An Honest Dialogue
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to love my enemies instead of cursing them, as the New Testament instructs us.
Read Psalm 109
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 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.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
“God’s justice includes the ideas of wrongs being put right… for God will not and cannot overlook sin” (Alan Palmer and Debra Reid, Psalms 73–150, 130).
One commentary asks the question: “Why is Psalm 109 in the Bible?” On the face of it, the psalmist lashes out with violently vindictive language against his false accuser. Its vengeance-filled verses seem highly improper for Scripture, but the commentator answers his own question by explaining that this shows an honest dialogue in faith (W. H. Bellinger Jr., Psalms). For this is a genuine no-holds-barred lament of someone suffering unjust accusation who really trusts God to correct the injustice. God seems hidden and the painful attacks are especially poignant because the wicked and deceitful slanderer was once a friend (4).
As he addresses God, there’s no doubt about the psalmist’s honesty. He really tells it how it is! Why, though, does the commentator call it an honest dialogue in faith? Doesn’t the long revenge list (6–20) sound utterly unworthy of a God-believer? Yes, but the point is that he tells it as it is to God with the deep conviction that God will put the injustice right. Rather than directly cursing his accuser, he hands over to God to deal out judgment: “When he is tried, let him be found guilty” (7). At times, he sees accusers in the plural but always retribution is about the “Lord’s payment” to them (20). They must know that “it is Your hand, that You, Lord, have done it” (27). His dialogue is grounded in faith that God hears and will judge rightly; believing in an eventual vindication, the psalmist vows he will return to worship God.
I know someone whose life was ruined by false accusations and who took this psalm to heart because its explicit anger was almost cathartic in his own distress. He, too, was able to leave judgment to God.
Apply
“We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due to them for the things done while in the body” (2 Cor. 5:10).
Closing prayer
Lord, when my adversaries oppress me, I look to You as my shield. Give me a testimony to relate to others my deliverance at Your hand.
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