Psalms 109 · The Lantern

Hold not thy tongue, O God of my praise: for the mouth of the ungodly, yea, the mouth of the deceitful is opened upon me.

And they have spoken against me with false tongues: they compassed me about also with words of hatred, and fought against me without a cause.

For the love that I had unto them, lo, they take now my contrary part: but I give myself unto prayer.

Thus have they rewarded me evil for good: and hatred for my good will.

Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned: and let his prayer be turned into sin.

Let his days be few: and let another take his office.

This is certainly what David also says in the Psalms. "Let his prayer become sin," when not only is there nothing of worth sought in his sacrifices but even much of blame.

"Let his days be few" [Psalm 109:7]. By "his days," he meant the days of his apostleship, which were few; since before the Passion of our Lord, they were ended by his crime and death. And as if it were asked, What then shall become of that most sacred number twelve, within which our Lord willed, not without a meaning, to limit His twelve first Apostles?

But still, what is more serious, another asks for the death of an enemy, and the one whom he cannot pursue with a sword, he pursues with prayer. And the one who is cursed still lives, yet the one who curses is already held guilty of his death. But God commands that an enemy be loved, and yet God is asked to kill an enemy.

Let his children be fatherless: and his wife a widow.

And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.

Let his days be few. His days were made few, but his nights increased: for he was cut off in the middle of his days. The sun withdrew from him, and behold, darkness was multiplied for him. And let another receive his episcopate. This too is interpreted more plainly in the Acts of the Apostles. But it was not only spoken of Judas in that time, it is spoken even to this day.

Petilianus said, "We must consider, I say, and declare how far the treacherous traditor is to be accounted dead while yet in life.

Let his children be vagabonds, and beg their bread: let them seek it also out of desolate places.

Let the extortioner consume all that he hath: and let the stranger spoil his labour.

Let there be no man to pity him: nor to have compassion upon his fatherless children.

Let his posterity be destroyed: and in the next generation let his name be clean put out.

Let the wickedness of his fathers be had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord: and let not the sin of his mother be done away.

Let them alway be before the Lord: that he may root out the memorial of them from off the earth.

Let the iniquity of his fathers come into remembrance in the sight of the Lord. They sinned in the desert, he forgave them: now he reckons against them what they sinned then, since they have crucified the Lord. Or let us interpret it otherwise. He reckons against them the cruelty of their murders, and forgives them nothing. And let the sin of his mother not be blotted out.

"Let them always be against the Lord" [Psalm 109:14]. "Against the Lord," means in the Lord's sight: for other translators have rendered this line, "let them be always in the sight of the Lord;" while others have rendered it, "let them be before the Lord always;" as it is elsewhere said, "You have set our misdeeds in Your sight." By "alway," he means that this great crime shoul…

And that, because his mind was not to do good: but persecuted the poor helpless man, that he might slay him that was vexed at the heart.

His delight was in cursing, and it shall happen unto him: he loved not blessing, therefore shall it be far from him,

He clothed himself with cursing, like as with a raiment: and it shall come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

Let it be unto him as the cloke that he hath upon him: and as the girdle that he is alway girded withal.

Let it thus happen from the Lord unto mine enemies: and to those that speak evil against my soul.

But deal thou with me, O Lord God, according unto thy Name: for sweet is thy mercy.

O deliver me, for I am helpless and poor: and my heart is wounded within me.

I go hence like the shadow that departeth: and am driven away as the grasshopper.

My knees are weak through fasting: my flesh is dried up for want of fatness.

I became also a reproach unto them: they that looked upon me shaked their heads.

My knees are weakened from fasting. Take consolation, O monk, in fasting: since the Lord too did this. I say that when a monk fasts, he becomes stronger through fasting; and when his knees are weakened by fasting, then he is most of all strengthened. And my flesh is changed on account of oil.

"I became also a reproach unto them" [Psalm 109:24]: through the death of the Cross. "For Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us." [Galatians 3:13] "They looked upon Me, and shaked their heads." Because they beheld His crucifixion, without beholding His resurrection: they saw when His knees were weakened, they saw not when His flesh was chan…

And thus also thou canst shew that all the righteous men and Prophets, either by their own will, or by God's command unto them, endured always tribulations and labours, even as the blessed David maketh known that from the severity of his fasting the very limbs of his body had become enfeebled, saying, "My knees have become sick through fasting, and my flesh faileth of fatness."

Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy.

And they shall know, how that this is thy hand: and that thou, Lord, hast done it.

Though they curse, yet bless thou: and let them be confounded that rise up against me; but let thy servant rejoice.

Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame: and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a cloke.

As for me, I will give great thanks unto the Lord with my mouth: and praise him among the multitude.

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor: to save his soul from unrighteous judges.

Psalms109