Let his days be few, let another take his office;
Psalm 109:8 sits inside a long prayer against a treacherous enemy, asking that his life be cut short and his position handed to someone else. Peter later read this line as a written instruction about Judas — so how does a prayer for a man's downfall belong in Scripture at all?
The first half of the verse asks that the wicked man's days be few. One writer says the prayer is already answered, however long the man lives:
As for the wicked, the psalmist prays, "May his days be few." And they will be few, even if he lives on earth a hundred years. For what is that compared to eternity? "And may another take his office." Peter quotes this in Acts 1:20 and applies it to Judas, when the disciples chose Matthias to take his place as an apostle.
Peter had to deal with the gap Judas left. He built his case on two lines from the Psalms:
Peter quoted two verses from the book of Psalms (Ps. 69:25; Ps. 109:8), both referring to the betrayer. Psalm 109:8 said, "may another take his office." So Peter urged them to add a man to their number. It had to be someone who had been with them the whole time the Lord Jesus lived and worked among them. That man would stand with them as a witness of His resurrection.
That tells us how Peter viewed the Psalms. He treated them as words spoken in advance:
Peter, the apostle, in Acts 1, saw from Psalms 41 and 109 that another man should take the place of Judas the betrayer. His words show that he regarded the Psalms as inspired. He said to the others, "the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit spoke beforehand by the mouth of David concerning Judas."
The line did not just explain what had happened; it told the disciples what to do next.
"May another take his office" guided what they did. The needed qualification was the ability to testify of Jesus in His life on earth, and now of His resurrection and ascension. Who the man would be was left to the Lord: they drew lots. Two men were put forward who met the qualifications, the lot fell on Matthias, and he was counted with the eleven apostles.
Some have argued that the eleven jumped ahead of God, and that Paul was the real twelfth apostle. One writer answers plainly:
There is no reason from Scripture to believe that Peter and the others acted hastily, or were mistaken. In this very book the Spirit of God approves the choice they made that day. He never points to Paul as the missing twelfth apostle. To do so would be, in my judgment, to weaken if not to ruin the truth of God. Paul was not one of the twelve.
Peter applied one verse to one man, but the psalm's reach is wider:
Judas is one clear case of the hatred described here. It took advantage of the humility of Christ, to persecute the poor and needy man and to kill the broken in heart. So the Spirit of God has applied expressions used in these verses to Judas... Verse 20, though, shows that more than one very wicked man is in view. It takes in all the "adversaries" of the Lord who have spoken evil against His soul.
Read that way, the sentence passed on the betrayer becomes a warning with a moral logic to it:
Verses 6-15 refer to Judas who betrayed Him, and apply to all those who reject Him. All the cursing and punishment that comes on those who reject Christ is self-chosen.
Many readers stumble at a psalm that asks God to shorten a man's life. One writer answers by asking whose words these are:
Look at those who try to make Christian what belongs to Israel, and who say that the psalms calling for judgment belong to a savage age! How would Ps. 109:4-13 suit you? It is opposed to the principles of the kingdom and to the spirit of the Christian. But it will be right for the faithful Jewish remnant... The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us.
- Prophecy — Peter read this line as words the Holy Spirit spoke through David about Judas long before Judas existed.
- Prayer — "may his days be few" is not spite. Measured against eternity, the wicked man's life is short however long he lives.
- Pattern — Judas is a special instance, but verse 20 widens the view to all the Lord's adversaries who have spoken evil against Him.
- Practice — "may another take his office" directed the eleven. The office stood, the man was replaced, and the lot settled who took it. Commentators here hold that the choice of Matthias was right.
- Position — the prayer for judgment is not Christian speech; the whole Bible is for us, but not every part is about us.
Let his sons be fatherless, and his wife a widow;
This line shocks a reader used to the language of grace: the psalm prays that a man's household will lose him. Who is the man under this sentence, whose voice is asking, and why does a prayer like this stand in Scripture at all?
The words about the children are not an isolated outburst. They are one step in an ordered sentence on an enemy, and one writer traces the whole sequence.
These verses view the enemy as energized by Satan. We know this was true of Judas, and it will be true of the coming Antichrist. We learn the judgment that will come upon such. His days are cut off (v. 8); his offspring are forsaken (vv. 9-10); his possessions are lost (v. 11); he is beyond the reach of mercy (vv. 12-15).
The line just before this one, verse 8, turns up in the book of Acts. Peter applies it to Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. That settles the character of the whole passage.
What is important for us is to discern in the psalm, here and there at least, the very spirit of Christ. This is certain, for in verse 8 we have words that apply to Judas Iscariot, as Acts 1:20 puts on record. This shows without a doubt that in this psalm we find utterances that are prophetic of Christ.
Read against Judas, the lines of the psalm stop being abstract. One writer traces them as things that fell on him, then sets beside them the prayer Jesus made from the cross.
Judas was tasting the full bitterness of being under the power of the adversary. He had gone out guilty. His prayer had become sin. His children were fatherless, his wife a widow. His days had been few, his home left empty, and his office given to another… The same One, as the rejected and murdered heir, could call on the Lord of the vineyard to destroy. As the Son of the Father, the Beloved, He could pray, "Father, forgive them."
Commentators do not stop at Judas. One writer works through the psalm's parts and finds more than one man in view.
Then follows a description of an individual who showed no mercy to the suffering one (6-19). We cannot say who David had in mind when he wrote the words. But we know that this psalm speaks of Judas Iscariot. Peter (Acts 1:20) applied verse 8 directly to the traitor. Yet it is plain that the whole passage does not refer to him alone. Others are in view as well: verse 20 names "my accusers" and "those who speak evil against my life." A number of people are included, and he looks to the Almighty to deliver him from them (21-26).
This verse will not fit as your own prayer. One writer says so, and names this very part of the psalm.
How would Psalm 109:4-13 suit you? It is completely opposed to everything we have been reading about the principles of the kingdom, and to the spirit of the Christian. But it will be quite right for the remnant. So unless we learn to handle the word of truth rightly, we get into terrible difficulties. The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us. Some parts of the Psalms belong to the Lord Jesus only. Some belong to Him and to the remnant. Some may be applied to the Christian now, and to the remnant later on.
A prayer that does not suit the Christian is still not a wrong prayer. The line drawn is between taking your own revenge and handing the case to God after you have borne the wrong.
The Christian should understand this. The Spirit of Christ in His own walk in the world was quite different from the desire for judgment expressed in the psalms, and the Christian's walk ought to be different too. Yet that desire is righteous and right in its place. That desire for judgment is not self-vengeance. It is an appeal to a delivering and righteous God, made after perfect patience of heart under unrighteous oppression. The heart has bowed to the will of God and learned the lesson He had to teach. Still the Christian stands on quite different ground.
- Sequence. This verse is the second step in a chain of judgment. Days cut off, offspring forsaken, possessions lost, mercy out of reach.
- Named. Acts 1:20 applies the previous verse to Judas. That shows the psalm is prophetic and carries the spirit of Christ.
- Fulfilled. In Judas the lines came true one by one — guilty, few days, empty home, his office given to another.
- Widened. Verse 20 names a whole group of accusers, so the sentence is not spent on one traitor alone.
- Placed. The whole Bible is for you, but not all of it is about you. This is a righteous appeal to God, not a Christian's prayer and not personal revenge.
Let his sons be vagabonds and beg, and let them seek [their bread] far from their desolate places;
Psalm 109 asks God for judgment on an enemy, and verse 10 reaches past the guilty man to his children, left homeless and begging. Two questions press on any honest reader — who is this man, and how can it be right for his children to carry his ruin?
The psalm has a named target, and a wider one.
The psalm is applied to Judas with full authority. But it clearly includes wicked people like him — men treacherous to the Messiah in the past, and above all, in the future, treacherous to those who have His spirit.
The judgment comes in stages, and verse 10 is one of them.
The enemy in these verses is seen as energized by Satan. This we know was so in the case of Judas and will be so in the person of the coming Antichrist. We learn the judgment that will come upon such. His days are cut off (v. 8); his offspring are forsaken (vv. 9-10); his possessions are lost (v. 11); he is beyond the reach of mercy (vv. 12-15).
The older English word behind "wander about" carries no insult in itself.
A term not used insultingly in scripture, but meaning a "wanderer."
In Israel, begging carried a message. (The quote below uses an older English version.)
In the Old Testament earthly prosperity was a sign of blessing. The Psalmist said that in all his life he had never seen a righteous man forsaken, or his children begging for bread, Ps. 37:25. But of a wicked one, who pictures Judas, it is said, "Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg," Ps. 109:10. And when Jehovah brings in strength and salvation, He "lifts up the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes," 1 Sam. 2:8.
Why ask for judgment at all? Because love itself awakened this hatred.
Hatred without cause is hatred whose only cause lies in the heart it comes from, and it shows what that heart is like. But this hatred is more than that. Love is what awakens it. It is moral hostility to what is good and lovely. It is corruption — like the decay the sun breeds in a dead body, while it gives fresh life to the living. This is death, and like death it is hopeless by nature. Good can only be expected from what is good, yet here the good itself produces nothing but evil. So every means fails. Hope fails. Once this is fully proved, judgment is the only thing left to call for, and the next ten verses are a cry for judgment.
Does this mean children pay for their father's sin? Scripture itself guards against that reading.
He has Himself told us that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation." But then He adds a most necessary guard against a wrong reading: "of those who hate Me." Israel had picked up a proverb built on that very mistake — "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge" — and elsewhere the Lord condemns it in the strongest terms. (Ezek. 18.) He does not only say it; He swears it. The son will not bear the guilt of the father, and the father will not bear the guilt of the son.
Still, a father's life does shape what his children live through.
We all know that a father's character may have much to do with his children's outward circumstances in this life. So the threads of human history announce how far the consequences of sin reach… As far as this touches his children, God overrules it for their blessing, as surely as they take the lesson to heart. And sin cannot be fastened on anyone unless their own character consents to it.
Can a Christian pray these words?
Look at those who try to make Christian what belongs to the Jew! They say the psalms that call for judgment come from a savage age. How would Ps. 109:4-13 suit you? It goes completely against everything we have been reading about the principles of the kingdom, and against the spirit of the Christian. But it will be quite right for the remnant… The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us.
Israel's hope and the Christian's hope lie in different places.
They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. We never have to ask for our enemies to be destroyed in order to enter glory. But Israel cannot have rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed. So they do ask for this righteous judgment, and that is how they will be delivered.
- Cause. Love itself awakened this hatred. When good produces only evil, every means fails and judgment is all that is left to ask for.
- Sentence. Verse 10 is one link in a chain: days cut off, offspring forsaken, possessions lost, mercy withheld.
- Reach. Judas is the named fulfilment, yet the psalm takes in all who are like him, past and future.
- Limit. God visits a father's sin only on "those who hate Me." He swears the son will not bear the father's guilt. What children inherit is a lesson meant for their blessing.
- Place. This cry belongs to a people whose rest is on earth. The Christian leaves the wrongdoer behind and goes to heaven. The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us.
Let the usurer cast the net over all that he hath, and let strangers despoil his labour;
Psalm 109 prays for judgment, and verse 11 asks that the wicked man lose everything — his goods to a creditor, his earnings to strangers. Who is this man, why is the sentence so total, and how should a Christian pray words like these?
The curses run through a man's life in order, and this line is where his property goes. One writer traces the steps and names the power behind the man:
The enemy in these verses is seen as energized by Satan. We know this was so in the case of Judas and will be so in the person of the coming Antichrist. We learn the judgment that will come upon such a man. His days are cut off (v. 8); his offspring are forsaken (vv. 9–10); his possessions are lost (v. 11); he is beyond the reach of mercy (vv. 12–15).
Writers have tried to tie the psalm to one episode in David's life. One of them says that tie matters far less than what else the psalm holds:
This identification, though probable, is not certain, and is of no great importance. What matters for us is to see in the psalm, here and there at least, the very spirit of Christ. This is certain, for in verse 8 we have words that apply to Judas Iscariot, as Acts 1:20 records.
This is not ordinary hostility. It is hatred that love itself stirred up, and one writer says that is what closes every other door:
Causeless hatred is hatred whose only cause is the condition of the heart it springs from, and that condition is what it shows. But this is more than that. Here love itself awakens the hatred... it is the rot that the same sun breeds in the dead while it gives life to the living. This is death, and hopeless by nature, as death is. Only what is good can be expected to produce good, yet here the good itself produces only evil. So every means fails, and hope fails. Once it is fully proved, judgment is all that can be asked for, and the next ten verses are that cry for judgment.
The psalm gives its moral reason in verse 16. What this man handed out comes back to him, and his goods go the same way.
This overwhelming judgment falls on one who showed no mercy, who persecuted the poor and needy man... The cursing that he loved falls on himself; the blessing he spurned is removed far from him.
Verses 9–13 reach past the man to his household, and that troubles many readers. One writer answers with both sides of the matter:
We all know that a father's character may have much to do with how his children fare. Human history is woven through with the far-reaching consequences of sin. If we take these guides and guards on either side, we shall avoid serious mistake about the moral character of this psalm, with all its solemn calls for judgment on the wrongdoer. So far as this touches his children, it is overruled for blessing to them, as surely as they heed the lesson. And sin cannot be fastened on anyone apart from the consent of their own character.
Matthew tells what became of the betrayer's payment:
Judas never profited by his thirty pieces of silver. The devil led him on and at last took him over, and he threw away everything for nothing. That is always the end of the story when small men try to strike a bargain with the giant spirit of evil... The priests used the silver to buy the potter's field, and their act became public, so the field got that name. You can see the irony of God's governmental judgment in it: that land has been a field of blood and a burial place for strangers ever since that day.
These lines are not a model for Christian prayer. One writer shows what happens when people forget that:
Look at those who try to turn what belongs to the Jew into something Christian, and who say that the psalms calling down curses belong to a barbarous age! How would Psalm 109:4–13 suit you? It is completely opposed to all we have been reading about the principles of the kingdom, and to the spirit of the Christian. But it will be quite right for the remnant, so unless we learn to handle the word of truth rightly, we get into terrible difficulties. The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us.
- Cause. This hatred answered love. Where good itself only breeds evil, every other means fails and judgment is all that is left to ask for.
- Sentence. Verse 11 is one stage in an ordered list: days cut off, children forsaken, possessions lost, mercy withdrawn.
- Reach. Acts 1:20 applies verse 8 to Judas, and the same judgment waits for the coming Antichrist.
- Limit. Consequences travel through families. Yet sin is never fastened on anyone apart from their own character, and children who heed the lesson find it turned to blessing.
- Result. The betrayer's silver bought him nothing, and the field it paid for became a burial place for strangers. The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us.
Let there be none to extend kindness unto him, neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children;
Psalm 109 is the cry of a hated and rejected man. In verses 6–20 he asks God to deal with the traitor who turned on him. Verse 12 goes further than the verses before it. It asks that no one show the man kindness, and that no one pity his orphaned children either.
This section stacks its curses in a deliberate order, and verse 12 marks the last stage. One writer traces the sequence step by step:
The enemy in these verses is seen as energised by Satan. We know this was so in the case of Judas and will be so in the person of the coming Antichrist. We learn the judgment that will come on such a man. His days are cut off (v. 8); his offspring are forsaken (vv. 9–10); his possessions are lost (v. 11); he is beyond the reach of mercy (vv. 12–15).
The psalm gives its reason four verses later, and that reason matches what the man himself did:
This overwhelming judgment comes on one who showed no mercy. He persecuted the poor and needy man. He killed the one whose heart was broken by the causeless hatred of men (v. 16). The cursing he loved falls on himself; the blessing he spurned is taken far from him. The garments of cursing he clothed himself with, he will wear for ever (vv. 17–19).
The man loses nothing he was willing to give. He loses the one thing he refused to give.
The man under this curse has a name. One writer shows how a psalm about David's own history turned out to point at Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus:
What might until then have been seen as an incident in David's history turns out to have been a prophecy of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. "He who ate My bread has lifted his heel against Me" (Ps. 41:9) is found to be the scripture that fits the case, while Psalm 109 also referred to Judas, as Peter applies it in Acts 1. Psalm 41 exposed the cowardly nature of the crime. Psalm 109 foretold the outcome for the traitor.
Verse 12 asks that no one pity the man's fatherless children. Commentators differ over who those children are. One sees children who keep walking in their father's evil way:
Because the wicked are seen here as continuing in the evil way of their father, they are identified with the evil for which their fathers are judged (v. 14). So the prayer of verse 15 is answered: "that He may cut off the memory of them from the earth."
Another argues the traitor's offspring must be a spiritual line, not a natural one:
Later He speaks of His adversaries (v. 20), calling for judgment on them as the children of His adversary; and the Jews, we may also know, are intended. Surely it could not have been the natural seed of Judas, the adversary (even if he had any), but rather a spiritual seed.
Either way, the psalm widens past one man: verse 20 speaks of adversaries in the plural.
It is hard to pray that orphans be left without a friend. One writer names this part of the psalm as Scripture that is true and inspired, yet not ours to echo:
How would Psalm 109:4–13 suit you? It is completely opposed to everything we have been reading about the principles of the kingdom. It is opposed to the spirit of the Christian too. But it will be quite right for the remnant. Unless we learn to rightly divide the word of truth, we get into terrible difficulties. The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us.
The remnant are God's faithful people in the day when He judges His enemies again. The answer is not to soften the words:
One writer tries to soften the spirit of calling down vengeance in many psalms. He says the offence we take at it stops at once if we read "they shall be confounded" instead of "let them be confounded." But he has to admit that the New Testament keeps the command form instead of changing it into a future. It is the difference in God's dealings that clears everything up without doing violence to the text. When God is judging enemies, as He did of old and will again, His people share in it to some degree. Now He is displaying sovereign grace, and a different spirit of action suits them.
- Mercy refused. Verse 12 is the last step in a chain: days cut off, family forsaken, goods lost, and now mercy itself out of reach.
- Mercy repaid. Verse 16 gives the reason: he showed no mercy himself. So the cursing he loved comes back on him, and the blessing he despised goes far away.
- Mercy betrayed. Peter applies this psalm to Judas in Acts 1. Psalm 41 exposed his crime; Psalm 109 foretold his end.
- Mercy inherited. Some read the "fatherless children" as children who keep their father's evil way. Others read them as a spiritual seed. Verse 20 then widens the psalm to "adversaries."
- Mercy now. The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us. God now deals in sovereign grace. So this prayer is Scripture to understand, not words to borrow.
Let his posterity be cut off; in the generation following let their name be blotted out
Verse 13 stands at the sharpest point of a long call for judgment (verses 6–20) against a man who repaid love with hatred. It asks God to cut off his line and blot out his family name — so who is this man, and how can such a prayer belong in Scripture?
The New Testament attaches one name to this part of the psalm. But the psalm itself reaches wider than one man.
The verses that follow present the call for judgment on the adversaries of Christ. Judas was a special instance of that hatred. It took advantage of the humility of Christ to persecute the poor and needy man, and to kill the broken in heart. So the Spirit of God has applied words used in these verses to Judas (compare Luke 22:47-48; Acts 1:20). But verse 20 shows that more than one outstandingly wicked man is in view. It takes in all the "adversaries" of the Lord who have spoken evil against His soul.
Losing a posterity is not a single blow. It is one step in a chain of judgment that starts with the man himself and spreads to all he has.
These verses see the enemy as driven by Satan. We know this was so with Judas, and it will be so in the coming Antichrist. His days are cut off (v. 8); his offspring are forsaken (vv. 9-10); his possessions are lost (v. 11); he is beyond the reach of mercy (vv. 12-15).
Commentators differ on how to read "his posterity." One writer takes the children as a picture, not a bloodline: the people who carried on the betrayer's work.
Afterwards He speaks of His adversaries (v. 20). He calls for judgment on them as the children of His adversary, and we may also know that He means the Jews. It could not have been the natural children of Judas the adversary, even if he had any. He means it in a symbolic sense. His symbolic offspring, as we have seen, are the Jews in their unbelief. They joined with him in his deed, and in spirit they still copy his evil way.
God set a guard inside the very promise about visiting iniquity on children.
He has Himself assured us that He "visits the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation." But He then adds a most necessary guard, or the words would be misunderstood: "of those who hate Me"... He does not only say it, He swears it. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, and the father shall not bear the iniquity of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be on him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be on him. And the repentance of anyone shall turn aside his doom.
Read as real descendants, these children are not innocent bystanders. They are there because they keep walking their father's road.
The wicked here keep on in the evil way of their father. So they stand identified with the evil for which their fathers are judged (v. 14). This answers the prayer of verse 15, that "the memory of them be cut off from the earth."
Verse 17 shows why the sentence fits the man. What he loved is what he gets.
They reward Him with evil for good, and they answer His love, the love that sought them, with hatred... The psalm says of the betrayer, "He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!" But this is true of all who reject Christ. All the cursing and punishment which come upon those who reject Christ are self-chosen.
These words are inspired. But they are not a pattern for how a Christian prays about enemies. They belong to the Jew, and they will fit a remnant in a day to come.
Look at those who try to Christianise what belongs to the Jew, and who say that the imprecatory psalms belong to a barbarous age! How would Ps. 109:4-13 suit you? It goes clean against everything we have been reading about the principles of the kingdom, and against the spirit of the Christian. But it will be quite right for the remnant... The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us.
- Cause — they answered His love with hatred, and turned on a man who was poor, needy and broken in heart.
- Sentence — the judgment moves in steps: days cut short, family forsaken, goods lost, and no mercy left.
- Reach — verse 13 carries the sentence past the man to his line. One reading takes that line as those who carry on his work, not just his blood.
- Limit — God swore that no son bears his father's guilt, and that repentance turns the sentence aside. These children fall under it because they keep their father's ways.
- Place — a man who loved cursing chose this curse himself. The whole Bible is for us, but not all of it is about us, and this prayer is not the Christian's.