John Calvin Commentary Psalms 109:17

"Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him; And he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him." — Psalms 109:17 (ASV)

As he loved cursing, David still continues to enumerate the sins of his adversaries and is thus severe in his treatment of them, in order to render it more apparent that he is strictly conforming to the judgment of God. For whenever we draw near to the tribunal of God, we must take care that the equity of our cause is so sure and evident as to secure for it and for us a favorable reception from him.

Fortified by the testimony of an approving conscience, David here declares his readiness to commit the matter between him and his enemies to the judgment of God. The words, which express cursing and blessing, are in the past tense, cursing came upon him, and blessing was far from him; however, it is necessary to translate them as expressing a wish or desire, for David continues to pray that his enemy may be visited with the same unparalleled ills that he had inflicted upon others.

A stranger to every act of kindness and taking pleasure in doing evil, it is the Psalmist’s wish that this enemy may now be subjected to every type of calamity. Some understand malediction to mean cursing and imprecation, thereby suggesting that this man was so addicted to execration that mischief and malevolence were constantly in his heart and proceeding from his lips.

While I do not reject this opinion, I am nevertheless inclined to take a more extended view of the passage: that by injury and abuse, he aimed at the suppression and abolition of every mark of kindness, and that he took delight in the calamities he saw coming upon the unsuspecting and the good.

Not a few interpreters translate the next two verses in the past form, he clothed himself with cursing, etc., which would be tantamount to saying that the enemy was as fond of cursing as of costly apparel, or that he clothed himself with it as with a garment, and that, like an inveterate disease, it was deeply seated in the marrow of his bones.

The other interpretation is simpler: that cursing should cling to the wicked, that it should envelop him like a cloak, gird him as with a belt, and even penetrate to his bones. And so that no one may rashly take for an example what David here spoke by the special influence of the Holy Spirit, let it be remembered that the Psalmist is not pleading here in reference to any personal interest, and that he refers to no ordinary character.

Belonging to the number of the faithful, he would not omit the law of charity in desiring the salvation of all people. But in this instance, God elevated his spirit above all earthly considerations, stripped him of all malice, and delivered him from the influence of turbulent passion, so that he might, with holy calmness and spiritual wisdom, doom the reprobate and castaway to destruction.

Others would have the phrase he loved cursing, mean that he purposely drew down the vengeance of God upon himself, as it were, procuring destruction for himself by his open hostility to God; but this is an unnatural interpretation of the passage. The interpretation I have given is preferable: that he was so addicted to mischief and wrong that no act of justice or kindness was to be expected from him.

Meanwhile, let it be observed that all the machinations of the wicked will eventually recoil upon their own heads; and when they are raging more violently against others, the mischief they so eagerly desire to come upon others then falls upon themselves, just as the wind called Cecias, by its blowing, attracts the clouds to itself.