Psalms — Chapter 109
For the leader. Of David. A psalm.O God of my praise,do not keep aloof,
for the wicked and the deceitfulopen their mouth against me;they speak to me with lying tongue.
They encircle me with words of hate;they attack me without cause.
They answer my love with accusationand I must stand judgmentaand I must stand judgment Or “but I am all prayer”; meaning of Heb. uncertain, but see v. 7.
They repay me with evil for good,with hatred for my love.
Appoint someone wicked over him;may an accuser stand at his right side;
may he be tried and convicted;may he be judged and found guilty.
May his days be few;may another take over his position.bhis position Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
May his children be orphans,his wife a widow.
May his children wander from their hovels,begging in search of [bread].
May his creditor seize all his possessions;may strangers plunder his wealth.
May no one show him mercy;may none pity his orphans;
may his posterity be cut off;may their names be blotted out in the next generation.
May God be ever mindful of his father’s iniquity,and may the sin of his mother not be blotted out.
May GOD be aware of them alwaysand cause their names to be cut off from the earth,
because he was not minded to act kindly,and hounded to death the poor and needy man,cthe poor and needy man The psalmist himself; cf. vv. 22, 31. one crushed in spirit.
He loved to curse—may a curse come upon him!He would not bless—may blessing be far from him!
May he be clothed in a curse like a garment,may it enter his body like water,his bones like oil.
Let it be like the cloak he wraps around him,like the belt he always wears.
May GOD thus repay my accusers,all those who speak evil against me.
Now You, O GOD, my Sovereign,act in my behalf as befits Your name.Good and faithful as You are, save me.
For I am poor and needy,and my heart is pierced within me.
I fade away like a lengthening shadow;I am shaken off like locusts.
My knees give way from fasting;my flesh is lean, has lost its fat.
I am the object of their scorn;when they see me, they shake their head.
Help me, O my ETERNAL God;save me in accord with Your faithfulness—
that all may know that it is Your hand,that You, O ETERNAL One, have done it.
Let them curse, but You bless;let them rise up, but come to grief,while Your servant rejoices.
My accusers shall be clothed in shame,wrapped in their disgrace as in a robe.
My mouth shall sing much praise to GOD;I will acclaim in the midst of a throng,
because [God] stands at the right hand of the needy,to save them from those who would condemn them.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
The Golden Rule
Matthew 7:12
“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
Hadith (An-Nawawi 13)
“None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”
Mahabharata 5.1517
“One should never do to another what one regards as injurious to oneself.”
Dhammapada 10:1
“All tremble at violence; all fear death. Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.”
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Snp 1.8
“As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings.”
Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1
“One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Hatred.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”