his right hand.
"Set thou [God] a
wicked man over him," over whom? Is David
saying this of his enemies? No, for if he was he would
have said, "Set thou a wicked man over them,"
i.e. over mine enemies. David is not pronouncing curses
upon his enemies; but is rehearsing the curses
that his enemies pronounce upon him.
This is the flow of the psalm through verse twenty.
Just supply the words "They say"
before verse 6 as the pronouns and the context require,
and read the first nineteen verses. Now it all fits
and David is not an ogre wishing evil upon his enemies.
Psalm 109:7-19:
They say, Set thou a wicked man over him [me,
David}: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
When he shall be judged, let him
be condemned: and let his prayer become
sin. 8 Let his
days be few; and let another take his
office. [Who had the office of king, David or his enemies?] 9 Let his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow. 10 Let his
children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them
[David’s children] seek their bread also out of
their desolate places. 11 Let the extortioner catch
all that he hath; and let the strangers
spoil his labour. 12 Let there be none to
extend mercy unto him: neither let
there be any to favour his fatherless
children. 13 Let his
posterity be cut off; and in the generation following
let their [David’s posterity] name be blotted
out. 14 Let the iniquity of his
fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the
sin of his mother be blotted out. 15 Let them [the sins of
his father and mother] be before the LORD continually,
that he may cut off the memory of them
[David’s ancestry] from the earth. 16 Because that he
remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor
and needy man, that he might even slay
the broken in heart. 17 As he
loved cursing, so let it come unto him:
as he delighted not in blessing, so
let it be far from him. 18 As he
clothed himself with cursing like as with his
garment, so let it come into his bowels
like water, and like oil into his bones. 19 Let it be unto him
as the garment which covereth him,
and for a girdle wherewith he is girded
continually.
Now the Psalm is plain,
and we no longer have justification for nd fomenting
bitterness and hostility. All we needed to do was supply
the elipsis, “They say” from the
context as the pronouns necessitated. Then we will no
longer need the ellipsis supplied in verse twenty to
make sense of it.
Psalm 109:20:
Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the
LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.
When we leave out the
supplied italized words from verse 20, and
eliminate the strained translation of the Hebrew, peullah,
as reward (which is necessary to correct the sense if
one reads the verses 5-19 as David speaking instead
of David rehearsing before the Lord all that his adversaries
had said) it makes perfect sense. Peullah is used fourteen
times in the Old Testament and Psalms 109:20 is the
only place it is translated “reward.” It
is usually rendered “work” (ten times) and
“labor” twice. It would properly read, "This
[i.e. all this cursing] is the work of mine adversaries
before the Lord, and of them that speak evil
against my soul." The remainder of the psalm is
in perfect harmony with this explanation. First person
pronouns referring to David; second person pronouns
referring to God; third person plural pronouns referring
to David’s enemies. Notice especially verses 25
and 28.
Psalm 109:21-31:
But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake:
because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. 22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me. 23 I am gone like the shadow
when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust. 24 My knees are weak through
fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness. 25 I became also a reproach
unto them: when they
looked upon me they shaked their heads. 26 Help me, O LORD my God:
O save me according to thy mercy: 27 That they may know that
this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it. 28 Let them
curse, but bless thou: when they arise,
let them be ashamed; but let thy servant
rejoice. 29 Let mine adversaries
be clothed with shame, and let them
cover themselves with their
own confusion, as with a mantle. 30 I will greatly praise
the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him [The
Lord] among the multitude. 31 For he [The Lord] shall
stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from
those that condemn his soul.
How encouraging it was
to me to find this explanation of this frequently misunderstood
scripture. We no longer have support for fomenting hatred
and hostility and cursing upon our enemies. How David
could utter such imprecations and be a man after God's
own heart would be hard to figure out; but as we saw
above, it is not necessary. Watching our pronouns allows
us to keep the scriptures in perfect harmony and clears
up all the difficulties.
