Someone who only had words of friendship has been accused and slandered. He asks justice from God who does not forsake his own. God will show no mercy for those who are merciless.
① 1Break your silence, O God whom I praise, 2now that the wicked and deceitful hurl their false accusations at me.
3They assail me with words of hatred; they attack me for no valid cause.
4They return my friendship with slander, and yet I pray for them.
5They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6Appoint a wicked man against him; find an accuser to repeat this curse:
7“Let him be found guilty when tried; let his own plea condemn him.
8May his days be numbered, his office be taken by another.
9May his children lose a father and his wife a husband.
10May his children go begging, driven out of their ruined homes.
11May the creditor seize all his belongings and strangers plunder the fruits of his toil.
12Let no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his orphaned children.
13May his posterity be destroyed, their names blotted out in the next generation.
14May his father’s evil be remembered before the Lord; may his mother’s sin never be effaced.
15May their sins be ever before the Lord, and their memory cut off from the earth.”
16For he did not remember to show kindness, but hounded the poor, the needy, and the brokenhearted to their death.
17He loved to curse; may he be cursed. He loathed blessing; may it be far from him.
18He wrapped himself in cursing; may it soak into his body like water, penetrate his bones like oil.
19May it be like a garment he wears, like the belt he ties around himself.
20May the Lord reward my accusers with this, and others who speak evil of me.
21But as for me, O God my Lord, for your name’s sake, act on my behalf, deliver me, in the goodness of your love.
22For I am poor and needy, my heart is stricken within me.
23Like an evening shadow, I fade away; like a locust, I am swept away.
24My knees have become weak from fasting, my body is wasted of its substance.
25I have become the butt for the scorn of my foes; people shake their heads at me in derision.
26Help me, O Lord my God, and save me for the sake of your love.
27Let them know that this is your hand, that it is you, Lord, who do this.
28They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack, they will be disgraced; but may your servant rejoice!
29Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor; let them be wrapped in their own shame.
30To the Lord, I will give my thanks; I will praise him in the great assembly.
31He stands at the right hand of the needy, to save them from those who condemn them.
- It is perhaps the psalm that most scandalizes Christians, well-educated as we are. An attempt has been made to change the translation (instead of a curse verses 6-20 would be a charitable way of saying what could happen to the evildoer). It has been excluded from the breviary. Whose fault is it, if it is part of the Bible and the word of God?
We have not yet completely come to the new Gospel age (we continue to kill each other in a “nice way” in Christian countries) and certainly no one has attained it. They all have the right to pray. These curses are a cry to the justice of God who understands them and who – yes, he too – knows how to curse.
