Psalms 109:1 - Meaning and Application

It is a great comfort for all good people that, no matter who is against them, God is for them. They may come to him with confidence, as to one who is pleased to take up their cause. David does that here.

He puts his case into God’s hands: “Do not stay silent, O God. Let my sentence come from your presence” (Psalm 17:2). He asks God not to delay in judging the appeal he has made. God saw what David’s enemies were doing, but seemed to be silent and allow it. So David says, in effect, “Lord, do not always do that.” The name he gives God is striking: “O God of my praise.” God was the one David gloried in, not his own wisdom or strength. He was also the source of everything David had to praise. Since God is the God of our mercies, we must make him the God of our praises. If all things come from him, then all things should return to him in thanks.

David then complains about his enemies, showing that they were the kind of people a righteous God should oppose. They were cruel and hateful. “They are wicked,” he says, “and they love to do harm” (Psalm 109:2). Their words were full of hatred (Psalm 109:3). They had a deep hatred for a good man because he was good. They opened their mouths against him like beasts ready to swallow him up, and they fought against him to destroy him if they could.

They were also known liars. Lying includes two of the seven things the Lord hates. They pretended kindness, but their words were deceitful. At the same time, they spoke against David behind his back with a lying tongue. They were false both in their flattery and in their attacks. They were also active and relentless. They surrounded him on every side, so that wherever he looked, he saw opposition. Their charges against him, and the sentence they wanted against him, had no basis. They fought against him without cause, and he had given them no reason.

Worst of all, they were ungrateful. David had done many kindnesses for them, and he was always ready to do more. Yet they would not let go of their malice. In fact, they grew more angry because they could not get him to give them any real excuse for attacking him (Psalm 109:4). “For my love they are my adversaries.” The more he tried to please them, the more they hated him. It is sad that anyone can be so wicked, but since such examples have been many, we should not be surprised if some act that way toward us.

David’s response was to stay close to his duty and find comfort in it: “But I give myself to prayer” (Psalm 109:4). The Hebrew sense is, “I am prayer,” meaning, “I am a man of prayer.” He loved prayer, valued prayer, practiced prayer, and made it his work. He was at home in prayer. A godly person is marked by prayer and devotes himself to it, as the apostles did (Acts 6:4). When David’s enemies lied about him and twisted his name, he turned to God and committed his cause to him in prayer. Even though they acted as enemies because of his love, he kept praying. If others speak harshly or wrong us, we must still do our duty toward them and not sin against the Lord by stopping our prayers for them (1 Samuel 12:23).

Though they hated and persecuted him for his religion, David stayed faithful to it. They mocked his devotion, but they could not mock him out of it. “Let them say what they will,” he says, “I give myself to prayer.” In this, David was a picture of Christ, who was surrounded by hateful and lying words. Christ’s enemies not only persecuted him without cause, but even did so because of his love and his good works (John 10:32). Yet he gave himself to prayer for them: “Father, forgive them.”