---
title: "Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 5"
author: "John Calvin"
translator: "James Anderson"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 126 of 159
url: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-the-psalms-volume-5/126/
cite: "John Calvin, tr. James Anderson, Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 5, section 126. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-the-psalms-volume-5/126/"
---

# Commentary on the Psalms, Volume 5

*John Calvin, tr. James Anderson*

Calvin on the Psalms, volume 5 of 5.

## 126. Psalm 109

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-the-psalms-volume-5/126/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/john-calvin-commentary-on-the-psalms-volume-5/126/#p-N

[¶0] To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David

[¶1] 1 O God of my praise! be not silent;

[¶2] 2 For the mouth of the ungodly man, and the mouth of deceit upon me are opened; They have talked with me with a tongue of guile:

[¶3] 3 And with words of hatred they have encompassed me, And have fought against me without a cause.

[¶4] 4 [In return] for my love they have been my adversaries; But I set myself to prayer.

[¶5] 5 And they have requited me evil for good, And hatred for my love.

[¶6] 6 Set thou over him an ungodly man; And let the adversary stand at his right hand.

[¶7] 7 When he is judged let him go forth condemned, And let his prayer be turned into sin.

[¶8] 8 Let his days be few; His office let another receive.

[¶9] 9 Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow.

[¶10] 10 And in wandering let his children wander and beg, And seek [for bread] out of their waste places.

[¶11] 11 Catch let the extortioner all which he hath, And let strangers plunder his labor.

[¶12] 12 Let there be none prolonging mercy to him; And let there be none to have compassion upon his orphans.

[¶13] 13 Let his posterity be destroyed; In the generation following let their name be blotted out.

[¶14] 14 Remembered let be the iniquity of his fathers before Jehovah; And the wickedness of his mother let it not be blotted out.

[¶15] 15 Let them be before Jehovah continually, And let him blot out from the earth their memorial;

[¶16] 16 Because he remembered not to do mercy, And persecuted the man [that was] wretched and poor, And afflicted in heart, to put him to death.

[¶17] 17 He loved cursing, and let it come upon him: He delighted not in blessing, and let it be far from him.

[¶18] 18 And let him be clothed with cursing as with a garment; And let it come as water into his entrails, And as oil into his bones.

[¶19] 19 Let it be to him as a mantle to cover him, And as a girdle with which continually he may gird himself

[¶20] 20 Let this be the recompense of my adversaries from Jehovah, And of those who speak evil against my soul.

[¶21] 21 But thou, O Jehovah, my Lord! deal thou with me for the sake of thy name: Because good is thy mercy, deliver me;

[¶22] 22 For poor and needy I am, And my heart is wounded within me.

[¶23] 23 As a shadow when it declineth, I walk about; I am shaken off as the locust.

[¶24] 24 My knees are become feeble through fasting; And my flesh hath fallen away from its fatness.

[¶25] 25 But I am become a reproach to them; When they see me they shake their head.

[¶26] 26 Help me, O Jehovah, my God! Save me according to thy mercy.

[¶27] 27 And they shall know that this is thy hand, That thou, O Jehovah! hast done it.

[¶28] 28 They shall curse, but thou shalt bless; When they rise up they shall be put to shame; But thy servant shall rejoice.

[¶29] 29 Clothed shall be my adversaries with disgrace, And they shall be covered as with a garment with their own shame.

[¶30] 30 I will praise Jehovah greatly with my mouth; And in the midst of the great I will celebrate him:

[¶31] 31 Because he standeth at the right hand of the poor one, To save from condemnations his soul.