Psalm 109:5

And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

109:1-5. It is the unspeakable comfort of all believers, that whoever is against them, God is for them; and to him they may apply as to one pleased to concern himself for them. David's enemies laughed at him for his devotion, but they could not laugh him out of it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And they have rewarded me evil for good - literally, "They have placed against me." They have put it in my way; it is what they had to set before me. See the notes at Psalm 35:12, where the same expression occurs.

And hatred for my love - Instead of loving me in return for my love, they have met me with the expressions of hatred. This often occurred in the life of David; it was constant in the life of the Saviour; it is habitually manifested by people toward God; it is often experienced by good men now; it "may" occur in the life of any man - and if it "does" occur to us, we should not think that any strange thing has happened to us.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4, 5. They return evil for good (compare Ps 27:12; Pr 17:13).

I give myself unto prayer—or literally, "I (am) prayer," or, "as for me, prayer," that is, it is my resource for comfort in distress.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And they have rewarded me evil for good,.... For the good words and sound doctrine he delivered to them; for the good works and miracles he wrought among them, to the healing of them; see John 10:32.

And hatred for my love; he came to seek and save that which was lost, and yet they hated him, and would not have him to rule over them, Luke 19:10.

Geneva Study Bible

And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. they have rewarded me &c.] Lit. they have laid evil upon me in return for good. Cp. Psalm 35:12; Psalm 38:20; Jeremiah 18:20.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - And they have rewarded ms evil for good, and hatred for my love; or, "thus they rewarded me." The verse is a corollary from what has gone before, not anything additional. Psalm 109:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A sign for help and complaints of ungrateful persecutors form the beginning of the Psalm. "God of my praise" is equivalent to God, who art my praise, Jeremiah 17:14, cf. Deuteronomy 10:21. The God whom the Psalmist has hitherto had reason to praise will also now show Himself to him as worthy to be praised. Upon this faith he bases the prayer: be not silent (Psalm 28:1; Psalm 35:22)! A mouth such as belongs to the "wicked," a mouth out of which comes "deceit," have they opened against him; they have spoken with him a tongue (accusative, vid., on Psalm 64:6), i.e., a language, of falsehood. דּברי of things and utterances as in Psalm 35:20. It would be capricious to take the suffix of אהבתי in Psalm 109:4 as genit. object. (love which they owe me), and in Psalm 109:5 as genit. subject.; from Psalm 38:21 it may be seen that the love which he has shown to them is also meant in Psalm 109:4. The assertion that he is "prayer" is intended to say that he, repudiating all revenges of himself, takes refuge in God in prayer and commits his cause into His hands. They have loaded him with evil for good, and hatred for the love he has shown to them. Twice he lays emphasis on the fact that it is love which they have requited to him with its opposite. Perfects alternate with aorists: it is no enmity of yesterday; the imprecations that follow presuppose an inflexible obduracy on the side of the enemies.