The Righteous and the Wicked

With the Lord’s people, please turn to Psalm 109. Psalm 109, our 15th in this difficult series. And this morning we enter into one of the most difficult of all, even a troubling Psalm because portions of it are extremely difficult. Not only one of the more difficult parts of the Psalms, but really in all of scripture.

And so I would appeal to God’s people to brace themselves. Psalm 109 is one of the 18 or so imprecatory psalms. That adjective, imprecatory, means to curse. To curse some person or persons. And that’s what these psalms capture, curses. And because of that, imprecatory Psalms are not only one of the most difficult, but one of the most uncomfortable genres in Scripture.

As believers, we’re supposed to overcome evil with good, to seek positive good for our enemies, not curses. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, Jesus said. And so for us, even to read these Psalms makes us uneasy, let alone studying them or preaching them. All of the 18 imprecatory Psalms of all of them, Psalm 109 is among the sharpest. If you would follow along as I read Psalm 109.

O God of my praise, do not be silent, for they have opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without cause. In return for my love, they act as my accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus, they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love.

Appoint a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him, nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.

Let his posterity be cut off. In a following generation, let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off their memory from the earth.

Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness, but persecuted the afflicted and needy man and the despondent in heart to put him to death. He also loved cursing, so it came to him. And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursing as with a garment, and it entered into his body like water, like oil to his bones. Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself. and for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.

Let this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord, and of those who speak evil against my soul. But you, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for your name’s sake. Because your loving kindness is good, deliver me. For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens. My knees are weak from fasting and my flesh has grown lean without fatness. I have also become a reproach to them. When they see me, they wag their head.

Help me, O Lord, my God. Save me according to your loving kindness and let them know that this is your hand. You, Lord, have done it. Let them curse, but you bless. When they arise, they shall be ashamed, but your servant shall be glad. Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor and let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe. With my mouth, I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord. And in the midst of many, I will praise him for he stands at the right hand of the needy. to save him from those who judge his soul.

The psalmist directs his attention here, not to an army, not to a foreign nation or an ungodly people in general, but to an individual. It was amusing to read the opinions and suggestions of so many about the identity of this enemy. Some said it was Doeg, the Edomite, or David’s son, Absalom, or Ahithophel, a one-time friend and advisor to David, or Saul, David’s constant nemesis, or Cush, the Benjamite, The suggestions were amusing because scripture eventually tells us exactly who is in view.

In fact, I believe that we can positively identify both of the main figures in this psalm. We’ll do so momentarily. First, I’d like us to take a brief overview of this psalm, and there are two primary figures, as I mentioned, in this psalm, the righteous man and the wicked man. We can outline this psalm from the perspective of either of those two people. We could look at this psalm from the perspective of the wicked.

Verses 1-5, the blustering of the wicked man. Verses 6-20, the cursing of the wicked man. Verses 21-31, the shaming of the wicked man. But we can also look at this psalm from the perspective of the righteous. Verses one through five, the long suffering of the righteous man. Verses six through 20, the retribution of the righteous man. Verses 21 through 31, the vindication of the righteous man.

Either option works. What the psalmist provides us here are chapters in the grand drama of redemption. Chapters in the grand drama of redemption. Let’s do a brief overview of this psalm, and I mean brief. Psalmist begins by calling upon the Lord, God of my praise, do not be silent. The words God of my praise indicate the author’s close relationship with God. He is worthy of worship. Do not be silent is a plea that God would hear and respond. to the psalmist’s cries. Ultimately, verse 21, our psalmist will cry, deliver me, save me. He calls for an unmistakable reply from God.

Complaint is largely about what his enemy has said about him. He’s opened a wicked and deceitful mouth, a lying tongue, He’s referring here to malignant and false words, slander. A writer is the target. The words are spoken against him. And he further characterizes this verbal attack against him as words of hatred. Verse three, which are totally unjustified. They are without cause.

Now, we learned back in our days on the playground, that sticks and stones may break my bones, names can never hurt me, right? But the psalmist here says that slander can take a terrible toll on someone’s character. As one pastor put it, a blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword. The writer expands upon this idea in verse four.

It’s as if he’s been hauled into court, and his enemy is standing over him as his accuser, leveling charge after charge upon him. As for the accused, he prays, not only for himself and for righteousness to prevail, that the truth would come out, he entrusts himself to God. And there’s no reason to believe that he doesn’t also pray for his enemy. He is in prayer, he simply says. But it’s the searing pain that he feels from a treacherous enemy.

Though he has done good to them, shown them love, they in turn have repaid him with evil. As one commentator remarked, To render evil for evil is vindictive. And we’re cautioned against that. To render evil for evil is vindictive. To render evil for good is fiendish.

That’s what’s taking place in this psalm. There was objective malice in the accuser’s heart toward the writer. Well, though he has prayed for God’s mercy upon the false accuser. In verse six, all the way down through verse 20, the writer lets loose with a series of some of the harshest curses ever recorded in Scripture, 22 in all. In verse six, he prays that his accuser would himself be tried and sentenced.

It’s an appeal for justice. He prays that a wicked man would, in turn, be appointed over him, that the tables would be turned, that he who was the accuser would suddenly find himself accused. The most dramatic role reversal ever. This is like Haman’s gallows, right? He asks not only that the man would find himself accused, but that he would be judged and found guilty.

And a writer here invades one of the most colorful requests ever made, that his prayer would become sin, that a loving and merciful God would turn a deaf ear to him. Just stunning. The steady stream of curses continues. He asks that every aspect of his life, his person, his family, his possessions, his legacy would be brought to ruin. It’s a brutal series of curses. You glance at verse eight.

Let his days be few. Let another take his office. He pleads essentially that his enemy’s life would be taken from him. That his days would be few. He asks God to take him out. And once he’s dead and gone, give his job to someone else. The dreadful consequences will go on to affect his family as well.

In verses nine and 10, he seeks that the Lord will allow his family to feel the full weight of his absence as the husband and father, fatherless children, a widowed wife, and not only widowed and orphaned, but destitute because of it. Their homes ruined, destroyed, forcing them to go elsewhere, leaving them to wander and beg. It’s an exceedingly harsh request. Verse 11 tells us how his family suddenly finds themselves homeless.

The writer asked that all of his family possessions be seized, including his family home. He basically wishes financial ruin upon him. He desires that the creditors, those driven by greed, would seize his possessions. And whatever they don’t take, thieves take the rest. He’s still not finished. His job, his family, his possessions.

In verses 12 through 15, the writer also wants this man’s heritage to be obliterated. He hopes that his accuser would become a social outcast as well, that no one would show him the kindness and the mercy that he withheld from others. He asks that his posterity would be cut off, that his family name would be blotted out. He wants all record of him expunged, all memory of him erased. He even wants this man’s parents to be judged. Verse 14, his father’s iniquity remembered his mother’s sin as well.

All the while, we have to be asking ourselves, why? Why all of these harsh wishes? What has this individual done to deserve this inventory of curses? Thomas pauses in verses 16 through 18 to tell us, and he basically refreshes the disdain for this man that he first expressed in those opening five verses.

The bottom line is this man was an unmerciful wretch. He was not like God, showing mercy and loving kindness to others, as we’re called to do. Instead, he went about persecuting Even the afflicted, the needy, and the despondent. And he persecuted them to death. This is an evil man. And he was also liberal with his invectives against others, cursing them.

That so characterizes this man that cursing fit him like a tailored shirt. And not only was he covered with this cursing, it was in him, the psalmist says, through and through like water. And with that, the writer resumes his wish for this awful person. He asks that this garment cover him like an overcoat. He loves cursing and accusing others. Let that characterize him.

And in summary, verse 20, he says, let this, that whole list of 22 invectives, let this be his reward. Well, verse 21, we come at long last to a more pleasant portion of the psalm. Here, our psalmist appeals to God for himself. He cites as his ground of appeal God’s character, his namesake, his loving kindness. His initial request certainly comes as no surprise.

He’s beset by a wicked man, and so he prays that God might deal kindly with him, that he might deliver him from the harsh treatment of his enemy. He throws himself before God in his abused condition, verse 22, afflicted and needy, his heart is wounded.

And he employs graphic illustrations here of his condition, passing like a shadow, shaken off like the locust. His mortal life is fading. The fasting that he mentions is in verse 24 is not for religious purposes It’s a lack of appetite from the stress and grief He’s facing And so the heartache has taken a physical toll on him. His knees are weak. His flesh is lean. He’s skin and bones And it’s Since it’s his last description, it’s the mockery by the enemy that is so vexing to him, that he is a reproach as they wag their head proudly.

Then following that more general prayer for mercy in verses 21 through 25, he implores the Lord in a practical measure of divine assistance. Beginning in verse 26, help me, he says. He begs for God’s mercy again, his loving kindness, his practical mercy to save him. Not in an eternal sense, but according to his earthly situation and needs.

Seeks the Lord’s glory by pleading that his enemy would know without a doubt that his delivery was by God’s hand. that God himself had intervened on his behalf, that he, God, has done it. And the particular example that he wants them to see is that while the wicked curse him, his God blesses him. And while that brings joy to his own heart, your servant shall be glad, it brings shame to his enemy. He pictures that shame and dishonor as draped over him like a well-worn coat.

In those closing verses, verses 30 and 31, the psalmist demonstrates his commitment to worship. Even in the face of all that he’s going through, he gives himself fully to the worship of God. He comes before God giving thanks abundantly, praising him before the great gathering of people. He assures and boldly declares that God stands at the right hand of the needy, always and ever. For those who are harassed and troubled by wicked men, God is there.

Well, that’s a brief treatment of this exceedingly heavy psalm. But it leaves us uncomfortable, doesn’t it? Was our psalmist justified in wishing these horrible things on this man? Who could have deserved such harsh sentiments? And who would have been justified in uttering those things? I would suggest to you that there are only two individuals in all of history that would fit these two personalities. One righteous, One wicked. Let’s identify the wicked man first.

To do this, I would have you turn to the New Testament, the book of Acts, if you would. Acts and chapter one. Acts chapter one, keep your finger there in Psalm 109. We’ll be back in a moment. To set the context here in Acts, we’re now well past Jesus’ resurrection. His followers and his family have only just witnessed Jesus’ ascension into heaven. They’re gathered in the upper room for prayer and fellowship.

And Peter stands to propose that they replace the departed Judas. if you would glance at verse 16. Brethren, the scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David, concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus. And he informs this group of people that the particular scripture written by David, the Holy Spirit foretold. by the mouth of David. He proceeds to tell them that Judas was counted among us, not only as a disciple, but one of the 12 apostles. Judas was called to serve as an apostle by Jesus himself. And Peter goes on to tell the crowd that Judas’s departure was foretold in scripture and fulfilled.

Would you look at verse 20? For it is written in the book of Psalms, let his homestead be made desolate and let no one dwell in it. And let another man take his office. That’s quoted directly from Psalm 109. And it illuminates that entire Psalm, doesn’t it?

Judas is the wicked man. And as Peter informs us in verse 16, David is the author of Psalm 109. But even though David is the author of this Psalm, he is not ultimately the righteous man that is pictured. David’s merely an instrument in the Holy Spirit’s hand. He’s writing as king and representative of the very throne on which Christ Jesus would occupy throughout eternity. And so a threat to David’s throne was a threat to Christ’s throne. Jesus is the righteous one in view in this psalm. Back, if you would, to Psalm 109. So David identifies Judas as the wicked man of Psalm 109. The problem is David never interacted with him. How is it that he could be justified in asking for such horrible things of him?

The answer to that is that David was not only writing about his own throne, but about the one who would ultimately sit on that throne, the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, David was writing prophetically. David was facing his own wicked man in his own day.

But these two personalities, the righteous and the wicked are ultimately fulfilled in the persons of Christ and Judas. There are not two other people in all of history who would fit this narrative. The two individuals featured in the psalm, the wicked and the righteous, are no other than Judas and Jesus.

Now before we proceed any further, I will just tell you that not every detail or anecdote throughout this psalm is traceable directly to these personalities, nor is it necessary to place all of those curses, the ones in 6 through 20, in Jesus’ mouth. Judas brought judgment upon himself, and he brought a far worse judgment than what is uttered in verses six through 20. And so now, if you would, I’d like to track back to verse one, as we consider the righteous and the wicked from the righteous man’s perspective. Chapter one, we might call it, in the grand drama of redemption, the long suffering of the righteous man, verse one through five, Jesus prayed, That shouldn’t surprise us. We cannot be surprised that Jesus calls out here to God, God of my praise, do not be silent.

No one has a closer relationship with the Father than Jesus does. But as he advanced to the cross of redemption, he entered into the most intense season of prayer. On his way to Jerusalem, at the slightest suggestion that he might avoid the cross, he prayed, Father, glorify thy name. In his high priestly prayer in John 17, he prayed, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son and glorify me together with yourself. Even in Gethsemane, he prayed, my father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will, but as you will. And then finally, even on the cross, he prayed, father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And so Jesus, more than any other person who ever lived, earnestly pleaded with God to intervene. Do not be silent. As our Lord was proceeding, step by painful step toward the cross, he endured the false accusations of wicked men.

Regarding Judas, he wasn’t necessarily given to obnoxious slander, but he did engage in a verbal act of treachery like no one before him. He bought into the lies of the Jewish leaders. that Jesus had made himself out to be equal with God, that he had broken the Sabbath, that he had suggested the destruction of the temple, and so much more. These were the deceitful things which the wicked slandered and maligned Jesus. A lying tongue, words of hatred, the psalmist calls them. Judas bought it all. And yet during the course of his series of trials, even Pilate, unbelieving Pilate, three times declared Jesus as innocent.

One of the saddest features of Jesus’ earthly life had to have been the evil that was returned upon him for the good. The Apostle John says in John 1 11, he came to his own. Those who were his own did not receive him, but it was not just rudeness. No one ever could have returned evil for evil to Jesus because Jesus had no sin. But he received back in heavy measures evil for good. Never before, more than any one man, show him evil for good than did Judas.

Jesus called him to be an apostle. He allowed him to walk as one of the 12 for nearly three years. Imagine the lessons taught privately and the kindness has shown to those 12 men. Judas was even given the responsibility for taking care of the group’s funds.

And for this, he returned evil. Accusations against Christ. Jesus expressed this bitter truth as Judas’s betrayal was playing out. Remember? He who eats my bread, and in the psalm from which that’s taken, Psalm 41, it’s a friend. He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me. Right down to the end, it was evil for good.

Judas even betrayed Jesus with a kiss, a friendly greeting. There’s never been a greater disparity of evil for good. Chapter two, in the grand drama of redemption, the retribution of the righteous man. We have to consider the curses in six through 20 in light of Judas’s life. To begin with, Judas, the wicked slanderer that he was, he experienced the just turnabout that is mentioned in verse six.

The accuser became the accused. And it’s especially appropriate here to tell you that the word accuser in the Hebrew throughout this psalm is Satan. The Apostle John captures this idea in Revelation 12, 10, when he speaks of Satan as the accuser of the brethren, day and night. Judas himself was not the devil, but in taking up sides against Christ, he was doing Satan’s bidding. This is not surprising. As Jesus first explained to his apostles that Though he had chosen them, one of them, Judas, is a devil.

The devil himself was Judas’s dictator. Well, Judas, having betrayed Jesus, suddenly came face to face with the truth. Matthew alone records that Judas felt remorse. He tried to return the price of his betrayal, a measly 30 pieces of silver. It wasn’t the apostles that condemned him. It was his own guilty conscience. Even Judas’s cry before others, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood, fell on deaf ears. His prayer had become sin. No one fits these awful descriptions better than Judas. We see another sad feature related to Judas in verse 8.

This is the linchpin that holds this verse to Acts chapter 1. Let his days be few, let another take his office. We don’t know exactly how long Judas lived following the crucifixion. It wasn’t long. The hourglass of Judas’s life began to run out as soon as his conscience was pierced. He found no sympathy with his collaborators. He was on his own and there was no way out. The original curse, let his days be few, seems like a call for his execution. But Judas took the coward’s way out. He numbered the days himself. This is the very verse that Peter cited as the reason for appointing another apostle. And they selected a man named Matthias, who we never hear from again. But assuredly, another man had indeed taken Judas’s office. Verses nine and 10. They’re difficult to assign to Judas only because we don’t know whether or not he even had a family.

There’s no reason to doubt the possibility, but it would be a truism at minimum if he did have a family he brought incredible difficulty and heartache upon them by his departure. Once gone, he would have left his wife a widow and his children fatherless. That uncomfortable warning about idolatry in Exodus 20 still rings true, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children. Statement of verse 10, their ruined home, their displacement, having to wander and beg, is an almost certain condition for a departed father. The loss of income, the loss of oversight would soon bring poverty and with that vulnerability. David elaborates on the hardship brought about by Judas’s departure in verse 11.

This is the inevitable curse that befalls the wicked man’s early exit. Since there’s no breadwinner, creditors come calling, and what the creditors don’t seize, opportunists do. Strangers plunder the product of his labor, the psalmist says. This Judas brought on himself and his family. Sin not only harms the one who practices it, but those who are around him or her.

Matthew records the incident that may have been the last straw for Judas in his disdain for the Savior. You remember Mary in John 12 who anointed Jesus with an alabaster vial of costly perfume? John records that Judas was indignant about that, and he complained.

Why was this perfume not sold and the money given to the poor? John proceeds to tell us that Judas said this not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief. And as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. The Iscariot family is one that has been forgotten. So was Judas’s legacy. Since he was not a merciful man, neither was he shown loving kindness in the end.

Jesus bluntly told the gathered apostles, not all of you are clean. referring to Judas, the betrayer. Jesus bristled at him in the moment of betrayal. Judas, are you betraying the son of man with a kiss? The Jewish leaders showed him no mercy. When he remorsefully returned the 30 pieces of silver, they coldly replied, what is that to us? And in the years to come, Neither did the Gospel writers show any mercy to Judas. Every single one of them, all four, identify him very early in their respective Gospels as either the one who betrayed him or Judas, the one who became a traitor.

We have no New Testament report about his family at all, his children, his wife, his parents. As for his posterity, no one has ever produced the Iscariot family tree. They were all but forgotten. There are no heartwarming stories about great-great-great-grandfather Judas, such as the recompense for one who persecuted the Lord of Glory.

Judas sympathized and collaborated with Jesus to tractors. Think of how many occasions Judas had to change his course, to alter the course of his betrayal. That intimate gathering in the upper room, Christ’s brutal and demeaning arrest, his unjust and shameful trial, the humiliating and belittling walk to the cross, and his horrific and agonizing crucifixion. At any moment, Judas could have cried out in repentance. Anywhere along the way, Judas might have repented of his evil, but even when Jesus began to identify him, during that uncomfortable discussion in the upper room, Judas, he had the audacity to ask, surely not I. Jesus, Rabbi. It’s not a stretch to conclude that Judas, as the psalmist says, was clothed in deceit. It characterized him.

Well, as bad as that lengthy list of curses is, it’s nothing compared to what Jesus pronounced upon him. Matthew 26 24 Jesus said the son of man is to go. Just as it is written of him that’s the sovereignty of God. But woe to who that man by whom the son of man is betrayed.

There’s the responsibility of man. It would have been good for him that for that man if he had not been born. After three in the grand drama of redemption. The vindication of the righteous man. Not only the long suffering and the retribution, but the vindication of the righteous man. Verse 21.

We can better understand now the prayer for delivery as applying to Jesus. We’ve already seen the deep communion that Jesus had with his heavenly father, but the intensity of his prayer was maximized as he drew near the cross. Afflicted, needy, despondent. Luke tells us that his sweat became like drops of blood in his agony. He pleaded with his father to deliver him, but yielded each time to his father’s will.

He was, like no other person in history, as Isaiah 53 tells us, despised and forsaken, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. No one has ever been so undeserving of such harsh and horrible treatment. Jesus had indeed become a reproach to his enemies. Psalm 22, one of the many messianic Psalms, says of Jesus that he was a reproach of men and despised by the people.

Psalm 22 parallels another feature here. They wag their head in mockery. And that, as we know, is the very behavior that Christ’s hecklers displayed as he suffered on the cross. Those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads. Well, we know that God did hear and did answer Jesus’ prayer for help. It looked very different than what we might have expected. He did allow Judas to betray Him. God did let Jesus go to the cross. He did allow Him to be arrested and tried, condemned and crucified. And He did so for our redemption. But God also let the world know just as the psalmist prayed, not only Christ’s enemies, but the whole world, that it was his hand, God’s hand, that did it.

God’s great power and wisdom were displayed at the raising of Jesus from the dead. Isaiah had prophesied it hundreds of years before, behold my servant, behold my servant, the suffering servant, as Isaiah calls him, My servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Paul declares that Jesus was declared the Son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead. Because he humbled himself to death on the cross, God highly exalted him, Philippians 2, and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, to which one day every knee will bow. Would you humble yourself before him now? Our merciful God, we are ashamed that we should think to brush aside a psalm that is so heavy and so dark. Lord, this psalm tells what you faced in the man Judas.

And Lord, we know that David had his concerns as well, but we thank you that ultimately he was laying out the grand drama of redemption. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he was detailing the actions of the righteous and the wicked. Lord, we thank you for The long suffering that Jesus exhibited as he dealt with wicked and evil men, men astoundingly that he had created. Drawing breath that he gives in a world that Jesus made. Lord, we thank you for his mercy. towards so many for so long. And Lord, we now better understand these words, the retribution of the righteous man.

Jesus didn’t have to utter a single phrase. Judas had already judged himself by his action. We thank you, Lord, that you have vindicated our Savior by raising him from the dead. Jesus Christ is exactly who he said he was. He is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the righteous one. He is God. Lord, we know that on a day like this, We know that there may be many among us who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Without a doubt, they have heard of him today.

And we just pray that you would pierce their hearts and make them to hunger. Let them know that their sin stands between them and a holy and loving God. But that because of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, All that they have to do is to open their heart, to place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and they will be saved.

Lord, we thank you that you’ve done that work in so many of our lives. We thank you that you have saved sinners, and we pray that that work would continue. until you’ve saved the last one. What a joyous day that will be. Lord, we thank you for your grace and your goodness. We thank you for your long suffering on our behalf. We pray all of these things in Jesus’ name, amen.