Psalms 109:4

"And I [am, or am to] prayer." So the holy sufferer describes it. Instead of his love they were his adversaries, and he gave himself up to prayer as a result. How astonishingly true of the Lord! Yet no careful mind can apply the psalm to Him alone, or apply every word of it to Him even in a general way. There is nothing here about Christ as priest, or about His work of praying for others. Even less does it picture Him as the fountain and source of all prayer, however truly He may be so. The real thought is a man giving himself up to prayer in the presence of adversaries who have no cause against him.

The lying lips that laid false charges against Christ were moved by hearts that hated Christ. For this hatred there was no cause in Christ. In Christ there was only love that expressed itself in doing good to His enemies. The Jewish nation hated Him without cause, and He answered by giving Himself to prayer. His enemies plotted evil against One whose love only stirred up their hatred. Their hostility met no resistance from Christ. It drew out perfect submission, which took everything from God, and perfect dependence, which carried everything to God in prayer.

The heading of Psalm 109 tells us nothing about the circumstances in which it was written. But judging from its contents, it seems very probable that, like Psalm 13, it grew out of the terrible experiences of Absalom's rebellion. That was when David became the victim of "the mouth of the deceitful," and was repaid "evil for good, and hatred for … love." Ahithophel's actions fit this description exactly. Shimei seemed to love cursing and to "clothe himself with cursing as his coat." And Absalom, the son David doted on, fits the words, "In return for my love they accuse me."

If then He was silent, if He took no revenge on His enemies, was it that He had no resource? Far from it. His resource was not to insult His enemies or turn on them. It was to turn to the Father in prayer. He can say, "In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer." So Peter writes of the Lord in his letter, "When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly."

Look at those who try to Christianise what belongs to the Jew, and who say that the psalms of cursing 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. It is opposed to the spirit of the Christian too. But it will be quite right for the remnant. So unless we learn to rightly divide the word of truth, we get into terrible difficulties. The whole Bible is for us, but not all about us. Some parts of the Psalms belong to the Lord Jesus only. Some belong to Him and to the remnant. And some parts we may apply to the Christian now, and to the remnant later on.

In Psalm 109, Christ waits on God to speak for Him, in answer to the wicked who spoke against Him. In Psalm 110 God does speak for Christ, in answer to that prayer. So Psalm 109 unfolds God's ways with Christ in humiliation, and Psalm 110 presents God's purpose for Christ in exaltation.