Psalms 109 · The Lantern

To the choirmaster. Of David. A psalm. God of my praise, do not be silent.

The Song of the Slandered

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of deceit have opened against me; they have spoken with me with a lying tongue.

And with words of hatred they have surrounded me, and they have fought me without cause.

In return for my love they accuse me, but I am prayer.

And they have set on me evil in return for good, and hatred in return for my love.

Appoint a wicked man over him, and let an accuser stand at his right hand.

When he is judged, let him go out guilty, and let his prayer become sin.

This is doubtless what David too says in the Psalms: "let his prayer become sin", when not only nothing of merit, but even much of guilt is sought from the sacrifices. For you hear the lawgiver decree that, if anyone eats of that "which has remained over to the third day, he shall bear the sin".

"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 days be few; let another take his office.

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.

"Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow" [Psalm 109:8]. After his death, both his children were fatherless, and his wife a widow.

Let his sons be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

And let his sons wander and beg; and let them seek from their ruins.

Let a creditor ensnare all that he has, and let strangers plunder his labor.

Let there be no one extending loyal love to him, and let there be no one gracious to his fatherless ones.

Let his posterity be cut off; in a generation to come let their name be blotted out.

Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and let the sin of his mother not be blotted out.

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…

Let them be before the LORD continually, and let him cut off their remembrance from the earth,

because he did not remember to do loyal love, and pursued a man afflicted and needy and broken of heart, to put him to death.

And he loved cursing, and it came to him; and he did not delight in blessing, and it was far from him.

And he clothed himself with cursing like his garment, and it came like water into his inward parts, and like oil into his bones.

Let it be for him like a garment he wraps himself in, and like a belt he girds on continually.

This is the wage of my accusers from the LORD, and of those who speak evil against my soul.

But you, LORD, Lord, act with me for the sake of your name; because your loyal love is good, rescue me.

For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is pierced within me.

Like a shadow when it stretches out I have gone; I am shaken off like a locust.

My knees have stumbled from fasting, and my flesh has grown lean, without oil.

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."

And I have become a reproach to them; they see me, they shake their head.

Help me, LORD my God; save me according to your loyal love,

and let them know that this is your hand — that you, LORD, have done it.

Let them curse, but you bless. They rose and were ashamed, but your servant is glad.

Let my accusers be clothed with humiliation, and let them wrap themselves in their shame like a robe.

I will greatly give thanks to the LORD with my mouth, and in the midst of many I will praise him.

For he stands at the right hand of the needy, to save him from those who judge his soul.

Psalms109

The Song of the Slandered