Psalm 109

For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.

¹My God, whom I praise,

do not remain silent,

²for people who are wicked and deceitful

have opened their mouths against me;

they have spoken against me with lying tongues.

³With words of hatred they surround me;

they attack me without cause.

⁴In return for my friendship they accuse me,

but I am a man of prayer.

⁵They repay me evil for good,

and hatred for my friendship.

⁶Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;

let an accuser stand at his right hand.

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

and may his prayers condemn him.

⁸May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

⁹May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

¹⁰May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be driven from their ruined homes.

¹¹May a creditor seize all he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

¹²May no one extend kindness to him

or take pity on his fatherless children.

¹³May his descendants be cut off,

their names blotted out from the next generation.

¹⁴May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;

may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

¹⁵May their sins always remain before the Lord,

that he may blot out their name from the earth.

¹⁶For he never thought of doing a kindness,

but hounded to death the poor

and the needy and the brokenhearted.

¹⁷He loved to pronounce a curse—

may it come back on him.

He found no pleasure in blessing—

may it be far from him.

¹⁸He wore cursing as his garment;

it entered into his body like water,

into his bones like oil.

¹⁹May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,

like a belt tied forever around him.

²⁰May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers,

to those who speak evil of me.

²¹But you, Sovereign Lord,

help me for your name’s sake;

out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.

²²For I am poor and needy,

and my heart is wounded within me.

²³I fade away like an evening shadow;

I am shaken off like a locust.

²⁴My knees give way from fasting;

my body is thin and gaunt.

²⁵I am an object of scorn to my accusers;

when they see me, they shake their heads.

²⁶Help me, Lord my God;

save me according to your unfailing love.

²⁷Let them know that it is your hand,

that you, Lord, have done it.

²⁸While they curse, may you bless;

may those who attack me be put to shame,

but may your servant rejoice.

²⁹May my accusers be clothed with disgrace

and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.

³⁰With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord;

in the great throng of worshipers I will praise him.

³¹For he stands at the right hand of the needy,

to save their lives from those who would condemn them.