Psalm 109:31

Psalm 109 is one of the most intense prayers in the Psalter. Its title gives it to David, and the psalm leaves its exact occasion unstated. The psalmist has suffered betrayal, slander and hatred he did nothing to earn, and through most of the psalm he cries to God for justice. He calls down severe curses on his enemies (Psalm 109:6–20), and then he lays out his own weakness and his desperate need of help (Psalm 109:21–29).

In verse 30 the psalm turns to praise. The trouble is still going on as he speaks. He praises God for a deliverance he is still waiting for, because he is sure it will come. This is praise offered in advance, sometimes called proleptic or anticipatory praise, and it rests on God’s character as a just Judge and a faithful Deliverer. The psalmist’s faith holds while his accusers are still talking, and it lets him look past his present distress to the day when God’s faithfulness will be plain to everyone.

Many psalms of lament move the same way, from distress and petition to trust and praise. Psalm 13 begins by asking the LORD how long he will wait and ends in singing, and Psalm 27 opens with the confidence of “The LORD is my light and my salvation”. The same trust in God as judge speaks in Psalm 7:8: “The LORD shall judge the people: judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me.”

“I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth” is a vow. The verb yâdâh means to praise, give thanks or confess, so the psalmist’s praise is also an open acknowledgment of what God has done. The word is connected with holding out the hand, and worship with lifted hands belongs to its picture. “With my mouth” makes the praise spoken and audible, something others will hear. “Greatly” translates mᵉʼôd, the ordinary Hebrew word for very, greatly or exceedingly, and here it makes the vow wholehearted and abundant, the praise of a man who expects a great deliverance.

The second line repeats the vow and widens it: “yea, I will praise him among the multitude.” The two verbs for praise are different words in Hebrew, and saying “I will praise” twice makes the resolve firm. Rab means much, many or great, and here it describes the many people gathered, the great assembly of God’s people. Praise that starts in one man’s mouth is meant to be heard by a crowd.

Verse 31 gives the reason for the praise, and it opens with “For”. The psalmist praises because of what God will do: “he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.”

The picture comes from a court of law. The verb ʻâmad means to stand, and here it is the standing of someone who takes his place in a trial. Yâmîyn is the right hand or right side, and by extension it can also mean the south, which lies on the right of someone facing east. In an Israelite court the place at a man’s right hand could be taken by his accuser or by his defender. The LORD takes that place as the poor man’s defender. He comes and stands beside the one on trial and pleads his cause himself.

Across Scripture the right hand is linked with strength, authority and favor. In the very next psalm, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Psalm 110:1). The God who gives that seat of power to his King here comes to stand at the right hand of the needy.

The purpose of his coming is “to save him.” The rescue reaches the poor man’s body, his name, his standing and his peace, all that his accusers set out to destroy, and it ends in his vindication.

People ask how this closing promise fits a psalm so full of curses. Verse 31 places the whole matter in God’s hands. The psalmist has asked for severe justice against his oppressors (Psalm 109:6–20), and he still wants justice done, and at the end he trusts God himself to carry it out. Vindication and salvation belong to God, who will defend those who depend on him. The psalm’s last word is about God standing beside the poor, and that hope is what held the psalmist up through all his pain.

When Jesus suffered slander and injustice far beyond this, he prayed for the men who crucified him: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Jesus took the place of the poor man in this psalm. Though he was rich, for our sakes he became poor (2 Corinthians 8:9), and he joined himself so closely to the lowly that he said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40). He endured false accusation, public shame and a wrongful death on the cross, depending wholly on his Father. Like the psalmist, he entrusted himself to the Father, and God vindicated him by raising him from the dead and taking him up into heaven: “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death” (Acts 2:24). In the resurrection God stood at his right hand and proved him to be the righteous Son.

Now Christ is at the right hand of God as the Advocate of his people. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Paul asks the question this verse raises and answers it with Christ: “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). The Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (John 1:29), bore our condemnation, so that the poor in spirit are saved and declared righteous in him.

The vow of verse 30 comes to its fullness in the church. The multitude that praises God for this deliverance is his people gathered across generations and nations, and our praise looks back on a victory already won: “But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). Through Christ we offer “the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name” (Hebrews 13:15), and we wait for the day when he comes to be glorified in his saints and admired in all them that believe (2 Thessalonians 1:10).

When you are slandered or falsely accused, this psalm shows you where to take it. The psalmist poured out everything to God and left the verdict with him, and you can do the same, trusting the One who stands at the right hand of the poor. Your own power to defend yourself has limits, and his power to defend you is infinite.

You can also praise him before the answer comes, because his character is settled. When he brings you through, tell it. What he has done for you is meant to encourage others in their own trials, to build up his church, and to draw people outside it toward the God who delivers. And since God stands beside the lowly, his people belong there too, dealing justly and showing compassion to the needy around them.