Psalm 109
Psalms • Sermon • Submitted
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· 25 viewsThe Lord will vindicate His poor people against their accusers.
Notes
Transcript
The psalm in context: David & his opponents
The psalm in context: David & his opponents
TITLE-5: David is accused falsely
TITLE names David as the author or as the one the psalm is concerned about. He is, remember, the king who rules on God’s behalf (Psalm 2).
His enemies are “wicked”: they love evil, hate good, cf. v16-17. They don’t seek to live in line with God’s character, but live out the sinfulness of their hearts. They are God’s opponents as much as David’s (echoes of Psalm 2). Consequently:
they accuse him, and do so falsely: v2c, v3b
they repay his “friendship” (literally: “love”) with evil and hatred, v4a, 5
David turns to the Lord for help, v1, 4b. This psalm is his prayer. “My God whom I praise” can also be translated “God of my praise”; Calvin writes:
"The meaning of the passage is this: Lord, although I may be regarded as the vilest of the vile, and exposed to the reproach of the world, yet thou wilt maintain the uprightness of my character, and on this account thou wilt also set forth my praise."
and on “but I am a man of prayer.”, he writes:
"when he was attacked in a cruel and hostile manner, he did not betake himself to such unlawful means as the rendering of evil for evil, but committed himself into the hand of God, fully satisfied that he alone could guard him from all ill."
v6-20: He entrusts his enemies into God’s hands for judgment, according to God’s covenant curses
This long imprecation has two parts:
v6-15: pronouncement of curses
v6-8: his enemy’s own destruction.
v9-10, 12-13: his enemy’s family’s destruction.
v11: the destruction of all his enemy has.
v14-15: sin not removed from his enemy or his family.
v16-20: more of the same, but explicitly connected to the character of the accusers
v16-17: note the connection between v12 and 16. May what he loved become his portion, and what he hated be far from him.
v18-19: his sins have gradually, increasingly corrupted his heart: what he wore as garment, enters into his very marrow. We see here how one’s sins gradually conquer him.
v20: the Lord’s payment for his sins: he will permanently remain in this condition. The Lord gives him over to his sins.
Understanding the imprecation
v15, 20: key verses. This is not David’s rant or revenge. It would completely misunderstand the spirit psalm to apply it this way.
Rather, this is David handing his enemies over to the Lord, refusing to take revenge over them. In Deuteronomy 32:35 the Lord says:
It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them.’
The covenant context: the curses are not made up by David, but echo God’s curses for breaking the covenant God made with His people through Moses, e.g. Exodus 22:22-24; Deuteronomy 27:15-16, 28:15-46. We can assume from this that David’s enemy was from his own people. As God’s anointed king, He is upholding God’s justice by pronouncing these curses: sinners will fall into the God they angered, and He will deal with them. God promises to bless those who uphold His rule, and go against those who oppress them for it. As He promised to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3a).
v21-29: He entrusts Himself to the Lord’s kindness, according to God’s covenant faithfulness
But just as there were covenant curses for the rebellious, so there is blessing and protection promised for the faithful. And as such a man, David entrusts Himself into the Lord’s hands.
v21-25: David is really feeling this… The king feels oppressed! Utterly stretched out and being dissolved like an evening shadow, all the strength leaving his body… He asks for help, returning to the plea of v1. Notice that he invoke’s the name of the Lord: will He do what is right? It is His glory that is being attacked, not just the king’s.
v26-29: It is God’s faithfulness to His own that David pleads: in v21, His “love” refers to God’s covenant-keeping love, reserved for His people. Same in v26. As he was pronouncing covenant curses on his enemies, so here he claims the blessings of the same covenant. v28-29 can also translated, as in NIV84, as a confident pronouncement:
28 They may curse, but you will bless;
when they attack they will be put to shame,
but your servant will rejoice.
29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace
and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
v30-31: He expresses confidence and praise for God’s future deliverance. God is faithful, and remembers His promises to His people. This makes me think of Exodus 2:23-25.
During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them.
As the Lord remembered the Israelites, so He will act for David, for His Name’s sake. And of course, whenever we think of David, we should also think of “Great David’s greater Son”.
The psalm applied to Christ & His opponents
The psalm applied to Christ & His opponents
David’s rejection prefigures Christ’s
Compare v3 with John 15:18-25. Christ was hated and persecuted by his enemies because He exposed their sin—just as David was persecuted as God’s king. Their hatred against Him was a hatred against God, the raging of the nations of Psalm 2 against the Lord and His anointed. They were Jesus’s own people, and yet rejected Him: “his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11b)
The worst rejection of Christ was that of Judas, whom Jesus calls “the one doomed to destruction” (John 17:12). Indeed, Psalm 109:8 is quoted in Acts 1, as the disciples try to come to grips with such a heinous betrayal, cf. Acts 1:16-20.
Also compare Psalm 109:25 with Matthew 27:39-40,
Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!’
Romans 2:4 points out that those who refuse to repent of their sins “show contempt for the riches of his kindness”—a charge akin to v5.
Christ entrusted His enemies into God’s hands
Hebrews 5:7 talks about Jesus’s earthly ministry like this:
During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.
This refers to Jesus’s entire life being prayerful submission to God the Father. He willingly and purposefully entrusted Himself to the Father “to save him from death”: and He preserved Him for the cross, and once He died, the Father loosed the cords of death, and delivered His Son from it—just as we saw last week in Psalm 91. He said in Gethsemane,
Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?’
Peter writes:
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
Christ came as Saviour, and will return as Judge
Christ’s suffering is better than David’s. As Philip Eveson helpfully points out,
The Book of Psalms: From Suffering to Glory, Volumes 1 & 2 A Messianic Psalm
First time round God sent his Son not to judge the world but to save it (John 3:17; 8:15; 12:47). For this reason Jesus stopped his reading of Isaiah 61:1–3 before the reference to the day of God’s vengeance (Luke 4:17–21) and prayed for those who crucified him (Luke 21:34).
David’s suffering did not achieve salvation: Christ’s does, for all who will repent and turn to Him for it. As He said in John 3:16-17,
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
This is the time of the Lord’s patience towards His enemies. This is why the plea of Hebrews sounds: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7-8). For all who believe, Psalm 109:15 will not become their lot, for Jesus has taken on Himself the curse of the law, Galatians 3:13,
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’
His blood, and not our sins are forever before the Lord. Blessed be His name! But:
Christ will be the judge meting out the curse of those who reject Him. Again, let me quote Eveson:
The Book of Psalms: From Suffering to Glory, Volumes 1 & 2 A Messianic Psalm
When he returns in glory, it will be ‘in flaming fire taking vengeance on all those who do not know God’ or ‘obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
As Christ’s first coming was for becoming the sacrifice for the sins of those who repent and turn to Him for salvation, so His second coming will be for judgment of those who reject Him. The curses of Psalm 109:6-20 can be legitimately read as an insight into Hell. “It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” (Hebrews 10:31)
So, before we continue, let me ask you: have you turned to Christ as your Saviour, or will you meet Him as your judge on the day of His return? Flee to Him today in repentance, ask Him to save you, so that v6-20 will not be your eternal experience!
The psalm applied to Christians & their opponents
The psalm applied to Christians & their opponents
Let me quote Calvin once more:
"Now, as that which was prefigured by David was fulfilled in Christ, so we must remember, that that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ is daily filling up in believers, Col. 1:24; because, he having once suffered in himself, calls them to be sharers and associates with him in his sufferings."
When reviled, we turn to the Lord in prayer, cf. 1 Peter 2:23-25
When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. ‘He himself bore our sins’ in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; ‘by his wounds you have been healed.’ For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Peter speaks to Christians seeking to live godly lives, and encourages them to do so. He also encourages them to expect and peacefully endure under opposition against this. And as an example for enduring unjust suffering, he brings Christ’s example. What did the sinless Lord of the universe do when He suffered at the sinful hands of those He had created (to allude to a song)? He lived in a Psalm 109 manner. And so should we:
We turn to Him for help, v1, 21, 26. Romans 12:19-20 applies Deuteronomy 32:35 when it says:
Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’
We can only do good to our enemies if we are free to do so, knowing that God will deal with them justly. As we pray in the Lord’s prayer, “deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13b)
We turn to Him for comfort, “but I am a man of prayer.” Also v21-22. The solution does not lie within us, but in the Lord. Life can get overwhelming, especially when wounded by a close friend. Others may hate me, but the Lord loves me with a faithful love.
We turn enemies of the Gospel over to Him, v6, 20.
Paul pronounced a curse on anybody opposing Christ and preaching a false Gospel, 1 Corinthians 16:22 and Galatians 1:8-9.
If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord!
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! As we have already said, so now I say again: if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
Likewise, he handed people who opposed his ministry over to Satan (meaning: outside of the protection of the Lord), 1 Timothy 1:20, 2 Timothy 4:14-15.
Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.
Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done. You too should be on your guard against him, because he strongly opposed our message.
And at the same time he instructs pastors, but by implication all Christians: 2 Timothy 2:25.
Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth,
We warn God’s enemies of the wrath to come, the fate they will endure if they stay in their sins, and preach the Gospel to them, praying for their conversion. Remember that the Psalmist also says that he was their friend, v4! The TITLE tells us that this was a corporately sun psalm. Though perhaps in our comfort in the West (for which we should be thankful for!) we may find this difficult concept, our brothers and sisters who are persecuted in their countries will find no problem in reciting these imprecations, while at the same time being ready to forgive their offenders, and even praying for their conversion!
This is what trusting in the Lord frees us up to do.
We resolve to praise and trust God, v30-31. The Lord is ever present on His people’s side, and we can always be thankful to Him for that. His praise in times of plenty glorifies Him greatly; when He is praised in time of adversity, because His people know He will come to their rescue—that shouts the Lord’s goodness for all the world to hear. “Blessed be the name of the Lord” sounds glorious in the temple, but on the pulpit of the rubbish heap (think Job) it sounds even more so. Will you trust in God, Beloved? He is worthy of your trust, for His faithful love towards His own.
