Psalm 109

Psalm 109

Unjust Suffering

This page helps us to make sense out of 

this important psalm.

On this page

I will explain this powerful psalm

and

lead us toward

more peace and calmness.

This Psalm

is especially written for

those who love the Lord

and want to

yield to him

in order to be led to peace. 

In this Psalm,

God wants to show you

that he has seen the terrible thing

that someone did to you

and 

that he has compassion on you.

God is acknowledging that it was terrible.

And he is responding to you

in a certain way

in order to

show you that you are important to him,

and that

your suffering is important to him,

and that

you are heard by the God of all Creation.

~

By reading this page, you will better understand

what God wants to share

with you concerning this psalm.

For this page, I need to

emphasize that

God is a Trinity.

Jesus, Father God, and the Holy Spirit are one God.

Jesus is called our Bridegroom in Scripture.

Jesus is the Groom and we are the Bride.

I suggest you read

Psalm 109

before you read my commentary.

It is at the bottom of the page

or you might want to pick your favorite Bible translation.

As a married woman,

I learned a piece of wisdom. 

If my husband

makes a small deal

out of something

that he did (or someone else did)

to hurt me, 

then I will naturally

make a bigger deal out of it and get madder.

If my husband

makes a bigger deal

of something that

he did to hurt me (or that someone else did to hurt me) 

meaning - a bigger deal than I am making out of it - 

then I will naturally calm down

and make a smaller deal out of it than I originally did.

-

As I read this psalm,

I see that

God the Father and Jesus my bridegroom

are

making a bigger deal out of what was done to me

than I am making.

This makes me FEEL heard and

it leads me to calm down.

This leads me toward healing and peace.

So in this psalm, God takes us on a journey.

And God provides for us:

words

Psalm 109 has words

of

TREMENDOUS  retaliation -

TREMENDOUS  vengeance -

TREMENDOUS  punishment!

This psalm is written so that

as we read this psalm,

we will feel heard by God and important to God.

And

if our heart is usually in close communion with God,

then

as we read down the verses,

we begin to realize that

what this person did

didn't deserve that much punishment.

We begin to see their actions and words

in a light that makes it easier to lower our anger. 

As we read further and further along in the verses

we will more and more

lay down

our intense anger

and our desire for punishment

and instead

begin to advocate for mercy for our enemies.

My Personal Journey

As a mature Christian,

I have read this psalm

during a time when

something

unjust

has happened to me, and I am suffering.

As I put the person who hurt me

into this psalm ...

the words get harder and harder to read. 

The person who hurt me did a terrible thing....

but not so terrible that

I would want the things in this psalm

to be done to him or her.

 I find myself saying,

"Well, it wasn't THAT bad...

Well, I don't want THAT to happen to him / her."

This psalm makes me

FEEL heard and it

calms me down. 

-

The God of all Comfort

wants to lead you and me

like a shepherd to pastures of peace.

If you are having trouble with unforgiveness,

we have practical help for you.

Please consider our forgiveness pages.

They are listed on the following page:

Forgiveness

And when we hurt others...

And another note of wisdom to help us in daily life...

This note is intended to help us when we

hurt another person and then need to ask

for forgiveness

for something WE did...

It is easier to forgive and move on when the person who hurt you is seeing the offense as BIG.

But when that person sees the offense as smaller than you do, then it tends to kindle our anger and makes it harder for us to forgive - because obviously that person doesn't understand my pain and what a horrible thing he did.

Soooo, make a bigger deal out of what you do so that you help others to forgive YOU.

Psalm 109

Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;

2 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.

3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.

4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

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

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

17 As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

20 Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the Lord, and of them that speak evil against my soul.

21 But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.

22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.

24 My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.

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

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

27 That they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, Lord, hast done it.

28 Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

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

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.

31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

Here are links to all our Psalm pages: Here

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