Psalm 109 explained: When Friends Turn Into Accusers

Lied about by friends (vv. 1-5)

The writer begs God not to stay silent while people he treated with kindness attack him with lies and hatred. Verse 4 in Hebrew reads simply "and I, prayer," which translations fill out as "I am a man of prayer" or "I give myself to prayer."

Put him on trial (vv. 6-8)

These lines ask that one enemy be tried with an accuser at his right hand, be found guilty with even his prayers counting against him, have his days be few, and lose his position to someone else. Christians later read verse 8 as pointing to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, and the book of Acts quotes it when his place is filled.

Curses on his family (vv. 9-15)

The curses reach his wife and children, asking that they be widowed, homeless and begging with no one to pity them, and that his parents' sins be held against the family until its name dies out. These are among the harshest lines in the Bible, aimed at a family who are not accused of anything themselves, and readers have long struggled with them.

The reason given (vv. 16-20)

The man is accused of hounding the poor to death and of loving curses until they soaked into him like water and oil, so these lines ask that cursing cling to him like clothing. The text shifts from "they" to "he," so some modern scholars think verses 6 to 19 quote the enemies' curses against the writer, while many readers take them as his own angry prayer.

Weak and mocked (vv. 21-25)

Turning back to God, the writer calls himself poor and needy, fading like an evening shadow and shaken off like a locust, his knees weak from fasting. Shaking the head at someone was a gesture of scorn.

Let them curse, you bless (vv. 26-31)

The writer asks God to act so openly that his enemies see it was God's doing, and to bless him even while they curse. Verse 6 pictured an accuser at the enemy's right hand, but the psalm ends with God standing at the right hand of the needy as their defender.

Key verse: Psalm 109:31

Where Christians differ

Christians differ over how to read the curses in verses 6 to 19: some see them as prophecy fulfilled in Judas, some as honest anger handed over to God instead of acted on, some as words unfit for Christian prayer, and some scholars think they are the enemies' words being quoted.

Something to think about

What do you think happens to anger when it is spoken out loud, rather than kept inside or acted on?