Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 109:17

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

He was a wolf in clothing of the lamb,

That stole into the fold of God, and on

The blood of souls, which he did sell to death,

Grew fat; and yet, when any would have turned

Him out, he cried, "Touch not the priest of God."

And that he was anointed, fools believed;

But knew, that day, he was the devil's priest,

Anointed by the hands of Sin and Death,

And set peculiarly apart to ill —

While on him smoked the vials of perdition,

Poured measureless. Ah, me! What cursing then

Was heaped upon his head by ruined souls,

That charged him with their murder, as he stood

With eye, of all the unredeemed, most sad,

Waiting the coming of the Son of Man! —Robert Pollok.

Verses 17-19. Possibly Ps 109:17-18 describe as fact what Ps 109:19 amplifies in a wish, or prayer. "He loved cursing, and it loved him in return, and came to him: he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him. He clothed himself with cursing as with a garment, and, it permeated his inmost parts as water, as the refreshing oil with which the body is anointed finds a way into marrow and bones." The images are familiar; the daily dress, the water that permeates daily every part of the body, the oil used daily for nourishment (Ps 104:15) and gladness (Ps 23:5). In the wish that follows (Ps 109:19), the mantle, or garment, which is always worn, and the girdle or belt with which the accursed one is always girded, are substituted, apparently, for more general terms. —Speakers Commentary.

Verses 17-19. As the loss of the soul is a loss peculiar to itself, and a loss double, so it is a loss most fearful, because it is attended with the most heavy curse of God. This curse lieth in a deprivation of all good, and in a being swallowed up of all the most fearful miseries that a holy and just and eternal God can righteously inflict, or lay upon the soul of a sinful man. Now let reason here come in and exercise itself in the most exquisite manner; yea, let him now count up all, and all manner of curses and torments that a reasonable and an immortal soul is, or can be made capable of, and able to suffer, and when he has done, he shall come infinitely short of this great anathema, this master curse which God has reserved amongst his treasuries, and intends to bring out in that day of battle and war, which he proposes to make upon damned souls in that day. And this God will do, partly as a retaliation, as the former, and partly by way of revenge.

1. By way of retaliation: As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing, so let it be far from him. Again, "As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil it, to his bones. Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually." "Let this", saith Christ, "be the reward of wine adversaries from the Lord," etc.

2. As this curse comes by way of retaliation, so it cometh by way of revenge. God will right the wrongs that sinners have done him, will repay vengeance for the despite and reproach wherewith they have affronted him, and will revenge the quarrel of his covenant. As the beginnings of revenges are terrible (De 32:41-42); what, then, will the whole execution be, when he shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ? And, therefore, this curse is executed in wrath, in jealousy, in anger, in fury; yea, the heavens and the earth shall be burned up with the fire of that jealousy in which the great God will come when he cometh to curse the souls of sinners, and when he cometh to defy the ungodly, 2Th 1:7-9. —John Bunyan.