Psalm 109

What’s Happening

Psalms 108, 109, and 110 form a trilogy that tells the story of how God will build his promised Kingdom on earth through Israel’s paradigmatic king, David. The first Psalm in this trilogy, 108, focused on David as a conquering king. This middle Psalm, 109, highlights David as an interceding priest. 

Internal enemies in Israel are conspiring against David and his chosen position. David’s former friends have turned into enemies and are cursing and falsely accusing him (Psalm 109:2-5). Those whom David appointed as leaders are now turning against him to oppose him. These accusations against God’s chosen leader threaten Israel’s stability and David’s legitimacy. God’s people need an interceding priest to hear God say that David’s accusers are liars. Priests intercede between God and man, revealing who is blessed and who is cursed. So in a priest-like way, David asks God to speak through him, naming who is blessed and who is cursed (Psalm 109:1; Psalm 109:8-20). 

David’s opponents have shown through their deception and false accusations that they are like the serpent in the Garden of Eden, who first deceived God’s people. So David asks God to hand his opponents over to their own opponent, an accuser, which is the word for “Satan.” With this opponent at their right hand, they will be exposed for what they are, lose their position of leadership, and receive the curse they are trying to put on him (Psalm 109:6; Psalm 109:29). In the Garden of Eden, God cursed the serpent who lied to his blessed people, telling the serpent his lineage would end. Likewise, the bulk of David’s priestly words speak of the end of his own serpent-like enemies and the end of their lineage (Psalm 109:6-15). Like a priest, David rightly pronounces his opponents as cursed.  

David continues his priestly prayer by pronouncing a blessing (Psalm 109:21). Those God has promised to bless are those who seem cursed—the poor, starving, and the ashamed (Psalm 109:22-25). So David, speaking God’s words for the people, proclaims that though everyone is cursing them, they will be blessed (Psalm 109:28). Israel, their chosen leader, and their blessed kingdom will be saved because of God’s never-ending love that has promised to bless his people and curse their opponents (Psalm 109:26). David ends by singing that God is his right hand man, not an opponent like Satan (Psalm 109:30-31). While Satan opposes David’s enemies to curse them, God stands beside David to bless him. God will rescue Israel from accusations and curses, delivering them to be a blessing to the world.                                                   

Where is the Gospel?            

Like David, Jesus’ own friend turned into his enemy. Judas was one of Jesus’ closest friends, but Satan, the opponent, became Judas’ right-hand man. Judas handed Jesus over to those who would accuse and curse him. Jesus’ followers connected Judas’ actions with the actions of David’s opponents in Psalm 109. Like David’s enemies, Judas lost his position of leadership among the apostles and was handed over to Satan. In Judas’ self-imposed death, we see the curse falling where it should, not on Jesus but on his opponents (Acts 1:20). 

Yet, surprisingly, as Jesus hung on a cursed tree surrounded by opponents, he did not pronounce a curse on those who deserved cursing. He interceded for his accusers and murderers, asking God to forgive them as they tortured him (Luke 23:34). In fact, Jesus blessed the cursed murderer dying on a cross at his right hand. Jesus promised to bring him that day to an Eden paradise where no opponent could curse him again (Luke 23:43). 

From the beginning, the opponent, Satan, has tried to curse humanity. He has sought to bring them into his lineage by making himself the right-hand man of their downfall. But Jesus cuts off the cursed lineage of the serpent by bringing people into his blessed lineage. Like the murderer who was pronounced as cursed on the cross, Jesus brings us to his right hand and pronounces us blessed instead. He frees us from the accusations of the opponent and brings us into his blessed paradise. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit would open your eyes to see the God who is committed to blessing his people in the midst of a cursed world. And may you see Jesus as our final priest who brings the cursed to his right hand and calls them blessed.