PSALM 109 - Use Only As Directed

Introduction

One of the most difficult counseling situations that a pastor can encounter is trying to help someone who is in the grip of bitterness—they are holding on to some way that they have been wronged or sinned against. It can be very difficult to try to offer spiritual help to someone who can’t get past what her sister-in-law said at their wedding twenty years ago, or someone who bears deep resentment toward his dad for walking out on the family, or a someone who is envious over the success of their sibling. There are all kinds of ways that our hearts can go sideways towards one another in this fallen world, and so we need to keep feeding ourselves on God’s Word as the only reliable source of instruction and correction so that we can grow up into more Christlike character.

But there are times when a man or woman has been so deeply and horrendously hurt or abused or slandered or wronged by such monstrous evil that it seems nearly impossible to avoid the poison of bitterness—another trauma all over again. What do you do then? How do you keep from being swallowed up altogether in hatred and resentment and miserable bitterness over the very real and shocking evil that has overtaken you? Where do you turn to heal your destroyed life?

If you have a headache, you go down to Dollar General and get some Tylenol. But if you have a brain tumor, you can’t get medicine for that over the counter. You need medicine that is so powerful that it can be dangerous to misuse; medicine that can only be prescribed by a physician. I want to submit to you this morning that the psalm before us today is that kind of medicine—it is powerful enough to rescue your heart from bitterness, but if it is misused it can be deeply spiritually dangerous.

This is a psalm of David, and in it he not only calls for the death of his enemy, but that his wife would be widowed and his sons orphaned (v. 9), and that they would be reduced to homeless beggars (v. 10), that no one would pity or remember them (vv. 11-12), that his sins would not be forgiven (vv. 14-15) as well as the sins of his parents. To simply jump into this psalm and use it straight off toward anyone you happen to be upset with is immensely spiritually dangerous. C. S. Lewis disliked this psalm intensely, saying that it was only put here as a warning of how we are not to pray, and no less than the Prince of Preachers himself, Charles Spurgeon, freely confessed that

Truly this is one of the hard places of Scripture, a passage which the soul trembles to read; yet as it is a Psalm unto God, and given by inspiration, it is not ours to sit in judgment upon it, but to bow our ear to what God the Lord would speak to us therein. (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 88-110 (Vol. 4, p. 436). Marshall Brothers.)

We have been commanded by God to

Colossians 3:16 LSB

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with gratefulness in your hearts to God.

It doesn’t say “all the psalms except Psalm 109”, does it? As Christians who gladly affirm the authority and perfection and inerrancy of all of Scripture, that affirmation must include this psalm. And so, like any dangerously potent medicine, before you apply it to your life you must read the label very carefully.

So let’s do that—let’s look carefully at this psalm for directions on how it should be applied to our lives. The first thing that we notice is that this psalm has been quoted in the New Testament—in Acts 1:20, the Apostle Peter quotes Psalm 109:8 as the apostles are discussing how to fill the empty place in their council after the death of Judas Iscariot:

Acts 1:20 LSB

“For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his residence be made desolate, And let no one dwell in it’; and, ‘Let another man take his office.’

And if we look further down in Verse 25 of our text, we see a parallel with the description of Jesus’ crucifixion:

Psalm 109:25 LSB

As for me, I have become a reproach to them; They see me, they wag their head.

In Matthew 27:39 we read that the crowds

Matthew 27:39–40 LSB

...passing by were blaspheming Him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who are going to destroy the sanctuary and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.”

So the picture starts to come into focus, doesn’t it? When David wrote this psalm, he was writing as the Anointed King of Israel crying out for the justice of YHWH to be rendered against his enemy. And when we look at this psalm in light of Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) calling for justice for the wicked slanders of unrepentant enemies (particularly the man who had betrayed Him), we begin to see how this psalm can be useful for our instruction and training in righteousness.

Consider for a moment Jesus’ suffering on the Cross—have you ever stopped to consider that if anyone had a right to be bitter and angry over the way He had been sinned against, it was Jesus? And yet, what was His attitude towards those who had crucified Him?

Luke 23:34 LSB

But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing...”

No bitterness, no rancor, no hatred or animosity. And why? Because

Freedom from bitterness comes from TURNING your HURT over to the CHARACTER of God

That is what I want to show you here in this psalm—this dangerously potent medicine to stop bitterness in its tracks. Have you been grievously wounded by the sins of others? Have you been the victim of slander and character assassination? Have you shed countless tears over the trauma you have suffered from the real and terrible wickedness of enemies who hate you? Then entrust all that hurt to

I. The God Who SEES your TROUBLE (Psalm 109:1-5)

Look at the way David begins:

Psalm 109:1–3 LSB

O God of my praise, Do not be silent! For they have opened a wicked mouth and a deceitful mouth against me; They have spoken to me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred, And fought against me without cause.

Entrust your hurt to Him

When your NAME is RUINED (vv. 1-3)

He had been slandered and lied about, and he had been deceived and lied to. When you succumb to bitterness, one of its effects in your life is that you are acutely aware of how your name has been ruined, how you have been lied to and all the people who failed you and betrayed you and used you. David is pouring out his hurt before God; his enemies have not been silent in their lies about him, so he is calling on God not to be silent in defending him. Entrust your hurt to God when your name is ruined, and entrust your hurt to Him

When your LOVE is HATED (vv. 4-5)

Psalm 109:4–5 LSB

In return for my love they accuse me; But I am in prayer. Thus they have set upon me evil for good And hatred for my love.

This is another great temptation when you are in the throes of bitterness—that you constantly obsess over all the ways people returned your love with hatred: Parents who are bitter over their children’s ingratitude, people poisoned by bitterness over broken marriage vows. David freely poured out his pain and hurt to God—bitterness thrives on the feeling of isolation, that “nobody understands how I have been hurt”. And when the wickedness and traumatic evil that you have gone through is such that no one else can understand your hurt, know that the God that you cry out to understands all of it!

Starting in Verse 6 the psalmist begins pronouncing a series of curses on this enemy who has reviled and slandered and destroyed him. He prays that “the accuser” (literally “Satan”) be at his right hand (v. 6). When he comes to judgment, let the verdict come back as guilty. When he prays, let even that prayer be sin (v. 7). Cut his days short, and let another take his position. (This is the verse that was quoted when the apostles replaced Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:20). Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow (v. 9). May those children be turned out into the street, hunting for scraps in waste places (v. 10). May an extortioner take everything, and may strangers pillage him (v. 11). May no one show mercy, whether to him or to his children (v. 12). Cut his posterity off, Lord (v. 13). May the Lord remember the sins of his fathers, and also of his mother (v. 14). May God remember them all, such that He cuts off their memory from earth (v. 15).

So what do we do with all of these curses? How do we apply this sort of prayer to our own hurt? Let me suggest that what these verses are calling you to here is to entrust your hurt to

II. The God Who is FAITHFUL to JUDGE (Psalm 109:6-25)

The first thing to notice in all of these curses that David is calling down is not what he wants to do to his enemy—he is saying “LET him” have these things happen to him. And that is significant; the idea is that these things are naturally going to happen to him—that David wants YHWH to let these things befall him. Why would David think that these curses should fall on his enemy?

Because by committing all these evil acts against David, his enemy has broken covenant with YHWH!

Turn with me back to Deuteronomy 27 and 28—the curses found in Psalm 109 do not come out of thin air, or just out of David’s unrighteous anger—they are all tied back to what YHWH had already promised would happen to those who broke covenant with Him. Entrust your hurt to the God Who is faithful to judge because He

Keeps His covenant CURSES (vv. 6-15; cp. Deut. 27-28)

Listen to the parallels between the curses in Psalm 109 and the curses in Deuteronomy 27 and 28:

Deuteronomy 27:24–25 LSB

‘Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to strike down innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Deuteronomy 28:16–20 LSB

“Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. “Cursed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. “Yahweh will send upon you the curse, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you send forth your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.

When David is calling down curses on the one who had destroyed him, he was calling on God to let happen what He had already said would happen to those who broke covenant with him.

And notice how many of these curses are simply asking God to bring upon his enemy the consequences of his own actions—he was a man who loved to curse others, and so let God’s justice land on him in the same way:

Psalm 109:17–20 LSB

He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursing as his garment, And it came into his inward parts like water And like oil into his bones. Let it be to him as a garment with which he wraps himself, And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself. This is the reward of my accusers from Yahweh, And of those who speak evil against my soul.

You escape bitterness when you entrust your hurt to the God Who is faithful to judge—the God who will keep his covenant as regards the faithless ones. He promised curses for those who broke His covenant, and in Verses 21-25 see that He is also the God Who

Keeps His covenant PROMISES (vv. 21-25)

to His faithful children who have been ruined by evil:

Psalm 109:21–25 LSB

But as for You, O Yahweh, O Lord, deal with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me; For I am afflicted and needy, And my heart is pierced within me. I am passing like a shadow when it is stretched out; I am shaken off like the locust. My knees are feeble from fasting, And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness. As for me, I have become a reproach to them; They see me, they wag their head.

Just as you can appeal to God’s faithfulness in bringing justice to those who have hurt you, so you can appeal to His faithfulness to deliver you for the sake of His Name! You can be free from bitterness when you rest in God’s absolute faithfulness to defend and deliver you!

Can you hear your own pain in these verses? Your heart has been pierced by slander and hatred; you have no strength left in you, you are wasting away over the pain and trauma you have been put through? Look here and see that you have a God Who knows and understands your hurt.

Verse 25 reminds you that you belong to a Savior Who was reviled and reproached by everyone passing by Him as He hung on that Cross, naked and ashamed, in front of the entire city of Jerusalem, His every dying moan mocked and ridiculed by enemies whose hatred of Him was more fierce and more destructive than anything you have ever known in your most desperate hurt of betrayal and slander.

And if He knows what it is like to suffer that kind of hurt, He knows how to free you from it! Because if He has set His covenant love on you and sealed you with His own Name and His own blood, then He will not fail to rescue you from your hurt! It is not instant, and it will never be perfect in this broken world, but see here that He has set His Name on you. And that means that you can be freer from bitterness than you ever thought possible, because He has sworn to deliver you through His abundant lovingkindness!

Freedom from bitterness comes from turning your hurt over to the character of God—the God Who sees your trouble, the God Who is faithful to judge, and

III. The God Who RECEIVES all the GLORY (Psalm 109:26-31)

The psalmist renews his cries for YHWH to save him in Verse 26—but then look at how he continues his prayer in the verses following:

Psalm 109:26–27 LSB

Help me, O Yahweh my God; Save me according to Your lovingkindness. And let them know that this is Your hand; You, O Yahweh, have done it.

One of the characteristics of bitterness is an intense craving for revenge. The bitter man fantasizes about the day when he can issue payback to the people who hurt him—he consoles himself with imagining how he will someday humiliate and shame his enemy the way he was humiliated and shamed. You want to hear him beg for his life; you want to look into his eyes and see him recognize that you didn’t deserve to be treated that way.

But notice how David instructs you to pray here—this is

Not about YOUR HONOR (vv. 26-27)

When you are free from bitterness, your concern is not at the end of the day about your honor or your reputation—you don’t care if your enemy knows that you are getting revenge: Your only concern is that your enemy knows that God is repaying them! David’s main concern is not that his enemy be afraid of David’s vengeance; he wants him to be terrified over the prospect of Almighty God’s vengeance. That his recompense isn’t coming from the puny arm of flesh of his victim—David wants his enemy to be terrified at the realization that he is being dealt with by the omnipotent mighty right hand of YHWH Himself, and there is no way to escape that eternal judgment.

God is the only One Who receives all the glory for the vengeance He visits on the enemies of His children—this is not about your honor;

It is that HIS NAME be honored (vv. 28-31)

Psalm 109:28–29 LSB

Let them curse, but You bless; They arise and will be put to shame, But Your slave shall be glad. Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor, And let them wrap themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

As his accusers and slanderers and abusers and enemies are humiliated and put to shame by YHWH’s mighty right hand, it is not so that David’s name be honored, but that YHWH’s Name might be shown to be glorious in His power to bless His people in spite of all the attempts of their enemies to shame and humiliate them. David looks forward to the moment when God will keep His promise to vindicate His faithful child—not so that David’s name can be great, but so that YHWH will be magnified:

Psalm 109:30–31 LSB

With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to Yahweh; And in the midst of many I will praise Him. For He stands at the right hand of the needy, To save him from those who judge his soul.

Once again, see the freedom of a heart cured of its bitterness. A bitter soul will always choke on an expression of gratitude; praise does not come easily to an embittered heart. The truth is that all bitterness—wherever it starts from—will eventually grow into bitterness against God Himself. It is impossible to freely and joyfully praise God with thankfulness while at the same time feeding on bitterness in your heart towards others.

But see here how David is utterly free to rejoice in God’s faithfulness to the needy and the victim—he sings of YHWH’s faithfulness “to save him from those who judge his soul”, and pledges to sing abundantly about how God delivered him in the midst of many. A bitter heart overflows with the pain and hurt and trauma that wicked and evil men and women have inflicted; but a heart free from bitterness can only overflow with gratitude for all of God’s goodness, even in the midst of hurt.

Beloved, when you turn your hurt over to the character of God, you are free from the bitterness that can so easily overwhelm your soul. Battle bitterness in your heart by pouring out your hurt to Him—He is the God Who sees everything; He knows your pain, He sees your hurt, and He understands it. Because you serve a Savior Who suffered more betrayal and shame and humiliation and violence than you can possibly fathom; He knows what you are going through. So trust Him with it. Pour out your hurt before Him.

Second, battle bitterness in your heart by turning your enemies over to God. Not once in this dangerously potent psalm does David ever say that he wants to be the one to deliver judgment on his enemy; he instead prays that God would be consistent with His own character in dealing with them. He will do a far more complete job of repaying them according to what they deserve than you can, anyway! Let Him deal with what they have done to you; you walk free!

Third, battle bitterness in your heart by continually praising God’s faithfulness! It has been well-said that bitterness is like drinking a bottle of rat poison hoping the other person will die. But once you have entrusted your enemies to God’s perfect character and His mighty right arm to work justice, you are free to praise Him for His faithfulness and goodness to you—you are free to rejoice in the grace that He has shown to you.

Because here is the truth about Psalm 109—we tend to shy away from it because it doesn’t sound very “Christlike” to pray that YHWH would render your enemy’s children into homeless starving orphans, or that the possibility of repentance be snatched away from his heart so that he is unalterably damned to an eternity in Hell.

But the unavoidable truth is that this is the fate that every last one of us deserves. Every one in this room has offended and mocked and hated the infinitely holy and all-powerful Creator God; every one of us helped put Jesus Christ on that Cross. We are, apart from His grace, all Judas. And as much as we are uneasy reading or singing imprecatory psalms, the truth is that we are praying an imprecatory prayer every time we pray for Christ’s return.

Because we read in 2 Thessalonians 1 that

2 Thessalonians 1:7–9 LSB

...at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, executing vengeance on those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might,

The truth is that there are two Christlike responses to evil—on the Cross, Jesus gave us the first: “Father forgive them...” But at His return, He will come as the Judge from Psalm 109 to execute judgment on all who refuse to believe; all who return His love for hatred, all who slander and ridicule and defame His Name. The only escape you have from that wrath is to fly now to Jesus Christ for forgiveness; to turn away from your sins of bitterness and anger and hatred and malice and plead that His blood shed on the Cross would pay your penalty.

He not only offers you freedom from your bitterness today, He offers you something far more glorious than merely having your enemies suffer for how they sinned against you—He offers you forgiveness for how you sinned against Him! Be free from all of it today—turn your hurt over to the character of God, turn your sin over to the forgiveness of God purchased by the blood of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 LSB

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

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