Psalm 109:28

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(28-31) It is impossible not to notice the anti-climax in these verses, if they are spoken by the same person as Psalm 109:16-20, and directed against the same enemies, of whom the one there singled out is the prominent figure. It is not only that the effect is weakened by the change back to the plural number, but the same imprecations are repeated in a diluted and modified form. But perhaps in Psalm 109:28 we should drop the optative, and read, “they will curse, but thou dost bless.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

109:21-31 The psalmist takes God's comforts to himself, but in a very humble manner. He was troubled in mind. His body was wasted, and almost worn away. But it is better to have leanness in the body, while the soul prospers and is in health, than to have leanness in the soul, while the body is feasted. He was ridiculed and reproached by his enemies. But if God bless us, we need not care who curses us; for how can they curse whom God has not cursed; nay, whom he has blessed? He pleads God's glory, and the honour of his name. Save me, not according to my merit, for I pretend to none, but according to thy-mercy. He concludes with the joy of faith, in assurance that his present conflicts would end in triumphs. Let all that suffer according to the will of God, commit the keeping of their souls to him. Jesus, unjustly put to death, and now risen again, is an Advocate and Intercessor for his people, ever ready to appear on their behalf against a corrupt world, and the great accuser.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let them curse, but bless thou - See Psalm 109:17. Let them continue to curse me, provided thou wilt bless me. I am willing to bear all these reproaches, if I may have thy favor. That favor I value infinitely more than I do theirs; and it is a small matter that I am reviled and cursed by people, if I may secure the favor and friendship of God.

When they arise - When they rise up against me; when they attempt to persecute me.

Let them be ashamed ... - Let them be disappointed; let them not be successful in their designs against me. On the word "ashamed," see Job 6:20, note; Psalm 25:2-3, note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

28-31. In confidence that God's blessing would come on him, and confusion and shame on his enemies (Ps 73:13), he ceases to regard their curses, and anticipates a season of joyful and public thanksgiving; for God is near to protect (Ps 16:8; 34:6) the poor from all unrighteous judges who may condemn him.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

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

Arise, i.e. bestir themselves against me. Both God and men are oft said to arise when they enter upon any undertaking, as Joshua 24:9 Judges 8:21 2 Chronicles 13:6 21:4, &c.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let them curse, but bless thou,.... Let them curse me, as Shimei did David, the type of Christ; let them curse themselves, as they did; or my people: or "let them be cursed", as the Syriac version; cursed in life and at death, and to all eternity: but "bless thou me", the Messiah; as he did, when he raised him front the dead, set him at his right hand, and gave him a name above everyone, and made him most blessed for evermore; and bless my people with all spiritual blessings of grace, and with eternal glory and happiness. Or "be thou blessed"; let honour, blessing, and praise, be continually ascribed to thee; if God does but bless, it is no matter if wicked men curse, so Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it; see 2 Samuel 16:11.

When they arise, let them be ashamed; be suffered to do those things which may bring shame and disgrace upon them; or let them be disappointed and so confounded, as the Jews were; who though they so far gained their point as to bring Christ to the dust of death and the grave, yet to their great confusion he arose again from the dead; or let them be ashamed at the last day, as they will be when Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven and be their Judge, who will then be glad to shelter themselves in rocks and caves. This is imprecated to be done

when they shall arise: rise up against Christ to take away his life; rise up against his disciples to persecute them, against his Gospel to contradict and blaspheme it, and against his cause and interest to crush it; or against the Romans, to shake off their yoke, when they were brought to great shame and confusion; or when they shall arise at the resurrection of the dead, which will be to shame and everlasting contempt, Daniel 12:2.

But let thy servant rejoice; the Messiah, who appeared in the form of a servant; came not as a temporal lord and prince, to be ministered unto, but as a servant, to minister to others; and who is a servant of God's choosing, calling, and sending, and whom he faithfully served; and who, as prayed for, did rejoice in the strength of the Lord, given him as man; and in the salvation wrought for and by him, Psalm 21:1, in the work of the Lord prospering in his hand; in his victory over sin, Satan, the world, and death; in the presence of God he was made glad with, and in the glory promised him, which he had with his Father before the world was, Psalm 16:11.

Geneva Study Bible

Let them {p} curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice.

(p) They will gain nothing by cursing me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28. They may curse, but thou wilt bless:

They arise and are put to shame, but thy servant shall rejoice.

They and thou are emphatically contrasted.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 28. - Let them curse, but bless thou; i.e. "Let them curse, if they will. What matters it? Provided only that thou blessest." When they arise. When they attempt to put their malevolent designs in act. Let them be ashamed; or, "they shall be ashamed" (Revised Version); i.e. they shall fail so utterly, that they shall be covered with shame. But let thy servant rejoice; rather, but thy servant shall rejoice. "Thy servant" is the psalmist himself (comp. Psalm 69:17). He will rejoice at their failure, which secures his safety. Psalm 109:28

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The cry for help is renewed in the closing strophe, and the Psalm draws to a close very similarly to Psalm 69 and Psalm 22, with a joyful prospect of the end of the affliction. In Psalm 109:27 the hand of God stands in contrast to accident, the work of men, and his own efforts. All and each one will undeniably perceive, when God at length interposes, that it is His hand which here does that which was impossible in the eyes of men, and that it is His work which has been accomplished in this affliction and in the issue of it. He blesses him whom men curse: they arise without attaining their object, whereas His servant can rejoice in the end of his affliction. The futures in Psalm 109:29 are not now again imprecations, but an expression of believingly confident hope. In correct texts כּמעיל has Mem raphatum. The "many" are the "congregation" (vid., Psalm 22:23). In the case of the marvellous deliverance of this sufferer the congregation or church has the pledge of its own deliverance, and a bright mirror of the loving-kindness of its God. The sum of the praise and thanksgiving follows in Psalm 109:31, where כּי signifies quod, and is therefore allied to the ὅτι recitativum (cf. Psalm 22:25). The three Good Friday Psalms all sum up the comfort that springs from David's affliction for all suffering ones in just such a pithy sentence (Psalm 22:25; Psalm 69:34). Jahve comes forward at the right hand of the poor, contending for him (cf. Psalm 110:5), to save (him) from those who judge (Psalm 37:33), i.e., condemn, his soul. The contrast between this closing thought and Psalm 109:6. is unmistakeable. At the right hand of the tormentor stands Satan as an accuser, at the right hand of the tormented one stands God as his vindicator; he who delivered him over to human judges is condemned, and he who was delivered up is "taken away out of distress and from judgment" (Isaiah 53:8) by the Judge of the judges, in order that, as we now hear in the following Psalm, he may sit at the right hand of the heavenly King. Ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι...ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ! (1 Timothy 3:16).