Psalm 109
Prayer for One Falsely Accused
1 For the director. A psalm of David.
O God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent.
2 Wicked and deceitful men
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 They confront me with words of hatred
and assail me without cause.
4 In return for my love they denounce me
even as I offer up prayers for them.
5 They give me back evil in exchange for good
and hatred in place of my love.
6 They say:
“Choose a wicked man to oppose him,
an accuser to stand on his right.
7 At his judgment, let him be found guilty,
with even his prayers deemed sinful.
8 “May his remaining days be few,
with someone else appointed to take his office.
9 May his children become fatherless
and his wife become widowed.
10 “May his children be vagrants and beggars,
driven from the ruins they use for shelter.
11 May the creditor seize all he has,
and strangers abscond with his life savings.
12 “May no one extend mercy to him
or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his posterity be doomed to extinction
and his name be blotted out within a generation.
14 “May the iniquity of his ancestors be remembered by the Lord,
and the sin of his mother never be wiped out.
15 May their guilt be continually before the Lord,
and may he banish all remembrance of them from the earth.
16 “For he never thought of showing mercy;
rather, he hounded to death
the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to level curses at others;
may they recoil on him.
He took no pleasure in blessing;
may no blessing be his.
18 “He clothed himself with cursing as his garment;
it seeped into his body like water
and into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like the robe that envelops him,
like the belt that encircles him every day.”
20 May these evils my accusers wish for me
be inflicted upon them by the Lord.
21 But you, O Lord, my God,
treat me kindly for your name’s sake;
deliver me because of your overwhelming kindness.
22 For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I am fading away like an evening shadow;
I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees are weak from fasting;
my flesh is wasting away.
25 I have become an object of ridicule to my accusers;
upon seeing me, they toss their heads.
26 Come to my aid, O Lord, my God;
save me because of your kindness.
27 Let them know that your hand has done this,
that you, O Lord, have accomplished it.
28 When they curse, you will bless;
when they attack, they will be put to shame,
and your servant will rejoice.
29 My accusers will be clothed in disgrace,
wrapped in their shame as in a cloak.
30 I will thank the Lord with my lips,
and before all the people I will praise him.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the poor
to save him from his accusers who pass judgment on him.
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:1
- Psalm 109:1
- Psalm 109:1
- Psalm 109:2
- Psalm 109:4
- Psalm 109:5
- Psalm 109:6
- Psalm 109:6
- Psalm 109:7
- Psalm 109:8
- Psalm 109:12
- Psalm 109:16
- Psalm 109:17
- Psalm 109:18
- Psalm 109:20
- Psalm 109:21
- Psalm 109:21
- Psalm 109:22
- Psalm 109:23
- Psalm 109:25
- Psalm 109:26
- Psalm 109:28
- Psalm 109:30
- Psalm 109:31
