Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 109:31
For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save [him] from those that condemn his soul.
31. A contrast to Psa 109:6-7. Jehovah stands at the right hand of the needy ( Psa 109:16 ; Psa 109:22) as his advocate and champion, while the accuser is to stand at the right hand of the wicked man. The wicked man is to be found guilty, as he deserves, while his victim will be saved from the persecutors who are minded to judge his soul, i.e. condemn him to death.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor – He will thus show that he befriends the poor and the helpless.
To save him from those that condemn his soul – – Margin, from the judges of his soul. The Hebrew is, from those that judge his soul. The meaning is, from those that pronounce a harsh or unjust judgment; from those that condemn the innocent.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. He shall stand at the right hand of the poor] Even if Satan himself be the accuser, God will vindicate the innocence of his servant. Pilate and the Jews condemned our Lord to death as a malefactor; God showed his immaculate innocence by his resurrection from the dead.
The whole of this Psalm is understood by many as referring solely to Christ, the traitor Judas, and the wicked Jews. This is the view taken of it in the analysis.
ANALYSIS OF THE HUNDRED AND NINTH PSALM
The later expositors expound this Psalm of Doeg, Ahithophel, and other persecutors of David; and so it may be understood in the type; but the ancient fathers apply it to Judas, and the Jews who put Christ to death; which opinion, being more probable, and because Peter (Ac 1:20) applies a passage out of Ps 109:8 to Judas, I shall expound the Psalm as of Christ, whom David personated, and of Judas, and the malicious Jews, as understood in the persons of his wicked and slanderous enemies.
The Psalm has four parts: –
I. A short ejaculation, Ps 109:1, and the reasons expressed in a complaint of the fraud and malice of his enemies, Ps 109:6.
II. A bitter imprecation against their fury, Ps 109:6-21.
III. A supplication presented to God for himself, and the reasons, Ps 109:21-30.
IV. A profession of thanks.
I. He begins with an ejaculation: “Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise.”
1. Either actively, that is, “O God, whom I praise,” even in the greatest calamities.
2. Or passively; “Who art my praise:” The Witness and Advocate of my innocency when I am condemned by malicious tongues; which sense appears best for this place.
“Hold not thy peace.” Tacere, to be silent, in Scripture, when referred to God, is to connive, to rest, to appear not to regard; and, on the contrary, loqui, to speak, to do something for revenge or deliverance; it is what David here asks, that, when the malice of his enemies arrived at its height, God should not suffer them, but show his displeasure.
Then by way of complaint, he describes their malicious nature, which he aggravates by an elegant gradation. “For the mouth of the wicked:” and they were, 1. Impious. 2. Deceitful. 3. Liars.
1. “For the mouth of the wicked:” Caiaphas, Judas, the priests, Jews, c.
2. “And the mouth of the deceitful,” c. They sought to entrap him in his words.
3. “They have spoken against me,” &c. “He casteth out devils through Beelzebub,” &c.
And yet the mischief rises higher, even to hatred and malice.
1. “They compassed me about,” &c. Manifesting in plain words the malice they carried in their hearts. “This man is not of God,” &c.
2. “They hated me without a cause:” Wantonly, idly. They were not only evil, deceitful, and malicious but very ungrateful. “He went about doing good” and “How often would I have gathered you,” c. and for this love they returned hatred.
1. “For my love, they are my adversaries:” But, nevertheless,
2. “I give myself to prayer:” “Father, forgive them; they know not,” c. Which base ingratitude of theirs he opens in fuller words. “They have rewarded me evil.” And Theognis truly says,
No kindness can invert an evil nature:
A Jew will ever be a Jew. II. The prophet, having complained of the malice, spiteful usage, and ingratitude of his nation, their crafty dealing with him, and their lies against him, proceeds to pray against them, and that in most bitter and fearful imprecations. Enemies he foresaw they would be to the flourishing state of Christ’s Church, and that nothing had power to restrain or amend them and therefore he curses them with a curse the most bitter that ever fell from the lips of man. In particular Judas, who was guide to them who took Jesus, is pointed out; but, as Augustine observes, he represented the person of the whole synagogue; therefore, it is involved necessarily. But some understanding these curses as uttered by the Jews against David. See Clarke on Ps 109:20.
1. “Set thou a wicked man over him,” c.: A fearful imprecation. Subject him to the will of some impious and wicked man, to whose lust and violence he may be no better than a slave. Others understand by a wicked man a false teacher, who may seduce him by false doctrines.
2. “Let Satan stand at his right hand:” Have full power over him. Let him stand which signifies a perpetual endeavour to urge him forward till he effect his intended mischief. And so it was with Judas and the Jews; Satan was their guide, and they followed him.
The second is, “When he shall be judged, let him be condemned;” – find no mercy, no favour, at the judge’s hands; thus, when Judas, accused and condemned by his own conscience, went to the high priest, who had bribed him, he would not acquit him; and Judas, in despair and grief for his sin, “went out and hanged himself.”
The third, “Let his prayer become sin:” He turned his ear from hearing God, why then should God hear him? No prayer is acceptable to God but through Christ, and that out of a sincere heart; any other prayers become sin.
The fourth is the shortening of their life and honour.
1. “Let his days be few:” Length of days is promised only to the obedient, and is a blessing: but the prayer is that this man’s life be a short one, and so Judas’s was.
2. “And let another take his office:” Which must be applied to Judas, since St. Peter (Ac 1:20) so interprets it; and it is at this day as true of the Jews, for they have no high priest. Another, after the order of Melchizedek, has succeeded Aaron’s priesthood.
The fifth is –
1. “Let his children be fatherless,” c.: Which follows on the former curse.
2. “Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg:” And such the Jews are to this day and beggars they were for a long time after the overthrow of Jerusalem.
The sixth execration is upon his goods.
1. “Let the extortioner catch all that he hath:” Probably the publicans.
2. “And let the strangers spoil his labour:” Which was verified by the soldiers of Titus, who ripped up the bellies of the captive Jews to see if they had swallowed gold.
But the prophet again returns to his children.
1. “Let there be none to extend mercy unto him,” c.: To beg, or to want, is a misery but there is some comfort in it when beggars meet with some to relieve it. But the prophet says, Let there be none to pity him, or his. Judas found none to pity him.
2. Men, because they must die themselves, desire, if possible, to be immortal in their issue. Bellarmine observes that Judas had no issue; for that Matthias, who came in his place, did not derive his office from him. Though a posterity of the Jews remained after the flesh, yet, in the next generation, their ecclesiastical and civil polity was at an end; and since their dispersion they are without king, without priest, without sacrifice, without altar, without ephod, and without teraphim, as foretold by Hosea.
3. “Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered,” c.: This imprecation answers God’s threat: “I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” And this curse has come upon the Jews to the uttermost they are self-devoted: “Let his blood be upon us, and upon our children.” The guilt of his blood is yet upon them; the iniquity of their fathers is yet remembered; and the sin of their mother, the synagogue, is not yet done away.
He repeats again the sin of their fathers, and the sin of the synagogue; this verse being but the exposition of the former.
1. “Let them be before the Lord continually:” The sin their father and mother committed, never let it be forgotten by God.
2. “That he may cut off the memory,” c.: Except it be in contempt.
The prophet having now finished his execrations, acquaints us with the causes of them.
1. Their want of pity to them in distress: “Have ye no regard, all ye that pass by?” La 1:12. It is but just then “that they find judgment without mercy, that would show no mercy.”
2. So far from that, “that he persecuted the poor and needy man,” c., which is the second cause the inhumanity of Judas and the Jews against Christ, who is here called – 1. Poor, because, “when he was rich, for our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich” 2Co 9:2. The needy man: “For the foxes have holes, c., Lu 9:58. 3. The broken in heart. For he was in agony, and his soul was troubled, when he sweated great drops of blood when he cried, “My God, my God!” not with compunction or contrition for any fault he had committed, but from a sense of pain, and his solicitude for the salvation of mankind.
In this verse there is noted the extreme cruelty and inhumanity of the Jews; for whoever persecutes a man for his life is inclined to it either from some real or supposed injury, or else through envy: but Christ was humble and lowly in heart; he went about doing good, and yet they persecuted him.
But, thirdly, he complains: “He loved cursing;” therefore, it is but reason that he should have what he loved: “As he clothed himself with cursing – so let it come,” c. No man can love a curse or hate a blessing, if it be proposed to the will under the form of a curse or blessing: but a man is said to love a curse when he follows a wicked course, and avoids the blessing of a good life. This Judas and the Jews did: Judas, by loving money more than his Master the Jews, by – “Let his blood,” c.
Neque enim lex justior ulla est. c.
It is just that a man should suffer for his own wicked inventions. But the prophet adds, Let it sit close to him as a garment let it be converted into his substance: let him carry it perpetually, c.
1. “As he clothed himself with cursing,” &c. As in clothes he delights in.
2. “So let it come as waters,” &c. As the stomach concocts and turns every thing into the very flesh of the animal so let his curse be converted into his nature and manners.
3. “Let it come as oil into his bones,” c. Oil will pierce the bones water will not.
This curse must be of great efficacy he must always carry it.
1. “Let it be unto him,” c. Stick close as a garment.
2. “And for a girdle,” c. Compass him round about.
For a garment some read pallium a cloak that a man puts off at home, and calls for when he goes abroad: thus let God set an outward mark upon him let him be known as a cast-away.
If Doeg were the type of Judas, as most agree, in this Psalm, then by the girdle might be understood cingulum militare, the military girdle, which, while they were of that profession they cast not off: and he, Doeg, being a military man, the curse was to cleave to him, and compass him as his girdle.
The prophet concludes this part of the Psalm with an exclamation, as being persuaded his curses were not in vain.
“Let this be the reward of mine adversaries,” c., who say that I am a deceiver, and deny me to be the Saviour of the world.
III. The prophet now turns from curses to prayer: and in the person of Christ, directs it to God for protection and deliverance both of himself and the whole Church.
1. “But do thou for me,” c. He asks help against his persecutors on these three grounds: 1. Because his Lord was Jehovah, the fountain of all being and power. 2. Because it would be for his honour: “Do it for thy name’s sake.” Thy faithfulness and goodness to the Church, and justice in executing vengeance on her enemies. 3. Do it, because thy mercy is good – easily inclined to succour the miserable.
2. “Deliver me,” may have reference to Christ’s prayer, “Father, save me from this hour,” &c.
1. “Deliver me,” for I am destitute of all human help.
2. “Deliver me,” for my heart is wounded within me.
And to these he adds many other reasons and uses two similes, the one drawn from the shadow of the evening, the other from the locust.
1. “I am gone like a shadow: ” c. Which passes away in a moment silently: so was Christ led away as a prisoner, without any murmur: “He was led as a lamb,” &c., Isa 53:7. Thus the apostles and martyrs died patiently.
2. “I am tossed up and down as the locust.” From one tribunal to another, as the locust carried from place to place, Ex 10:12, Ex 10:19.
Secondly, he reasons from his bodily debility.
1. “My knees are weak through fasting.” The little sustenance Christ took before his passion and his watching in prayer all night.
2. “And my flesh faileth of fatness,” through the excess of his fatigue, and the anguish of his Spirit: thus he could not bear his cross.
3. A third reason why God should pity and deliver is drawn from the opprobrious usage and the scorn they put upon him, than which there is nothing more painful to an ingenuous and noble nature: “I am become also a reproach unto them,” c. The four Gospels are an ample comment upon this verse.
The second part of his prayer is for a speedy resurrection: “Help me, O Lord my God: O save me,” &c. And he supports his petition with a strong reason, drawn from the final cause: “Save me, that they may know,” &c. That all men, the Jews especially may be convinced by my rising again, in despite of the watch and the seal, that it was not their malice and power that brought me to this ignominious death, but that my passion, suffering, and death proceeded from thy hand: “By his resurrection he was declared,” Ro 1:4. And in the close of his prayer he sings a triumph over his enemies, the devil, Judas, the Jews, those bitter enemies, to him and his Church.
1. “Let them curse.” Speak evil of me and my followers.
2. “But bless thou.” Bless all nations that have faith in me.
3. “When they arise.” For, 1. Arise they will, and endeavour by every means to destroy my kingdom 2. But “let them be ashamed.” Confounded that their wishes are frustrated.
4. “But let thy servant (which condition Christ took upon himself) rejoice” because thy name is thereby glorified.
And he continues his exercrations by way of explanation. “Let mine adversaries,” &c, be confounded at the last day, for their ingratitude and malice, before angels and men.
IV. He closes all with thanks, which he opposes to the confusion of the wicked.
1. “I will greatly praise the Lord.” With affection and a great jubilee.
2. “I will praise him among the multitude.” Before all the world.
For which he assigns this reason, –
1. “He shall stand at the right hand of the poor.” That is, such as are poor in spirit, who ask and find mercy from God: to such I will be as a shield and buckler.
2. “I will stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him,” &c. From the devil and all his instruments. Christ is the all-covering shield of his Church: “He hath blotted out the handwriting of ordinances,” &c. So that, cum a mundo damnamur, a Christo ab solvemur. “When we are condemned by the world, we are absolved by Christ.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
At the right hand of the poor, to defend him from his adversary, who stood in that place to accuse him, and to procure his condemnation and destruction. See Poole “Psa 109:6“.
That condemn his soul; that pass a sentence of death upon him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,…. Of the Messiah, as in Ps 109:22 at whose right hand the Lord was, to guide and direct, help and assist, protect and defend, Ps 16:8, or of his people, who are poor in every sense; but the Lord is on their side, and is a present help in time of trouble, Ps 46:1.
To save him from those that condemn his soul: the Messiah: from his judges, the high priest and Jewish sanhedrim, and Pilate the Roman governor, who condemned him to death; but he committed his spirit, or soul, to God, who received it, and raised his body from the dead; and would not suffer it to see corruption, as a testimony of his innocence: or the soul of the poor saints, which the Lord saves from the condemnation of sin, Satan, the law, and their own consciences, Ro 8:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Moreover, he also subjoins the form in which he rendered thanks; namely, that God stood at the right hand of the poor By this language he intimates, that when God had apparently forsaken and abandoned him, and stood far from him, even then he was always near and ready to render him seasonable and needful help; and, assuredly, his poverty and affliction gave some reason for suspecting that he was forsaken of God, inasmuch as he then either withdrew or concealed his loving-kindness. Notwithstanding of this seeming departure, he acknowledges that, during his affliction and poverty, God never ceased to be present to render him assistance. In saying that he was saved from the judges of his life, he sets forth, in a still stronger light, the very trying situation in which he was placed; his having to deal with very formidable enemies, such as the king and the princes of the realm, who, proudly presuming upon their grandeur and greatness, and regarding his recovery hopeless, treated him as if he had been a dead dog. It is my firm conviction, that in this passage he complains both of the torturing cruelty of his enemies, and also that his character had been unjustly aspersed by calumny and reproach; for we know that he was borne down by the malignity and wickedness of those who, being invested with authority, boastingly, yet falsely, pretended that they wished to act as judges and as the executors of justice, which plausible pretexts they adopt as a cloak for their iniquity.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) For he . . .Jehovah is the poor mans advocate, just as an adversary was the wicked mans accuser.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor The , ( for, because,) is here most emphatic. This is the sum and object of all that is sought or desired in the psalm, and this is the reason for his “greatly praising the Lord.” Because “he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save.” See Psa 109:16. The “right hand” was the place of the advocate and defender. See on Psa 109:6, and Psa 142:4; Psa 16:8.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 109:31. He shall stand at the right hand of the poor That is, to defend, and plead for him. As the accuser stood at the right hand, Psa 109:6 so shall God also stand there, as this poor and distressed man’s advocate, to maintain him against the injurious charge brought against him. The word condemn should rather be rendered oppose, or pursue his soul, or life, i.e. plead against him, so as to call his life in question. Though it was in war, not in judicature, that David’s enemies thus contended with him, yet one of these is poetically expressed by the other; their hostile opposition, by words which are only forensic.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The Psalmist, in the person of the Messiah, addresses his prayer to God, under the oppressions of the wicked.
1. He lodges his appeal with God, under the calumnies of his enemies. Hold not thy peace, as if disregarding his sufferings, O God of my praise or my glorying; for even the Lord Jesus, as man, regarded his father as the object of his worship and glory.
2. He describes the invenomed malice of his enemies, from whose violence he sought deliverance. Wicked in temper and practice, deceitful, with fairest professions covering the blackest designs; liars, whose tongues distilled poison into the incautious ear; filled with hatred, restlesly bent on mischief, they compassed him about; and violent, they with causeless rage fought against him; returned his love with ingratitude and enmity, and rendered evil for the good he shewed them. Thus was Jesus treated; reviled, traduced, betrayed by him who called him master, but sought only to ensnare him: things laid to his charge that he knew not; persecuted, though innocent, with the most implacable vengeance; all his love repaid with hatred; and the astonishing miracles of kindness that he wrought exasperating the resentment of his enemies, and returned by an ignominious crucifixion.
3. Under these trials, prayer was his recourse. I give myself unto prayer, or I am a man of prayer; herein he exercised himself day and night, and even on the cross ceased not to cry, “Father, forgive them.” May we learn of our divine Lord thus to pray for those who despitefully use and persecute us!
2nd, They who have blamed David’s spirit, as if he appeared vindictive, have mistaken him greatly. When he speaks as a prophet, he foresees and foretels what would be the end of the wicked: when he speaks in the person of the Son of God, he denounces the just judgment due to the children of perdition. Terrible are the woes herein contained; Judas felt them: may we never, by like transgressions, provoke the same punishment.
3rdly, We have the Incarnate Redeemer’s complaint and prayer, and his joy in being heard and answered.
1. His condition is very distressing: poor and needy, born in a stable, and having no place to lay his head; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; his heart wounded with bitterest indignities, and more deeply still with the wrath of God due to the sins that he bore: hurried to the grave by a violent death, as the declining shadow: tossed to and fro, from Pilate to Herod, from Annas to Caiaphas: weak with fasting, and his body emaciated: reproached as a Samaritan, a magician, a mover of sedition, and, even on the cross, insulted by those who shook their heads at him, mocking at his high pretensions of being the Son of God. Note; If our Head thus suffered, let not his members murmur at their lot, under the pressures of poverty, a decaying body, or a reviling world: Jesus hath endured the cross before us.
2. His prayer is very importunate. Deliver, help, and save me: and to this end he pleads God’s own glory concerned in vindicating his righteous cause; his mercy, ever ready to succour the poor destitute. Such interposition also would carry conviction of God’s interesting himself on his behalf; others would acknowledge his hand, and these enemies themselves be confounded and ashamed: ashamed as penitent; or confounded as criminals. Thus, if God helped and blessed him, he could sit easy under the curses of his enemies, well knowing how impotent they were, and only big with vengeance on themselves. Note; (1.) If God bless us, we need not care how much men curse us. (2.) All our hope must be placed on God’s boundless mercy and grace: he alone can help and save us, not we ourselves.
3. His joy is great in the Lord. Among the multitude he will lift up his voice; yea, aloud his praises shall be heard for this great salvation of God. For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, his Messiah, and all his poor people, to support and protect them; to save him from those that condemn his soul; as he did when he raised up Jesus from the dead, and set him at his own right hand; and as he will do with all his persecuted, faithful, and suffering disciples at the last day, when none shall appear to lay one charge against them, and all their former adversaries shall be found liars.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
PAUSE, my soul, over the contents of this very, very solemn Psalm. Behold in the traitor Judas, the head and representative of all the despisers of Jesus, the awful but sure consequences of rejecting the Lord of life and glory: and think what must be the end of all such workers of iniquity. If such was the close of that apostate’s life, as the scripture records; if such the indignation which fell upon the Jewish nation and their beloved Jerusalem; if such to this hour the wretched state of their posterity; what indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, will fall on those who crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame! Oh! ye despisers of the Godhead of Jesus! Oh! ye who deny the Lord that bought the church with his blood! think, before it be too late, what horrors and alarms will overwhelm the soul when the Son of God shall come in all his glory, and the glory of his Father, to take vengeance on them who would not that he should reign over them.
Look up, my soul, look up by faith, and in the contemplation of the glory that shall be revealed, behold thy Jesus on his throne of grace, dispensing blessings to all his people. See him as a Lamb in the midst of the throne; all power is his, in heaven and in earth. Look to him for every covenant blessing, for in him it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell. Love him who hath so loved thee: live to him who hath both lived and died for thee: and let all thy fresh springs be in him, in whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light alone thou mayest see light. Hail! ever blessed, ever lovely, and all loving Jesus! Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. Amen.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save [him] from those that condemn his soul.
Ver. 31. For he shall stand at the right hand ] As a faithful and powerful ( or ) champion, and not as Satan standeth at the persecutor’s right hand, Psa 109:6 .
From those that condemn him
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
He shall stand, &c. Contrast this with Psa 109:6.
poor = needy. Not the same word as in Psa 109:16.
condemn his soul. Compare the Structure, Psa 109:20, with Psa 109:31.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
For he: Psa 16:8, Psa 73:23, Psa 110:5, Psa 121:5
poor: Psa 109:16, Psa 68:5, Psa 72:4, Psa 72:12, Psa 72:13, Psa 140:12
to save: Psa 10:14, Exo 22:22-24, Pro 22:22, Pro 22:23, Ecc 5:8, Isa 54:17, Act 4:10-12, Act 5:30, Act 5:31
those that condemn: Heb. the judges of
Reciprocal: Job 5:15 – he saveth Psa 9:14 – in the gates Psa 9:18 – For the Psa 10:9 – when Psa 35:10 – which Psa 37:33 – condemn Psa 69:29 – I am poor Psa 103:6 – executeth Isa 41:13 – will hold Jer 20:13 – for Jer 22:16 – judged Zec 3:2 – the Lord said Mat 12:7 – condemned Joh 12:7 – Let Act 2:25 – for Act 7:55 – standing Act 12:11 – and hath Act 23:11 – the Lord Rom 8:34 – Who 2Ti 4:17 – the Lord Jam 2:4 – judges
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save [him] from those that {r} condemn his soul.
(r) By this he shows that he had nothing to do with them who were of little power, but with the judges and princes of the world.