Psalm 109:31

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(31) For he . . .—Jehovah is the poor man’s advocate, just as an adversary was the wicked man’s accuser.

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

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.

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

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 "Psalm 109:6".

That condemn his soul; that pass a sentence of death upon him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor,.... Of the Messiah, as in Psalm 109:22 at whose right hand the Lord was, to guide and direct, help and assist, protect and defend, Psalm 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, Psalm 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, Romans 8:1.

Geneva Study Bible

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.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

31. A contrast to Psalm 109:6-7. Jehovah stands at the right hand of the needy (Psalm 109:16; Psalm 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.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 31. - For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor. God will always come to the assistance of the poor and needy, when unrighteous men oppress them, and will give them help and deliverance. To save him from those that condemn his soul. The salvation is not always from the death of the body, or there could have been no martyrs; but in all cases it is a deliverance of the soul.



Psalm 109:31

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).