Matthew Poole and continuators on Psalms 109

1. HOld not thy peace , O God of my praise .

Do not neglect me, but take notice of my extreme danger and misery, and deliver me, which thou canst do by the speaking of one word.

The Author and matter of all my praises; who hast given me continual occasion to praise thee, whom I have used to praise, and will praise whilst I live, do not therefore now give me occasion to turn my praises into lamentations.

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 .

Of those who add hypocrisie and perfidiousness to their malice.

They speak freely, boldly, and publickly, without any fear or shame.

Or, to or with me, as this particle commonly signifies.

Either, 1. with calumnies or false and malicious reports. Or, 2. with deep dissimulation and professions of friendship and kindness.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] ▪ [illegible: 1 word] of [illegible: 1 word].; [illegible: 1 word]. have o [illegible: 1+ letters] them [illegible: 1+ letters].

3. They compassed me about also with words of hatred : and fought against me without a cause .

Which though covered with specious pretences, proceeded from deep malice and hatred, and were designed to work my destruction.

Without any just provocation given them by me.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 69. 4.

4. For my love, they are my adversaries : but I give my self unto prayer ,

They require my love and good will with enmity and mischief, as it is explained v. 5.

Heb. but I prayer, i. e. I am a man of prayer, or, I betake my self to prayer. Thus I peace is put for I am for peace, as we render it Psal. 120. 7. and thy bread for the men of thy bread, or, that eat thy bread, Obad. v. 7. The sence is, whilst they reproach and curse me, I pray either, 1. for them, as he did Psal. 35. 13. or, 2. for my self: I did not render unto them evil for evil, but quietly committed my self and my cause to God by prayer, desiring him to plead my cause against them; and I had no other refuge.

6. Set thou a wicked man over him , and let Satan stand at his right hand .

Heb. the wicked. Which may be understood either, 1. of some wicked Tyrant, which may rule him with rigour and cruelty. Or, 2. of Satan, who is mentioned in the next clause. Let him be delivered over to Satan, to be acted and ruled by him at his pleasure.

Either, 1. all mine enemies: for the Singular number is sometimes used in like manner. Or rather, 2. one particular enemy, who was worse than any of the rest, more implacable and inexcusable, whom he thought not fit to express by name, nor was it in the least necessary to do so, because he was speaking to God, who knew his thoughts, and whom he meant.

Either, 1. to molest and vex him, and hinder him in all his affairs; for the right hand is the great instrument of action. Or rather, 2. to accuse him; for this was the place and posture of accusers in the Jewish Courts. And as for his condemnation, which is the consequence of this accusation, that follows in the next verse.

Marginal references: [illegible: 1 word] 3. 1.; [illegible: 1 word] adver.

7. When he shall be judged , let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin .

When he shall be called to an account, and his cause examined before thy Tribunal.

i. e. Be turned into sin, or be imputed to him as his sin, or be as unavailable with God for his relief as his sins. When he makes supplication to his Judge, as Iob speaks Iob 9. 15. for pity and pardon, let him be the more provoked and enraged by it.

Marginal references: Heb. go out guilty, or wicked.; Prov. 28. 9.

8. Let his days be few, and let another take his office .

The days of his life. Let him die an untimely death.

Made void by his death. He also implies that his enemy was a man of power and reputation.

Marginal references: Act. 1. 20.; Or, charge.

9. Let his children be fatherless , and his wife a widow .

Whilst they are but children, and so unable to provide for themselves.

Either made a widow by his death: or constantly a widow; all persons abhorring her who was related to so vile a miscreant.

10. Let his children be continually vagabonds , and beg : let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places .

Having no certain place of abode. Which is a grievous curse in it self, Gen. 4. 12, 14. Isa. 16. 2.

This increaseth their misery.

Into which they are fled for fear and shame, as not daring to shew their faces amongst men.

11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath: and let the stranger spoil his labour .

Or, usurer, or, creditor.

Heb. Ensnare, which is an Emphatical expression, i. e. take away not only by oppression and violence, but also by cheats and cunning artifices, whereby such persons entangle, and so ruine their debtors.

Who hath no right to his goods, and will use no pity nor measure in spoiling him.

All the fruits of his labours.

12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children .

Let him and his be unpitied and hated as the publick enemies of mankind.

Marginal references: Psal. 34. 10.

13. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

Heb. in another generation, either in the third generation: or in the second, or that which next followed the generation of his fathers. So in this clause he limits the time of that destruction which he imprecates or foretells in the former.

Marginal references: Job 18. 19.

14. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembred with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Against him, or punished in him, as God hath threatned to deal with great delinquents, Exod. 20. 5.

15. Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

The sins of his parents last mentioned.

In Gods sight and memory to provoke God to punish him: let them not be covered or pardoned.

Marginal references: Job 18. 17. Psal. 34. 16.

16. Because that he remembred not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man , that he might even s[illegible: 1+ letters]ay the broken in heart .

His duty to God, and his obligation to me for my former kindness expressed v. 4, 5.

My self, who was desolate and miserable, whose condition required pity and not additions of cruelty.

Whose spirit was grieved and even broken with the burden of his calamities.

17. As he loved cursing , so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing , so let it be far from him.

Either, 1. cursed or sinful courses. Or rather, 2. to curse others, as appears from the blessing here opposed to it, and from the next verse; to wish and to procure mischief to others, and especially to me.

In desiring and promoting the welfare of others, which indeed was an eye-sore and torment to him.

Marginal references: Ezek. 35. 6.

18. As he clothed himself with cursing like as with a garment : so let it come into his bowels like water , and like oyl into his bones.

Which a man wears constantly, and that as an ornament.

Which when a man drinks, goes into his bowels, and searcheth all the inwards of his belly.

Which is more piercing than water, and being applied to outward parts, reacheth even to the bones and marrow.

Marginal references: Heb. within him.

19. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.

Which cleaves closer and faster to a man than a garment, especially than the Eastern garments did, which were large and loose.

20. Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul .

Of those who were confederate with that arch-enemy in his wicked enterprise.

With design to take away my life.

Marginal references: Heb. work. Isai. 40. 10.

21. But do thou for me , O GOD the LORD, for thy names sake : because thy mercy is good , deliver thou me.

To wit, what I desire, which he expresseth in the next clause. Or, do thou act for me: be not silent or still, but stir up thy self to work on my behalf.

For the glory of thy faithfulness, which is highly concerned in giving me the deliverance which thou hast promised to me.

i. e. Gracious, and ready to do good to all, but especially to those that love and fear thee. As sin is said to be sinful, Rom. 7. 13. so Gods mercy may be said to be merciful, to wit, in an eminent degree, and above the mercy of all the creatures.

22. For I am poor and needy , and my heart is wounded within me .

And therefore a very proper object for thy pity and help.

I am wounded not slightly, but even to the very heart with soul-piercing sorrows.

23. I am gone like the shadow, when it declineth : I am tossed up and down as the locust .

Heb. I am made to go, either, 1. from place to place; which was Davids case when he was persecuted by Saul and by Absalom; and Christs case upon earth, where he had no certain place where to lay his head, Mat. 8. 20. Or, 2. into the grave, as this phrase is used 1 Chron. 17. 11. Psal. 58. 9. and oft elsewhere.

Towards the evening, when, the Sun setting, it vanisheth instantly, and irrecoverably until the Sun rise again, which it never will do to me in this world, when once I am gone out of it.

Which of it self is unstable, continually skipping from place to place, and is easily driven away with every wind. So am I exposed to perpetual and successive changes within my self, and to a thousand violences and mischiefs from other persons and things.

Marginal references: Psal. 102. 11.

24. My knees are weak through [illegible: 1+ letters]asting : and my flesh faileth of fatness .

Either with voluntary fasts, to which the frequency and long continuance of my calamities obliged me: or with forced fasts sometimes through want of necessary provisions, but most commonly from that loathing of meat, which was occasioned by his excessive sorrows and terrors. See on Psal. 107. 18.

Or, for want of fatness. See the like Hebrew phrases Gen. 18. 26. Ier. 48. 45. Lam. 4. 9.

25. I became also a reproach unto them : when they looked upon me, they shaked their heads .

Instead of that pity, which either Religion or Humanity should have taught them to a man in extreme misery, they loaded me with reproaches and scorns.

A gesture of contempt and derision: of which see Iob 16. 4. Psal. 22 8.

27. That they may know that this is thy hand: that thou, LORD, hast done it.

Being convinced of the eminency and singularity and strangeness of the work.

28. Let them curse , but bless thou: when they arise let them be ashamed, but let thy servant rejoyce.

I can patiently bear their curses, as being causless and fully compensated by thy blessing. Or, they do and will curse, I expect nothing else from them.

i. e. Bestir themselves against me. Both God and men are oft said to arise when they enter upon any undertaking, as Ios. 24. 9. Iudg. 8. 21. 2 Chron. 13. 6. & 21. 4, &c.

29. Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame : and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.

For the disappointment of their wicked hopes and designs, and for that unexpected destruction which they have brought upon themselves.

30. I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth: yea, I will praise him among the multitude .

For that deliverance which I confidently expect.

Or, among the mighty or great men, as this word sometimes signifies. Comp. Psal. 119. 46.

31. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor , to save him from those that condemn his soul .

To defend him from his adversary, who stood in that place to accuse him, and to procure his condemnation and destruction. See above on v. 6.

That pass a sentence of death upon him.

Marginal references: Heb. from the judges of his soul.