Psalm 109:29

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) Mantle.—Heb., meîl, which was also a garment worn over the tunic.

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 mine adversaries be clothed with shame - Let confusion and disappointment seem to cover them, so as to constitute a garment. See the notes at Psalm 109:18-19. They had "clothed themselves with cursing" Psalm 109:18, and the prayer now is, that the covering of shame might be as complete and entire.

And let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle - As with an outer garment - the mantle or robe - which they might wrap all round them. Let it be so abundant that they may entirely wrap their person in it. Let their confusion correspond with their sin in the fullest manner.

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

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

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame,.... This is only explanative of what is said before,

And let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle: the Arabic version is, "as with a breastplate." Some understand it as a petition of Christ, that they might be brought to repentance for their sins, and so to shame for them; which is an instance of his wondrous grace and goodness; and it is certain he prayed for the forgiveness of his enemies when on the cross, Luke 23:34.

Geneva Study Bible

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

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. Mine adversaries shall be clothed with dishonour,

And shall wrap themselves in their own shame as in a mantle.

Cp. Psalm 109:18-19; Psalm 71:13; Psalm 35:26.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame; rather, my adversaries shall be clothed with shame. "The prayer is now, in conclusion, changed into a confident expectation" (Dean Johnson). And let them (rather, and shall) cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle (comp. ver. 18). Instead of the "cursing" with which the wicked delighted to clothe themselves, they shall be forced to wear a covering of shame and confusion of face. Psalm 109:29

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).