Messiah’s prayers and praised for judgement on Judas and Judas-like men

Whatever the occasion of which David wrote, there is no doubt that it shadowed the coming betrayal of our Lord by Judas. It is not without cause that other generations called this, the Iscariotic psalm. The New Testament proof of this is found in Acts 1:16. Such a sin of selling the blood of Christ brought awful judgment, not only upon Judas, but also his descendants. A little sin casts a long shadow, what then of an awful sin?

Though our Lord confesses to the effects such enmity had brought upon Him, so that He felt as a shrinking shadow, yet He gave Himself to prayer (v. 4). Adolph Saphir translates that verse, “I prayer,” or, “I am prayer.” The italics are left out. Christ’s life portrays that fact; He was prayer, and He knew that God stood at His right Hand.

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: Coleshill, Bangor

Psalm 109

¹O thou the God of all my praise,
Do thou not hold thy peace;
²For mouths of wicked men to speak
Against me do not cease:

The mouths of vile deceitful men
Against me open’d be;
And with a false and lying tongue
They have accused me.

³They did beset me round about
With words of hateful spight:
And though to them no cause I gave,
Against me they did fight.

⁴They for my love became my foes,
But I me set to pray.
⁵Evil for good, hatred for love,
To me they did repay.

⁶Set thou the wicked over him;
And upon his right hand
Give thou his greatest enemy,
Ev’n Satan, leave to stand.

⁷And when by thee he shall be judg’d,
Let him condemned be;
And let his pray’r be turn’d to sin,
When he shall call on thee.

⁸Few be his days, and in his room
His charge another take.
⁹His children let be fatherless,
His wife a widow make.

¹⁰His children let be vagabonds,
And beg continually;
And from their places desolate
Seek bread for their supply.

¹¹Let covetous extortioners
Catch all he hath away:
Of all for which he labour’d hath
Let strangers make a prey.

¹²Let there be none to pity him,
Let there be none at all
That on his children fatherless
Will let his mercy fall.

¹³Let his posterity from earth
Cut off for ever be,
And in the foll’wing age their name
Be blotted out by thee.

¹⁴Let GOD his father’s wickedness
Still to remembrance call;
And never let his mother’s sin
Be blotted out at all.

¹⁵But let them all before the LORD
Appear continually,
That he may wholly from the earth
Cut off their memory.

¹⁶Because he mercy minded not,
But persecuted still
The poor and needy, that he might
The broken–hearted kill.

¹⁷As he in cursing pleasure took,
So let it to him fall;
As he delighted not to bless,
So bless him not at all.

¹⁸As cursing he like clothes put on,
Into his bowels so,
Like water, and into his bones,
Like oil, down let it go.

¹⁹Like to the garment let it be
Which doth himself array,
And for a girdle, wherewith he
Is girt about alway.

²⁰From GOD let this be their reward
That en’mies are to me,
And their reward that speak against
My soul maliciously.

²¹But do thou, for thine own name’s sake,
O GOD the Lord, for me:
Sith good and sweet thy mercy is,
From trouble set me free.

²²For I am poor and indigent,
Afflicted sore am I,
My heart within me also is
Wounded exceedingly.

²³I pass like a declining shade,
Am like the locust tost:
²⁴My knees through fasting weaken’d are,
My flesh hath fatness lost.

²⁵I also am a vile reproach
Unto them made to be;
And they that did upon me look
Did shake their heads at me.

²⁶O do thou help and succour me,
Who art my God and LORD:
And, for thy tender mercy’s sake,
Safety to me afford:

²⁷That thereby they may know that this
Is thy almighty hand;
And that thou, LORD, hast done the same,
They may well understand.

²⁸Although they curse with spite, yet, Lord,
Bless thou with loving voice:
Let them asham’d be when they rise;
Thy servant let rejoice.

²⁹Let thou mine adversaries all
With shame be clothed over;
And let their own confusion
Them, as a mantle, cover.

³⁰But as for me, I with my mouth
Will greatly praise the LORD;
And I among the multitude
His praises will record.

³¹For he shall stand at his right hand
Who is in poverty,
To save him from all those that would
Condemn his soul to die.