BackgroundBetrayed by friends he had once mourned for, period uncertain.
Psalm 35: Plea Against Accusers
Of David.
By Bea Zalel
Psalm 35
Of David.
- Contend with my opponents, O LORD; fight against those who fight against me.
- Take up Your shield and buckler; arise and come to my aid.
- Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers; say to my soul: “I am your salvation.”
- May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to shame; may those who plan to harm me be driven back and confounded.
- May they be like chaff in the wind, as the angel of the LORD drives them away.
- May their path be dark and slick, as the angel of the LORD pursues.
- For without cause they laid their net for me; without reason they dug a pit for my soul.
- May ruin befall them by surprise; may the net they hid ensnare them; may they fall into the hazard they created.
- Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD and exult in His salvation.
- All my bones will exclaim, “Who is like You, O LORD, who delivers the afflicted from the aggressor, the poor and needy from the robber?”
- Hostile witnesses come forward; they make charges I know nothing about.
- They repay me evil for good, to the bereavement of my soul.
- Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- I paced about as for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning for his mother.
- But when I stumbled, they assembled in glee; they gathered together against me. Assailants I did not know slandered me without ceasing.
- Like godless jesters at a feast, they gnashed their teeth at me.
- How long, O Lord, will You look on? Rescue my soul from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.
- Then I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.
- Let not my enemies gloat over me without cause, nor those who hate me without reason wink in malice.
- For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.
- They gape at me and say, “Aha, aha! Our eyes have seen!”
- O LORD, You have seen it; be not silent. O Lord, be not far from me.
- Awake and rise to my defense, to my cause, my God and my Lord!
- Vindicate me by Your righteousness, O LORD my God, and do not let them gloat over me.
- Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, just what we wanted!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up!”
- May those who gloat in my distress be ashamed and confounded; may those who exalt themselves over me be clothed in shame and reproach.
- May those who favor my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “Exalted be the LORD who delights in His servant’s well-being.”
- Then my tongue will proclaim Your righteousness and Your praises all day long.
Theme
Psalm 35 is hard for modern ears. It is an imprecatory psalm, the kind that asks God to bring real harm on the singer's enemies. 'Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me' (v. 1). 'Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the LORD driving them away!' (v. 5). The temptation for a modern reader is to skip past these verses or to spiritualize them into something gentler. The psalm does not let that work. To read it honestly, you have to put yourself inside the social world that produced it. David is being slandered by people he once helped. Verse 13 names the betrayal: 'but I, when they were sick, I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.' He nursed them. He fasted for them. Now they are testifying against him in the city gate.
In Iron Age Israel, false witnesses were not a nuisance. They were a deadly threat. The legal system relied on the testimony of one's neighbors. There was no forensic evidence, no defense attorney, no appeals process to speak of. Two witnesses in agreement could take a man's land, his standing, his life. The book of Deuteronomy treats false witness so seriously that it prescribes the death penalty for the false witness himself if exposed (Deuteronomy 19:18-19), and the prophets return again and again to the corruption of the gate, the place where these cases were heard. When David asks God to be the prosecutor of his cause, he is not bypassing justice, he is appealing to the higher court when the lower court has been bought. The protection for the wronged in his society was thin. Asking God to take up the case is partly a refusal to take revenge personally.
That refusal connects directly to a New Testament line modern Christians know better than the imprecatory psalms. Romans 12:19: 'never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.' Paul is not telling the Roman believers to feel nothing, he is telling them to redirect what they feel. The imprecatory psalms model exactly that redirection. David hands the rage to God instead of acting on it himself. He still feels it, he still says it out loud, he still names exactly what he wishes would happen, but he says it as a prayer, not as a plan. There is a kind of honesty in that which the spiritualized version loses. Psalm 35 does not ask the wronged to pretend they were not wronged. It gives them somewhere to put what is real.
Discussion questions
- Why do you think the imprecatory psalms make modern Christian readers uncomfortable in a way they apparently did not make ancient readers?
- Verse 13 describes David fasting and wearing sackcloth for the very people now slandering him. Have you ever experienced that specific kind of betrayal, where the people you served turned on you?
- How does it change your reading of this psalm to know that false witnesses in Iron Age Israel could legally take a person's land or life?
- The legal protection for the wronged was thin. What modern situations have a similar dynamic, where the formal channels for justice are not actually accessible?
- Asking God to prosecute the case is described as partly a refusal to take revenge personally. How is that different from passivity?
- Romans 12:19 says 'never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.' How does Psalm 35 model what that handing-over actually sounds like?
- What is the difference between feeling rage and acting on rage, and where does prayer fit between those two?
- Is there honesty available in praying 'let them be put to shame' that gets lost when we sanitize the prayer into something more polite?
- Who do you currently want God to contend with on your behalf? Could you say so directly to God, as David does, without acting on it yourself?
- Verse 28 ends the psalm with 'my tongue shall tell of your righteousness and of your praise all the day long.' How does the long imprecatory section reach that closing note, rather than ending in bitterness?
Read this psalm in another translation
The inline text above is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB). Open in a new tab to compare with a modern licensed translation: