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- The psalmist speaks against his inveterate enemies,
1-5.
- He prays against them, and denounces God's
judgments, 6-15.
- The reason on which this is
grounded, 16-20.
- He prays for his own safety and
salvation, using many arguments to induce God to have
mercy upon him, 21-31.
NOTES ON PSALMS 109
The title of this Psalm, To the chief Musician, A
Psalm of David, has already often occurred, and on
it the Versions offer nothing new. The Syriac
says it is "a Psalm of David, when the people, without his
knowledge, made Absalom king; on which account he was
slain: but to us (Christians) he details the passion of
Christ." That it contains a prophecy against Judas and
the enemies of our Lord, is evident from Acts
1:20. Probably, in its primary meaning, (for such a
meaning it certainly has,) it may refer to Ahithophel.
The execrations in it should be rendered in the future
tense, as they are mere prophetic denunciations of God's
displeasure against sinners. Taken in this light, it cannot be
a stumbling-block to any person. God has a right to denounce
those judgments which he will inflict on the workers of
iniquity.
But perhaps the whole may be the execrations of
David's enemies against himself. See on Psalms
107:20. Ahithophel, who gave evil counsel against
David, and being frustrated hanged himself, was no mean
prototype of Judas the traitor; it was probably on this
account that St. Peter, Acts
1:20, applied it to the case of Judas, as a
prophetic declaration concerning him, or at least a subject
that might be accommodated to his case.
Verse 1. Hold not thy
peace
Be not silent; arise and defend my
cause.
Verse 2. The mouth of the wicked
and-the deceitful are opened against me
Many persons are continually uttering calumnies against
me. Thou knowest my heart and its innocence; vindicate my
uprightness against these calumniators.
Verse 4. For my love they are my
adversaries
In their behalf I have
performed many acts of kindness, and they are my adversaries
notwithstanding; this shows principles the most vicious, and
hearts the most corrupt. Many of the fathers and commentators
have understood the principal part of the things spoken here
as referring to our Lord, and the treatment he received from
the Jews; and whatever the original intention was, they may
safely be applied to this case, as the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th
verses are as highly illustrative of the conduct of the Jewish
rulers towards our Lord as the following verses are of the
conduct of Judas; but allowing these passages to be prophetic,
it is the Jewish state rather than an
individual, against which these awful denunciations are
made, as it seems to be represented here under the person and
character of an extremely hardened and wicked man; unless we
consider the curses to be those of David's enemies. See
Clarke on Psalms
109:20.
But I give myself unto
prayer
vaani thephillah; "And I
prayer." The Chaldee: vaana atsalley, "but I
pray." This gives a good sense, which is followed by the
Vulgate, Septuagint, AEthiopic, Arabic, and
Anglo-Saxon. The Syriac, "I will pray for them."
This, not so correctly; as dreadful imprecations, not
prayers, follow. But probably the whole ought to be
interpreted according to the mode laid down, Psalms
109:20. The translation and paraphrase in the old Psalter
are very simple:-
Trans. For that thyng that thai sulde hafe lufed
me, thai bakbited me; bot I prayed. Par.
That is, that sulde haf lufed me for I was godson, and thai
bakbited me sayande, in Belzebub he castes oute fendes; bot I
prayed for thaim.
Verse 6. Let Satan stand at his
right hand.
As the word satan means
an adversary simply, though sometimes it is used to
express the evil spirit Satan, I think it best to
preserve here its grammatical meaning: "Let an
adversary stand at his right hand:" i.e., Let him be
opposed and thwarted in all his purposes.
All the Versions have devil, or some equivocal word.
The ARABIC has [Arabic] eblees, the chief of the
apostate spirits; but the name is probably corrupted from the
GREEK διαβολος diabolos; from which the LATIN
diabolus. the ITALIAN diavolo, the SPANISH
diablo, the FRENCH diable, the IRISH or CELTIC
diabal, the DUTCH duivel, the GERMAN
teufel, the ANGLO-SAXON deofal, and the ENGLISH
devil, are all derived. The original, διαβολος, comes
from διαβαλλειν to shoot or pierce through.
Verse 7. Let him be
condemned
yetse rasha. "Let him come
out a wicked man;" that is let his wickedness be made
manifest.
Let his prayer become
sin.
Thus paraphrased by Calmet: "Let him
be accused, convicted, and condemned, and let the
defence which he brings for his justification only
serve to deepen his guilt, and hasten his condemnation." I
once more apprise the reader, that if these are not the words
of David's enemies against himself, (see on Psalms
109:20,) they are prophetic denunciations against a
rebellious and apostate person or people, hardened in crime,
and refusing to return to God.
Verse 8. Let another take his
office.
The original is pekuddatho,
which the margin translates charge, and which literally
means superintendence, oversight, inspection from
actual visitations. The translation in our common Version is
too technical. His bishopric, following the
Septuagint, επισκοπην, and Vulgate, episcopatum,
and has given cause to some light people to be witty,
who have said, "The first bishop we read of was bishop Judas."
But it would be easy to convict this witticism of blasphemy,
as the word is used in many parts of the sacred writings, from
Genesis downward, to signify offices and officers, appointed
either by God immediately, or in the course of his providence,
for the accomplishment of the most important purposes. It is
applied to the patriarch Joseph, Genesis
39:4, vaiyaphkidehu, he made him bishop, alias
overseer; therefore it might be as wisely said,
and much more correctly, "The first bishop we read of was
bishop Joseph;" and many such bishops there were of God's
making long before Judas was born. After all, Judas was no
traitor when he was appointed to what is called his
bishopric, office, or charge in the apostolate.
Such witticisms as these amount to no argument, and serve no
cause that is worthy of defence.
Our common Version, however, was not the first to use the
word: it stands in the Anglo-Saxon {A.S.}, "and his
episcopacy let take other." The old Psalter is nearly the
same; I shall give the whole verse: Fa be made his days,
and his bysshopryk another take. "For Mathai was sett in
stede of Judas; and his days was fa that hynged
himself."
Verse 9. Let his children be
fatherless,
It is said that Judas was a
married man, against whom this verse, as well as the preceding
is supposed to be spoken; and that it was to support them that
he stole from the bag in which the property of the apostles
was put, and of which he was the treasurer.
Verse 10. Let his
children-beg
The father having lost his
office, the children must necessarily be destitute; and
this is the hardest lot to which any can become subject, after
having been born to the expectation of an ample fortune.
Verse 11. Let the strangers spoil
his labour.
Many of these execrations were
literally fulfilled in the case of the miserable Jews, after
the death of our Lord. They were not only expelled from their
own country, after the destruction of Jerusalem, but they were
prohibited from returning; and so taxed by the Roman
government, that they were reduced to the lowest degree of
poverty. Domitian expelled them from Rome; and they
were obliged to take up their habitation without the gate
Capena, in a wood contiguous to the city, for which they were
obliged to pay a rent, and where the whole of their property
was only a basket and a little hay. See JUVENAL,
Sat. ver. 11:-
Substitit ad veteres arcus, madidamque Capenam: Hic ubi
nocturne Numa constituebat amicae, Nunc sacri fontis nemus, et
delubra locantur Judaeis: quorum cophinus, foenumque supellex:
Omnis enim populo mercedem pendere jussa est Arbor, et ejectis
mendicat silva Camoenis.
He stopped a little at the conduit gate, Where Numa
modelled once the Roman state; In nightly councils with his
nymph retired: Though now the sacred shades and founts are
hired By banished Jews, who their whole wealth can lay In a
small basket, on a wisp of hay. Yet such our avarice is, that
every tree Pays for his head; nor sleep itself is free; Nor
place nor persons now are sacred held, From their own grove
the Muses are expelled. DRYDEN.
The same poet refers again to this wretched state of the
Jews, Sat. vi., ver. 541; and shows to what vile extremities
they were reduced in order to get a morsel of bread:-
Cum dedit ille locum, cophino foenoque relicto, Arcanam
Judaea tremens mendicat in aurem, Interpres legum Solymarum,
et magna sacerdos Arboris, ac summi fida internuncia coeli.
Implet et illa manum, sed parcius, aere minuto. Qualia cunque
voles Judaei somnia vendunt.
Here a Jewess is represented as coming from the wood
mentioned above, to gain a few oboli by
fortune-telling; and, trembling lest she should be discovered,
she leaves her basket and hay, and whispers lowly in
the ear of some female, from whom she hopes employment in her
line. She is here called by the poet the interpretess of
the laws of Solymae, or Jerusalem, and the priestess of
a tree, because obliged, with the rest of her nation, to
lodge in a wood; so that she and her countrymen might
be said to seek their bread out of desolate places, the
stranger having spoiled their labour. Perhaps the
whole of the Psalm relates to their infidelities, rebellions,
and the miseries inflicted on them from the crucifixion of our
Lord till the present time. I should prefer this sense, if
what is said on Psalms
109:20be not considered a better mode of interpretation.
Verse 13. Let his posterity be cut
off
It is a fact that the
distinction among the Jewish tribes in entirely lost.
Not a Jew in the world knows from what tribe he is sprung; and
as to the royal family, it remains nowhere but in the person
of Jesus the Messiah. He alone is the Lion of the tribe
of Judah. Except as it exists in him, the name is blotted
out.
Verse 16. Persecuted the poor and
needy man
In the case of Jesus Christ all
the dictates of justice and mercy were destroyed, and they
persecuted this poor man unto death. They acted from a
diabolical malice. On common principles, their opposition to
Christ cannot be accounted for.
Verse 17. As he loved cursing, so
let it come unto him
The Jews said, when
crucifying our Lord, His blood be upon us and our
children! Never was an imprecation more dreadfully
fulfilled.
Verse 18. Let it come into his
bowels like water
Houbigant thinks this is
an allusion to the waters of jealousy; and he is
probably right,-the bitter waters that produce the curse. See
Numbers
5:18.
Verse 19. And for a
girdle
Let the curse cleave to him
throughout life: as the girdle binds all the clothes to the
body, let the curse of God bind all mischiefs and maladies to
his body and soul.
The Hindoos, Budhists, and others often wear a
gold or silver chain about their waist.
One of those chains, once the ornament of a Moudeliar
in the island of Ceylon, lies now before me: it is silver, and
curiously wrought.
Verse 20. Let this be the
reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them
that speak evil against my soul.
Following
the mode of interpretation already adopted, this may mean: All
these maledictions shall be fulfilled on my enemies; they
shall have them for their reward. So all the opposition made
by the Jews against our Lord, and the obloquies and
execrations wherewith they have loaded him and his religion,
have fallen upon themselves; and they are awful examples of
the wrath of God abiding on them that believe not.
But is not this verse a key to all that preceded it?
The original, fairly interpreted, will lead us to a somewhat
different meaning: zoth peullath soteney meeth
Yehovah, vehaddoberim ra al naphshi. "This is the work of
my adversaries before the Lord, and of those who speak evil
against my soul," or life. That is, all that is said from the
sixth to the twentieth verse consists of the
evil words and imprecations of my enemies against my soul,
laboring to set the Lord, by imprecations, against me, that
their curses may take effect. This, which is a reasonable
interpretation, frees the whole Psalm from every difficulty.
Surely, the curses contained in it are more like those which
proceed from the mouth of the wicked, than from one inspired
by the Spirit of the living God. Taking the words in this
sense, which I am persuaded is the best, and which the
original will well bear and several of the Versions
countenance, then our translation may stand just as it is,
only let the reader remember that at the sixth verse
David begins to tell how his enemies cursed HIM, while he
prayed for THEM.
Verse 21. But do thou for
me
While they use horrible imprecations
against me, and load me with their curses, act thou
for me, and deliver me from their maledictions.
While they curse, do thou bless. This verse is a
farther proof of the correctness of the interpretation given
above.
Verse 22. I am poor and
needy
I am afflicted and
impoverished; and my heart is wounded-my very
life is sinking through distress.
Verse 23. I am gone like the
shadow
"I have walked like the declining
shadow,"-I have passed my meridian of health and life; and as
the sun is going below the horizon, so am I about to go under
the earth.
I am tossed up and down as the
locust.
When swarms of locusts take wing,
and infest the countries in the east, if the wind happen to
blow briskly, the swarms are agitated and driven upon
each other, so as to appear to be heaved to and fro, or tossed
up and down. Dr. Shaw, who has seen this, says it gives
a lively idea of the comparisons of the psalmist.
Verse 24. My knees are weak through
fasting
That hunger is as soon felt
in weakening the knees, as in producing an
uneasy sensation in the stomach, is known by all
who have ever felt it. Writers in all countries have referred
to this effect of hunger. Thus Tryphioderus Il. Excid.
ver 155:-
[ . . . ±Ï„εÏπειγουναταλιμω ]
"Their knees might fail, by hunger's force subdued; And
sink, unable to sustain their load." MERRICK.
SO PLAUTUS, Curcul, act. ii., scen. 3:-
Tenebrae oboriuntur, genua inedia succidunt.
"My eyes grow dim; my knees are weak with hunger."
And LUCRETIUS, lib. iv. ver. 950:-
Brachia, palpebraeque cadunt, poplitesque procumbunt.
"The arms, the eyelids fall; the knees give way."
Both the knees and the sight are particularly
affected by hunger.
Verse 25. When they looked upon me
they soaked their heads.
Thus was David
treated by Shimei, 2 Samuel
16:5,6, and our blessed Lord by the Jews, Matthew
27:39.
Verse 27. That they may know that
this is thy hand
Let thy help be so
manifest in my behalf, that they may see it is thy hand, and
that thou hast undertaken for me. Or, if the words refer to
the passion of our Lord, Let them see that I suffer not on my
own account; "for the transgression of my people am I
smitten."
Verse 28. Let them curse, but bless
thou
See on Psalms
109:20: Of the mode of interpretation recommended there,
this verse gives additional proof.
Verse 29. Let them cover
themselves
He here retorts their own curse,
Psalms
109:18.
Verse 30. I will greatly praise the
Lord
I have the fullest prospect of
deliverance, and a plenary vindication of my innocence.
Verse 31. He shall stand at the
right hand of the poor
Even if Satan
himself be the accuser, God will vindicate the innocence of
his servant. Pilate and the Jews condemned our Lord to death
as a malefactor; God showed his immaculate innocence by his
resurrection from the dead.
The whole of this Psalm is understood by many as referring
solely to Christ, the traitor Judas, and the
wicked Jews. This is the view taken of it in the
analysis.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND NINTH PSALM
The later expositors expound this Psalm of Doeg,
Ahithophel, and other persecutors of David; and so
it may be understood in the type; but the ancient fathers
apply it to Judas, and the Jews who put Christ to
death; which opinion, being more probable, and because Peter
1:20)
applies a passage out of ; Psalms
109:8to Judas, I shall expound the Psalm as of
Christ, whom David personated, and of Judas, and the
malicious Jews, as understood in the persons of his
wicked and slanderous enemies.
The Psalm has four parts:-
I. A short ejaculation, Psalms
109:1, and the reasons expressed in a complaint of the
fraud and malice of his enemies, Psalms
109:6.
II. A bitter imprecation against their fury, Psalms
109:6-21.
III. A supplication presented to God for himself, and the
reasons, Psalms
109:21-30.
IV. A profession of thanks.
I. He begins with an ejaculation: "Hold not thy peace, O
God of my praise."
1. Either actively, that is, "O God, whom I praise," even
in the greatest calamities.
2. Or passively; "Who art my praise:" The Witness and
Advocate of my innocency when I am condemned by malicious
tongues; which sense appears best for this place.
"Hold not thy peace." Tacere, to be silent, in
Scripture, when referred to God, is to connive, to rest, to
appear not to regard; and, on the contrary, loqui, to
speak, to do something for revenge or deliverance; it is what
David here asks, that, when the malice of his enemies arrived
at its height, God should not suffer them, but show his
displeasure.
Then by way of complaint, he describes their malicious
nature, which he aggravates by an elegant gradation. "For the
mouth of the wicked:" and they were, 1. Impious. 2. Deceitful.
3. Liars.
1. "For the mouth of the wicked:" Caiaphas, Judas,
the priests, Jews,
2. "And the mouth of the deceitful," They sought to
entrap him in his words.
3. "They have spoken against me," through Beelzebub,"
And yet the mischief rises higher, even to hatred and
malice.
1. "They compassed me about," malice they carried in their
hearts. "This man is not of God,"
2. "They hated me without a cause:" Wantonly, idly. They
were not only evil, deceitful, and malicious; but very
ungrateful. "He went about doing good;" and "How often would I
have gathered you," and for this love they returned hatred.
1. "For my love, they are my adversaries:" But,
nevertheless,
2. "I give myself to prayer:" "Father, forgive them; they
know not," words. "They have rewarded me evil." And Theognis
truly says,
[ . . . αξαιτηνφυσινουδυναται ];
No kindness can invert an evil nature:
A Jew will ever be a Jew. II. The prophet, having
complained of the malice, spiteful usage, and ingratitude of
his nation, their crafty dealing with him, and their lies
against him, proceeds to pray against them, and that in most
bitter and fearful imprecations. Enemies he foresaw they would
be to the flourishing state of Christ's Church, and that
nothing had power to restrain or amend them; and therefore he
curses them with a curse the most bitter that ever fell from
the lips of man. In particular Judas, who was guide to
them who took Jesus, is pointed out; but, as Augustine
observes, he represented the person of the whole synagogue;
therefore, it is involved necessarily. But some understanding
these curses as uttered by the Jews against David. See
Clarke on Psalms
109:20.
1. "Set thou a wicked man over him," Subject him to the
will of some impious and wicked man, to whose lust and
violence he may be no better than a slave. Others understand
by a wicked man a false teacher, who may seduce him by
false doctrines.
2. "Let Satan stand at his right hand:" Have full power
over him. Let him stand; which signifies a perpetual endeavour
to urge him forward till he effect his intended mischief. And
so it was with Judas and the Jews; Satan was
their guide, and they followed him.
The second is, "When he shall be judged, let him be
condemned;"-find no mercy, no favour, at the judge's hands;
thus, when Judas, accused and condemned by his own
conscience, went to the high priest, who had bribed him, he
would not acquit him; and Judas, in despair and grief
for his sin, "went out and hanged himself."
The third, "Let his prayer become sin:" He turned his ear
from hearing God, why then should God hear him? No prayer is
acceptable to God but through Christ, and that out of a
sincere heart; any other prayers become sin.
The fourth is the shortening of their life and honour.
1. "Let his days be few:" Length of days is promised only
to the obedient, and is a blessing: but the prayer is that
this man's life be a short one, and so Judas's was.
2. "And let another take his office:" Which must be applied
to Judas, since St. Peter 1:20)
interprets it; and it is at this day as true of the Jews, for
they have no high priest. Another, after the order of
Melchizedek, has succeeded Aaron's priesthood.
The fifth is-
1. "Let his children be fatherless," former curse.
2. "Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:"
And such the Jews are to this day; and beggars they were for a
long time after the overthrow of Jerusalem.
The sixth execration is upon his goods.
1. "Let the extortioner catch all that he hath:" Probably
the publicans.
2. "And let the strangers spoil his labour:" Which was
verified by the soldiers of Titus, who ripped up the
bellies of the captive Jews to see if they had
swallowed gold.
But the prophet again returns to his children.
1. "Let there be none to extend mercy unto him," to want,
is a misery; but there is some comfort in it when beggars meet
with some to relieve it. But the prophet says, Let there be
none to pity him, or his. Judas found none to pity him.
2. Men, because they must die themselves, desire, if
possible, to be immortal in their issue. Bellarmine
observes that Judas had no issue; for that
Matthias, who came in his place, did not derive his
office from him. Though a posterity of the Jews
remained after the flesh, yet, in the next generation, their
ecclesiastical and civil polity was at an end; and since their
dispersion they are without king, without priest, without
sacrifice, without altar, without ephod, and without teraphim,
as foretold by Hosea.
3. "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered,"
imprecation answers God's threat: "I will visit the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children." And this curse has come
upon the Jews to the uttermost; they are self-devoted: "Let
his blood be upon us, and upon our children." The guilt of his
blood is yet upon them; the iniquity of their fathers is yet
remembered; and the sin of their mother, the synagogue, is not
yet done away.
He repeats again the sin of their fathers, and the sin of
the synagogue; this verse being but the exposition of the
former.
1. "Let them be before the Lord continually:" The sin their
father and mother committed, never let it be forgotten by God.
2. "That he may cut off the memory," contempt.
The prophet having now finished his execrations, acquaints
us with the causes of them.
1. Their want of pity to them in distress: "Have ye no
regard, all ye that pass by?" Lamentations
1:12. It is but just then "that they find judgment without
mercy, that would show no mercy."
2. So far from that, "that he persecuted the poor and needy
man," the inhumanity of Judas and the Jews against
Christ, who is here called-1. Poor, because, "when he
was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his
poverty might be rich;" 2 Corinthians
9:2. The needy man: "For the foxes have holes, Luke
9:58. 3. The broken in heart. For he was in agony,
and his soul was troubled, when he sweated great drops of
blood; when he cried, "My God, my God!" not with compunction
or contrition for any fault he had committed, but from a sense
of pain, and his solicitude for the salvation of mankind.
In this verse there is noted the extreme cruelty and
inhumanity of the Jews; for whoever persecutes a man
for his life is inclined to it either from some real or
supposed injury, or else through envy: but Christ was humble
and lowly in heart; he went about doing good, and yet they
persecuted him.
But, thirdly, he complains: "He loved cursing;" therefore,
it is but reason that he should have what he loved: "As he
clothed himself with cursing-so let it come," or hate a
blessing, if it be proposed to the will under the form of a
curse or blessing: but a man is said to love a curse when he
follows a wicked course, and avoids the blessing of a good
life. This Judas and the Jews did: Judas,
by loving money more than his Master; the Jews, by-"Let his
blood,"
Neque enim lex justior ulla est.
It is just that a man should suffer for his own wicked
inventions. But the prophet adds, Let it sit close to him as a
garment; let it be converted into his substance: let him carry
it perpetually,
1. "As he clothed himself with cursing," delights in.
2. "So let it come as waters," turns every thing into the
very flesh of the animal; so let his curse be converted into
his nature and manners.
3. "Let it come as oil into his bones," bones; water will
not.
This curse must be of great efficacy; he must always carry
it.
1. "Let it be unto him,"
2. "And for a girdle,"
For a garment some read pallium; a cloak that a man
puts off at home, and calls for when he goes abroad: thus let
God set an outward mark upon him; let him be known as a
cast-away.
If Doeg were the type of Judas, as most
agree, in this Psalm, then by the girdle might be understood
cingulum militare, the military girdle, which, while
they were of that profession they cast not off: and he,
Doeg, being a military man, the curse was to cleave to
him, and compass him as his girdle.
The prophet concludes this part of the Psalm with an
exclamation, as being persuaded his curses were not in vain.
"Let this be the reward of mine adversaries," I am a
deceiver, and deny me to be the Saviour of the world.
III. The prophet now turns from curses to prayer: and in
the person of Christ, directs it to God for protection and
deliverance both of himself and the whole Church.
1. "But do thou for me," persecutors on these three
grounds: 1. Because his Lord was Jehovah, the fountain
of all being and power. 2. Because it would be for his honour:
"Do it for thy name's sake." Thy faithfulness and goodness to
the Church, and justice in executing vengeance on her enemies.
3. Do it, because thy mercy is good-easily
inclined to succour the miserable.
2. "Deliver me," may have reference to Christ's prayer,
"Father, save me from this hour,"
1. "Deliver me," for I am destitute of all human help.
2. "Deliver me," for my heart is wounded within me.
And to these he adds many other reasons; and uses two
similes, the one drawn from the shadow of the evening, the
other from the locust.
1. "I am gone like a shadow: " silently: so was Christ led
away as a prisoner, without any murmur: "He was led as a
lamb," Isaiah
53:7. Thus the apostles and martyrs died patiently.
2. "I am tossed up and down as the locust." From one
tribunal to another, as the locust carried from place to
place, Exodus
10:12,19.
Secondly, he reasons from his bodily debility.
1. "My knees are weak through fasting." The little
sustenance Christ took before his passion and his watching in
prayer all night.
2. "And my flesh faileth of fatness," through the excess of
his fatigue, and the anguish of his Spirit: thus he could not
bear his cross.
3. A third reason why God should pity and deliver is drawn
from the opprobrious usage and the scorn they put upon him,
than which there is nothing more painful to an ingenuous and
noble nature: "I am become also a reproach unto them,"
four Gospels are an ample comment upon this verse.
The second part of his prayer is for a speedy resurrection:
"Help me, O Lord my God: O save me," petition with a strong
reason, drawn from the final cause: "Save me, that they may
know," be convinced by my rising again, in despite of the
watch and the seal, that it was not their malice and power
that brought me to this ignominious death, but that my
passion, suffering, and death proceeded from thy hand: "By his
resurrection he was declared," Romans
1:4. And in the close of his prayer he sings a triumph
over his enemies, the devil, Judas, the Jews,
those bitter enemies, to him and his Church.
1. "Let them curse." Speak evil of me and my followers.
2. "But bless thou." Bless all nations that have faith in
me.
3. "When they arise." For, 1. Arise they will, and
endeavour by every means to destroy my kingdom; 2. But "let
them be ashamed." Confounded that their wishes are frustrated.
4. "But let thy servant (which condition Christ took upon
himself) rejoice;" because thy name is thereby glorified.
And he continues his exercrations by way of explanation.
"Let mine adversaries," ingratitude and malice, before angels
and men.
IV. He closes all with thanks, which he opposes to the
confusion of the wicked.
1. "I will greatly praise the Lord." With affection and a
great jubilee.
2. "I will praise him among the multitude." Before all the
world.
For which he assigns this reason,-
1. "He shall stand at the right hand of the poor." That is,
such as are poor in spirit, who ask and find mercy from
God: to such I will be as a shield and buckler.
2. "I will stand at the right hand of the poor, to save
him,"
all-covering shield of his Church: "He hath blotted out the
handwriting of ordinances," Christo ab solvemur. "When we are
condemned by the world, we are absolved by Christ."
Additional Resources
Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative of an
electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam. "Commentary
on Psalm 109". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=ps&chapter=109>.
1832.
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