To Bless or To Curse?

Psalm 109 is a psalm written by “David for the director of music,” although that is probably not totally accurate; it might be more accurate to call this “a psalm of David to God,” because this psalm is full of appeals directly to God. It opens with a prayer mixed with complaints, but pretty soon it roars full steam ahead with curses against sinners and bad people. It ends with a brief outburst of praise to God, but overall it’s hard to think of this as a psalm of worship! The nature of this psalm led one scholar to refer to it as “the dreadful psalm,” and many Christians, as they read it and study it, are not encouraged by it, nor do they find comfort in it; they are, in fact, perplexed by it. So, what do we do with psalm 109? Let’s break it down into smaller parts.

1. The invocation, verse 1

My God, whom I praise, do not remain silent…

This is the last of the “imprecatory psalms” and the strongest. You will recall that at “imprecation” is a like a curse. We might be surprised that David, the man after God’s own heart, wrote such strong statements as he did in this psalm against his enemies. What’s even more surprising is that David wrote this imprecatory psalm, pronouncing curses against his enemies while inspired by the Holy Spirit! But before he does that, he invokes God; specifically, David begins with “praise” to God. It’s odd, but “praise” as it is used here is not a verb, it’s a noun that David used as a kind of all-purpose word for all the good reasons why God is worthy of praise.

So while the phrase, “My God, whom I praise” is itself very short, its shortness is deceptive for the word “praise” contains all the reasons for that praise. Why praise God? Honestly, how can a Christian not praise God? When we consider Who He is and what He has done, a Christian cannot remain silent! Carl Gustaf Boberg was just a man. You may not know the name, but you know his words. Boberg was a Swedish pastor, and member of the Swedish parliament, who one day was enjoying a nice walk when a thunderstorm suddenly appeared out of no where. A severe wind began to blow. After the storm was over, Mr. Boberg looked out over the clear bay. He then heard a church bell in the distance, went home, and wrote:

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

“My God, whom I praise,” why wouldn’t you want to praise God? How can a Christian ever find it difficult to praise God? The second phrase of verse one gives us a clue to the answer:

…do not remain silent

Is God ever silent? God is never silent as far as His children are concerned. God never stops communicating to us. At times, it may seem like God is silent, but that’s an individual’s perception; it is not reality. As to why God may seem silent, the next few verses may provide the explanation.

2. What the ungodly do, verses 2—5

This is really David’s first complaint in the psalm and why it seemed to him why God was silent:

…for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. (verse 2)

When all you hear all day long is negative speech or hateful talk, God’s “still, small voice” is easily drowned out. Over the next handful of verses, David gives a number of reasons as to why these “wicked people” are what they are. Incidentally, the reason why David accuses these people of being “wicked” is not because he hates them so much, it’s because they are so cruel and so hateful toward him. The things that characterize these people as wicked include:

• Untrustworthy speech. The word “mouth” is emphasized in the original, which means these people speak words of deceit, words of evil, and words of hurt. When people engage in that kind of speech, how can you trust them?
• They are full of hatred. The untrustworthy words of the wicked come from their “hatred,” something deed down inside of them. David offered these people “friendship,” and in turn they returned “hatred” in the form of vile speech.

Verse four needs to be noted:

In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.

Even when David was “done wrong” by those to whom he extended friendship, David never stopped praying: he remained a man of prayer! Another way to look at this verse is: “No matter what they say about me, they can’t stop me from praying.” That sounds a lot like the teachings of Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount: pray for your enemies.

3. The curses: introduction, verses 6—15

Before we look at David’s five-part, let’s consider Biblical imprecations. In almost all of the psalms of lament—there are 67 in all or in part—there are curses or imprecations against the ungodly. In these psalms, the psalmist, often representing the people of God, prayed for vindication and that God’s promised judgment would fall on their enemies. The problem modern believers have is that these prayers of imprecations seem to be at variance with the New Testament teaching of “loving your enemies.” In fact, imprecations are not limited only to the psalms; they are seen in many of the prayers of Jeremiah and of Nehemiah, and so a lot of people see an apparent tension between the theology of the Old Testament and that of the New Testament. So strong is this apparent tension, that some Christians can barely read parts of the Old Testament without nagging doubts being raised; doubts that cause them to stop reading and ignore large chunks of the Old Testament. Preachers are not immune, either. To so many, the God of the Old Testament is not a God of love. He’s a God of vengeance. He is a God of violence. How do we reconcile the God of the Old Testament with that of the New?

The fact is, the requirement to “love your enemies” is NOT a teaching that originated with Jesus in the New Testament. Consider:

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:18)

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. (Proverbs 25:21)

God doesn’t change, nor do the expectations He holds for those who follow Him. God is absolutely constant through all the ages. His love for His creation is constant; He has never stopped loving any part of His creation; even sinners. He loves His creation so much, He sent His Son to save it through His death and resurrection (John 3:16).

So God’s expectation that His children should love their enemies has never changed. His love for sinners has never changed. However, the fact that He holds all people accountable for their deeds has also never changed. Because all human beings are responsible to the Lord for how they lived, all human beings are subject to God’s judgment and wrath. For believers, all that was taken care of in Christ Jesus. Not so for unbelievers; they are and will be subject to God’s wrath.

It might surprise you to know that Jesus wasn’t all about love! Here’s another side to our Savior:

Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. (Matthew 11:21—24)

There isn’t a whole lot of love in those verses, but there is an imprecation! In the parable of the unjust judge, Jesus taught that believers should keep on praying so that God would act justly on behalf of them:

And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? (Luke 18:7)

In the midst of evil, Christians are to keep God as their focal point, not the evil. We are to hate evil NOT for sake hatred alone! The psalmists, writing and praying under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, were literally so drunk on God’s holiness and righteousness that anything contrary to Him was so offensive to them, they cried out to God for vindication and to justify Himself. They were not so concerned about themselves as they were about God manifesting His righteousness, holiness, and justice on earth, thereby putting the wicked in the position of having to reap what they have sown.

C.S. Lewis’ observations on the existence of evil in the world and our reaction to it are very helpful:

Against all this, the ferocious parts of the Psalms serve as a reminder that there is in the world such a thing as wickedness and that it is hateful to God.

Living in the shadow of grace, we tend to forget how repugnant sin is to God. Because we have been so gloriously and freely forgiven our sins, we take that forgiveness for granted to the point where many of us flirt with sin and evil because we have come tolerate that which God could never. The imprecations in the Bible should illustrate God’s attitude to all that is not of Him.

The five-part imprecation breaks down like this:

(a) Against the guilty, verses 6—8

David asks God for evil to be punished by evil; he prays that the days of the wicked will be few. Even in this imprecation, lies hope:

…may another take his place of leadership. (verse 8)

(b) Against their family, verses 9—10

Not only should the enemy be treated without mercy, the same fate should fall on his children! That’s a little hard for we gentle souls of the 21^st century to take, but the end of a family line was among the greatest tragedies that could befall a man living in the ancient Middle East. In effect, David was praying for the evil one to suffer to the maximum extent possible, even the point of losing his children. We think that’s awful; but as awful as that seems to us, it cannot compare to what sin looks like to God.

(c ) Against their possessions, verse 11

David wants his enemy to lose everything of meaning in his life; all his possessions.

(d) Against those who help, verses 12—13

Again, the psalmist prays against the family by asking that no one help them in any way so that they might just die out.

(e) Remember the guilty, verses 14—15

Finally, David wants God to act justly by never failing to remember the guilt of the entire family. This is very powerful stuff: Even when they are dead and gone, may God never forget their sins. Here is side of God His children have never seen and will never see! Forgiveness is available to all, and to all who have been forgiven, God has promised never to bring up those sins again. But the hard-hearted are beyond salvation (see Psalm 51) and their sins are eternal because they have been committed against God, who is Himself immortal.

4. But…

Verse 20 is almost a relief:

May this be the LORD’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.

It concludes the “ferocious” part of the psalm, and not a moment too soon! David now comes to God for himself, turning away from the evil and heartlessness of his enemies to the goodness of God. His prayer borders on desperation as he pleads for God to act on his behalf:

…help me for your name’s sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me. (verse 21)

Here is a man who has the proper perspective. He recognizes the greatness of God and his own pitiful state. Verse 22 is surprising considering David was king over Israel:

For I am poor and needy…

By any measure save heaven’s, David needed nothing; he was far from poor. But David’s poverty was spiritual; the spiritual battle had taken its toll on David to the point where he was literally done in. It was as though David could feel his life pouring out of him as he prayed for deliverance. The things of the world, even his own body, could not sustain him. He needed the kind of help only God could give.

Perhaps this is one reason why modern believers don’t experience miraculous deliverances the way previous generations have. Our own prosperity and warped sense of self-worth have driven God to the very fringes of our faith. We try anything and everything before turning to God. He has become the cure of last resort. That was never how He intended our relationship to be. God should be the very Person we turn to in times of need, not the last! It’s perhaps long past time for modern Christians to humble themselves, as David did, and see their true state in the light of God’s presence.

Psalm 109 is full of curses but also full of blessings. To Christians belong a wonderful heritage. Though we be surrounded by evil and the odds against us, because we are hidden in Christ Jesus we have nothing to fear as long as we remember to acknowledge His greatness.

For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save their lives from those who would condemn them. (verse 31)

(c)  2011 WitzEnd