Psalms 109:21 - Meaning and Application

David has already spoken God’s judgment against his enemies, and now he turns to God’s comfort for himself, but humbly and without pride.

He pours out his complaint to God about how low his condition is, which likely gave his enemies more reason to mock him. “I am poor and needy,” he says, meaning he is a fitting object of pity and one who badly needs help. He is troubled in his mind, and this may be the wound of guilt as well as grief. A wounded spirit is hard to bear, and only God can heal it.

He also feels that his life is nearing its end. He says he is like a shadow that is fading away, almost gone already. Human life is always brief, and here it is like an evening shadow, a sign that night is close. He is unsettled too, tossed about like a locust, with a restless mind and a life with no fixed place.

His body has also grown weak and worn down. His knees fail because of fasting, whether because he was forced to go without food in persecution, or because he fasted on purpose to humble himself before God in sorrow over sin or trouble, his own or someone else’s (Psalm 35:13; Psalm 69:10). His flesh has lost its fatness, so that he has become thin and wasted, like skin and bones. It is far better to be lean in body while the soul is healthy than to have the body well fed while the soul is wasting away.

He is also mocked and insulted by his enemies. They make fun of his prayers and of his afflictions, and God’s people have often been filled with the scorn of those who live at ease. In all this, David points forward to Christ, who was wounded, weakened, and reproached in his humiliation. He also pictures the church, which is often afflicted, tossed by storms, and left without comfort.

After this, David asks for mercy for himself. In general, he prays, “Do for me, O Lord God” (Psalm 109:21). If God is for us, he will do for us more than we can ask or think. David does not tell God exactly what to do. He leaves himself to God’s wisdom, asking the Lord to do what is truly best for him, even if it does not seem so for the moment.

More specifically, he asks, “Help me, O Lord my God, and save me” (Psalm 109:26). He wants help in trouble and rescue from trouble. He also wants salvation from sin and help to do his duty. Then he says, “Though they curse, bless thou” (Psalm 109:28). He treats their curses as empty. They can only show their malice, not truly harm him. God’s blessing is enough to outweigh their words.

If God blesses us, it does not matter who curses us. No one can curse those whom God has not cursed, and indeed whom he has blessed (Numbers 23:8). Human curses have no real power, but God’s blessing is mighty. Even when people say all they can against us without cause, we can still pray, “Let them curse, but bless thou.” David also asks, “Let thy servant rejoice” (Psalm 109:28). Those who know the worth of God’s blessing will rejoice if they are sure of it.

He also prays that his enemies would be ashamed, covered with shame, and clothed with confusion (Psalm 109:28-29). He asks that they be left to follow their own foolish plans, so that their folly would become clear to everyone. Or he asks that their schemes against him would fail, and that failure would bring them shame, as it did the enemies of the Jews in Nehemiah’s day (Nehemiah 6:16). More than that, he is asking that they be brought to repentance, which is the best thing we can ask for our enemies. Sinners do bring shame on themselves, but true repentant people take shame to themselves and turn from their sin.

Above all, he pleads God’s glory, especially the honor of God’s name. “Do this for your name’s sake” is his request (Psalm 109:21). He appeals to God’s goodness, because God has made his mercy known through it. “Deliver me because your mercy is good,” he says in effect. He does not ask according to his own merit, since he has none to claim. He asks according to God’s mercy, making that mercy the source, reason, and measure of his salvation.

At the end of the psalm, David speaks with the joy of faith, certain that his present troubles will end in victory. He promises to praise the Lord greatly, not only in his heart, but with his mouth, and not in private only, but among many people (Psalm 109:30). He also trusts that God will stand at the right hand of the poor, meaning he will be near to help, like a protector and advocate who pleads his cause against accusers and delivers him from those who judge him wrongly (Psalm 109:31). God was David’s defender in suffering, and he was also with the Lord Jesus in his suffering, standing at his right hand so that he was not shaken (Psalm 16:8). He saved his soul from those who acted as if they were its judges and received it into his own hands. All who suffer according to God’s will should commit the care of their souls to him.