King James Version

1. 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.

Analysis

The New Oxford Annotated Bible titles this psalm "Prayer for deliverance from enemies", as one of the Imprecatory Psalms against deceitful foes.^[4] It starts with the psalmist's plea in verses 1–5, followed by an extensive imprecation (verses 6–19, concluded or summed up in verse 20).^[5] The renewed pleading at verse 21 is made with appeals on the grounds of Yahweh's steadfast love, the details of the psalmist's own misery, and the request for vengeance to the enemies, but the lament ends with the vow to offer praise, which is common in this type of psalm (verses 30–31).^[5] In verses 8–14 the curse by the psalmist 'extends through three generations': on the person (verse 8), on the person's children (verses 9–13), and on the person's parents (verse 14).^[4] The change from plural enemies (verses 2–5) to a singular individual (verses 6–19) parallels Psalm 55.^[6]

In verse 4, there is evil given 'in return for my love'. The curses here are consistent with Proverbs 17:13, where "if evil is given for good then evil will not depart from their house".^[7] Returning evil for good is also seen in other psalms, often seen as portending Judas being an 'anti-friend' figure returning evil for good or even friendship, namely 41, 69 and here in 109.

In Judaism

Psalm 109 is recited on the day of Parshat Zachor.^[16]

In political contexts

In the United States, verse 8, "May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership", has been used by a number of fundamentalist preachers who use the imprecatory psalm as an imprecatory prayer. Pastor Greg Dixon of the Indianapolis Baptist Temple had invoked it,^[17] which had been condemned by others.^[18] In 2009, the media reported more widely on its usage in reference to President Barack Obama,^[19] by those such as Pastor Wiley Drake.^[20] In January 2010, a Florida Sheriff's deputy was suspended for highlighting the passage in another deputy's bible and adding the note "The Obama Prayer" beside it.^[21] In January 2012, Kansas Speaker of the House Michael O'Neal sent an email quoting verse 8 to his Republican colleagues that stated, "At last – I can honestly voice a Biblical prayer for our president! Look it up – it is word for word! Let us all bow our heads and pray. Brothers and Sisters, can I get an AMEN? AMEN!!!!!!"^[22] On June 10, 2016, Georgia Senator David Perdue quoted the verse, referencing Obama, at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority conference.^[23]

By the late summer of 2017, bumper stickers could be seen asking people to pray for US President Donald Trump with the same attribution.^[24]

In modern literature

Psalm 109 was used by Thomas Hardy in his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. Michael Henchard, the protagonist of the novel, is drinking with the choir after practice when he sees his rival, Donald Farfrae, whom he hates. He later persuades the choir to sing Psalm 109. The choir master remarks of this psalm that, "Twasn't made for singing. We chose it once when the gypsy stole the parson's mare, thinking to please him, but parson were quite upset. Whatever Servant David were thinking about when he made a Psalm that nobody can sing without disgracing himself, I can't fathom."^[25]

Verse 6 of the same psalm figures prominently in M. R. James's supernatural story "The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral" (1910), which recounts the guilt-ridden life and dismal death of Archdeacon John Haynes, who is haunted through the medium of wooden figures carved on the archdeacon's choir stall, which feel as though they come to life beneath his guilty hand (he having removed a stair rod in order to cause his predecessor to tumble down a flight of stairs to his death).^[26]

…the wood seemed to become chilly and soft as if made of wet linen. I can assign the moment at which I became sensible of this.The choir were singing the words (Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him and) let Satan stand at his right hand.^[26]

James also features Psalm 109 as a plot device (without, however, actually quoting from it) in The Uncommon Prayer-Book, another of his ghost stories. The prayer-book of the title is discovered to have been had printed (during the Commonwealth period) by ardent royalist Lady Sadleir of Brockstone Court, who so detested Oliver Cromwell that she stipulated in a rubric in her prayer-book - most unconventionally - that Psalm 109 be read in her chapel each year on St. Mark’s Day, April the 25th - Cromwell’s birthday - in order to damn him for all eternity.^[26]

In Anglicanism

According to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer Psalms 108 and 109 are said or sung at Evensong on the 22nd day of every month.

Musical settings

Heinrich Schütz composed a four-part setting to a metric German paraphrase of Psalm 109, "Herr Gott, deß ich mich rühmte viel", SVW 207, for the 1628 Becker Psalter.