▼109:1 The psalmist is speaking to ‘the God that I praise’, (verse 1). ‘Praise God’ means ‘tell God that he is great.’ But the psalmist wants God to answer him. He means that he wants God to do something about his, the psalmist’s, troubles. These include:

– Liars (people who say things that are not true). See verse 2.

– People that hate him; ‘hate’ means the opposite of ‘love.’ See verse 3.

– People that attack him without a reason, (verse 3).

– People that accuse him; ‘accuse’ means ‘say that he did something wrong.’

▼109:4 The word ‘accuse’ is important. It comes 4 times in Psalm 109, in verses 4, 6, 20 and 29. Verse 6 starts the second part of the psalm. It ends at verse 20. In his mind, the psalmist sees a picture. He sees a Court of Law. This is a place where a trial happens. A trial happens after the police catch someone. They ask a judge to decide if that person did something wrong. If they did wrong, then they are guilty. They have not obeyed the rules of their country, or they have ‘broken the law.’ Then the judge punishes them. They may pay a fine (money). Or they go to prison, or someone with authority executes (kills) them.

▼109:6 In verse 6, the psalmist prays that an evil (very bad) man is the judge. Someone must stand at the right hand side of the psalmist’s enemy to accuse him. What he (the man that accuses) says will show that he (the psalmist’s enemy) has done wrong, (verse 7). Then the judge will punish him, (verses 8-19). The judge decides that someone must kill him. So his life is short, (verse 8). This means that his children have no father and his wife is a widow, (has no husband), (verse 9).

▼109:13 The psalmist prays that nobody will remember his enemy’s family. This includes the people that came after him, (verse 13). And it includes everybody that lived before him, (verse 14). ‘Fathers’ in this verse means ‘grandfathers’ and ‘father’s grandfathers’ and so on. ‘Sins’ are when we do not obey God’s rules.

▼109:15 In verse 14, and 5 other verses in the psalm, there is the word LORD. This translates the Hebrew word ‘Yahweh.’ Hebrew is the language that the psalmist spoke. Yahweh is a special name for God. God has agreed to give his people kind love if they love and obey him. That is what Yahweh means. When people agree like this, we call it a ‘covenant.’ So, LORD is the covenant name for God.

▼109:18 We may think that what the psalmist wanted for his enemy was bad. Maybe we are right. But verses 16-18 tell us that this enemy was a really bad, or evil, man. One day, God will punish (or hurt) people that are really bad. Read 2 Thessalonians 2 to find out what Paul says about this! The important thing to remember is this: God will punish bad people; we do not punish them. The psalmist prays that the bad things that his enemy does will also happen to him. The oil in verse 18 is not motor oil, but the oil from a fruit called the olive. People use it today to cook with.

▼109:25 Verses 22-25 tell us that the psalmist is ill. He is hurting inside, (verse 22). He thinks that he is dying. He thinks that he is like a shadow that goes when the sun goes down. He is like an insect called a locust. People just blow them away as the wind does. He does not eat. So he is weak and he becomes thin, (verse 24). Maybe this means he is ‘fasting’ (not eating to make God answer him when he prays). People just laugh and shake their heads (or ‘move their heads from side to side’), (verse 25).

▼109:26 The psalmist prays for help, (verse 26). He wants everybody to know that God has done something, (verse 27). God will do good things for the psalmist, verse 28 and make his enemies feel ashamed. Their ‘shame’ in verse 29 is when they ‘feel ashamed.’ They cannot get away from this feeling. It is all round them like their clothes are all round them! But the psalmist (‘your servant’) feels very happy, verse 28. He will say that the LORD is very great. He will praise him, (verse 30).