Psalm 109 Imprecation

seekeroftruth

Well-Known Member
Psalm 109 For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 My God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
2 for people who are wicked and deceitful
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
5 They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.
6 Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
8 May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven[a] from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,
their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before the Lord,
that he may blot out their name from the earth.
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness,
but hounded to death the poor
and the needy and the brokenhearted.

17 He loved to pronounce a curse—
may it come back on him.
He found no pleasure in blessing—
may it be far from him.
18 He wore cursing as his garment;
it entered into his body like water,
into his bones like oil.

19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
like a belt tied forever around him.
20 May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,
to those who speak evil of me.
21 But you, Sovereign Lord,
help me for your name’s sake;
out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting;
my body is thin and gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, Lord my God;
save me according to your unfailing love.
27 Let them know that it is your hand,
that you, Lord, have done it.
28 While they curse, may you bless;
may those who attack me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.
29 May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;
in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save their lives from those who would condemn them
.


a. Psalm 109:10 Septuagint; Hebrew sought

This is from the easy English site.

This is one of the Psalms of Imprecation. You say an imprecation when you ask God for something bad to happen to your enemies. Other Psalms of Imprecation include Psalms 35 and 69.​
Perhaps David wrote Psalm 109. Perhaps someone else was the psalmist (the person that wrote the psalm). Then the psalmist put it with David’s psalms. Whoever wrote it, the psalmist had trouble. People were saying bad things about him, and attacking him. They did this by saying bad things about him. The psalmist loved them and prayed for them. But they still said these bad things. Then, the psalmist prays for bad things to happen to the leader of these people. Perhaps he meant all of his enemies, not just their leader. In verses 21-31, the psalmist prays to God for help.
If David wrote Psalm 109, maybe other people changed it later. They did this when new enemies and problems came. Perhaps the last changes happened to the psalm 500 years after David died!​
I took this from Bible.org.

No matter how perplexing the problem of imprecatory psalms may be, we cannot easily dismiss them. Imprecations, as we shall later point out, are also to be found in the New Testament. We know also that “all Scripture is profitable …” (2 Tim. 3:16) and therefore these prayers have a lesson for us to learn. In addition we must remember that all the psalms were recorded and preserved for public worship. The imprecatory psalms were not merely the passionate pleas of one man (spiritually or carnally motivated), but were rather a pattern for the worship of Israel. Can you imagine coming together to worship and singing a psalm like Psalm 109? Because ancient Israel did so, we must look very carefully at this passage to learn its message to us.​
This lesson is intended to accomplish two purposes. We will seek to understand the message of Psalm 109, both as it related to the saints of old and as it applies to men today. In addition this psalm will be used to address the broader subject of imprecatory prayers. We will strive to understand the purpose of such prayers, and the principles which underly them, that apply equally to the saints today. Because of this two-fold purpose, our exposition of Psalm 109 will be more general to allow space for addressing the broader issues involved.​

I have to admit..... I have prayed that God take over..... I have prayed "Get 'em God".

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