Psalm 109

Plea for Judgment of False Accusers

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.

1 Do anot keep silent,

O God of my praise!

2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful

Have opened against me;

They have spoken against me with a blying tongue.

3 They have also surrounded me with words of hatred,

And fought against me cwithout a cause.

4 In return for my love they are my accusers,

But I give myself to prayer.

5 Thus dthey have rewarded me evil for good,

And hatred for my love.

6 Set a wicked man over him,

And let ean 1accuser stand at his right hand.

7 When he is judged, let him be found guilty,

And flet his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be gfew,

And hlet another take his office.

9 iLet his children be fatherless,

And his wife a widow.

10 Let his children 2continually be vagabonds, and beg;

Let them 3seek their bread also from their desolate places.

11 jLet the creditor seize all that he has,

And let strangers plunder his labor.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy to him,

Nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children.

13 kLet his 4posterity be cut off,

And in the generation following let their lname be blotted out.

14 mLet the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,

And let not the sin of his mother nbe blotted out.

15 Let them be continually before the Lord,

That He may ocut off the memory of them from the earth;

16 Because he did not remember to show mercy,

But persecuted the poor and needy man,

That he might even slay the pbroken in heart.

17 qAs he loved cursing, so let it come to him;

As he did not delight in blessing, so let it be far from him.

18 As he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment,

So let it renter his body like water,

And like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be to him like the garment which covers him,

And for a belt with which he girds himself continually.

20 Let this be the Lord’s reward to my accusers,

And to those who speak evil against my person.

21 But You, O God the Lord,

Deal with me for Your name’s sake;

Because Your mercy is good, deliver me.

22 For I am poor and needy,

And my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am gone slike a shadow when it lengthens;

I am shaken off like a locust.

24 My tknees are weak through fasting,

And my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness.

25 I also have become ua reproach to them;

When they look at me, vthey shake their heads.

26 Help me, O Lord my God!

Oh, save me according to Your mercy,

27 wThat they may know that this is Your hand—

That You, Lord, have done it!

28 xLet them curse, but You bless;

When they arise, let them be ashamed,

But let yYour servant rejoice.

29 zLet my accusers be clothed with shame,

And let them cover themselves with their own disgrace as with a mantle.

30 I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth;

Yes, aI will praise Him among the multitude.

31 For bHe shall stand at the right hand of the poor,

To save him from those 5who condemn him.