Psalm 109: The Curse of the Accused

"Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise; for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue… For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer. And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love."

"Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand. When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow… Let the extortioner catch all that he hath… Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man."

"Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD… But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake… For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me… Let them curse, but bless thou… For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul."

A trial scene

The setting is a court: an accuser (satan, "adversary") stands at the right hand of the accused, as in Zechariah 3:1. The psalm ends with God standing "at the right hand of the poor" as his defender. The language is legal: judged, condemned, accusers.

Whose curse is it?

Verses 6–19 switch from "they" (the enemies, plural) to "him" (one man), and verse 20 says "Let this be the reward of mine adversaries." Some scholars and translations (e.g. the NRSV marks vv. 6–19 as the enemies' words: "They say…") read the curse as the accusers' words against the psalmist, which he quotes and asks God to turn back on them. Others read it as the psalmist's own imprecation. The Hebrew has no quotation marks, so both are possible.

Acts 1:20

Acts 1:20 joins 69:25 and 109:8 ("let another take his office") in deciding to replace Judas. The Greek episkopē, "office, oversight," became the Vulgate's "episcopatum," and the KJV of Acts 1:20 has "his bishoprick let another take." The psalm's original curse concerns a false accuser; its application to Judas is early Christian reading. The heading is "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David."