Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Psalms 109:21 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 21. 21But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
Psalm 109:21: The opening contrast in “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy…” turns the argument of “Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse: The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.”
Read It With
- Psalms 109:21–31
- Psalms 109:1–31
Read Psalms 109:21 with 109:21–31 and 109:1–31. Read alone, “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s…” could lose the individual voice, the parallel line or movement it develops, and the psalm's outcome. The complete movement establishes: Within Psalms 109:21–31, the individual voice carries the movement “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help” as part of “Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
Why This Verse Appears Here
Psalms 109:21–31 answers or redirects “The extended curse and its disputed voice” within Psalm 109 by carrying “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.” The turn from “Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against…” to “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake: because thy mercy is good,…” explains why this movement occurs here. Within that relationship, Psalm 109:21 turns the movement by contrasting what precedes it with “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake.”
Follow the Context
- Identify the individual voice, address, and parallel lines in Psalms 109:21–31; do not make every “I”, “we,” king, enemy, or worshiper interchangeable.
- Within Psalms 109:21–31, the individual voice carries the movement “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help” as part of “Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse.” Its lament-imprecation form and poetic parallelism hold the petitions, images, memories, or praise together before any single line is applied.
- This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The curse section has disputed speaker proposals and severe consequences; it must not be prayed as a weapon against named people or used to sanctify abuse.
What This Verse Is Not Saying
Psalms 109:21 does not allow “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s…” to become an independent promise, command, accusation, doctrine, or authorization. This verse turns the movement by contrasting what precedes it with “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake.” The complete movement is “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.” This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The curse section has disputed speaker proposals and severe consequences; it must not be prayed as a weapon against named people or used to sanctify abuse.
What Remains True
Psalm 109:21 carries “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s…” inside the lament-imprecation movement “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.” Its durable contribution is this: Wrong and rage may be named honestly before the LORD, yet judgment remains accountable to justice and never turns another person into disposable prey. The local movement is “The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.” The unit's reviewed limit is: The curse section has disputed speaker proposals and severe consequences; it must not be prayed as a weapon against named people or used to sanctify abuse.
How It Can Shape Life
- Within “Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse: The poor speaker asks for steadfast help,” Psalm 109:21 turns the movement by contrasting what precedes it with “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s sake.” A proportionate response is this: Name the actual harm behind “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s…”, seek protection and fair judgment, and refuse to enact the poem's anger against a critic, group, or imagined enemy.
Teach It Back
In your own words, place “But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name’s…” inside “Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse: The poor speaker asks for steadfast help.” Identify its lament-imprecation role, the neighboring poetic movement, one uncertainty, one enduring truth, one proportionate action, and this boundary: This reading does not authorize the following misuse: The curse section has disputed speaker proposals and severe consequences; it must not be prayed as a weapon against named people or used to sanctify abuse.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Psalms 109:21–31 — Betrayal, accusation, and extended curse: The poor speaker asks for steadfast helpSources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The curse section has disputed speaker proposals and severe consequences; it must not be prayed as a weapon against named people or used to sanctify abuse.
This Lens uses WHO guidance only to avoid unsafe modern communication about distress, isolation, death wishes, or severe loss; it does not diagnose the speaker or replace exegesis and appropriate care.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Psalms 109:21–31, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Psalms
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a complete apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ps.xml, OSIS 109:21–31
Open the fixed Hebrew Psalms file ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Notes: Psalms 1-150
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, current official online edition
Supports: Verse-level controls for poetic syntax, imagery, older KJV language, textual issues, headings, and alternatives in Psalms 109:21–31.
Exact location: Official NET Bible Psalm 109 HTML, translator, textual, and study notes attached to Psalms 109:21–31
Open the official NET Psalms notes ↗modern scholarly book course
Psalms course: summary, outline, background, introductory issues, theological themes, and Bible in the world
Fred Gaiser; revised by Nicholas Schaser
Enter the Bible, Luther Seminary, revised May 2024
Supports: Five-book, genre, poetic, historical, theological, liturgical, communal, and reception synthesis with visible limits.
Exact location: Enter the Bible Psalms course, Introductory Issues: individual and communal lament, from lament to praise, and Bible in the World; applied to Psalms 109:21–31
Open the Enter the Bible Psalms course ↗ancient greek text translation and introduction
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: Psalms
Albert Pietersma
International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies; Oxford University Press, 2009
Supports: Ancient Greek wording, numbering, division, and superscription evidence where it materially clarifies translation or reception.
Exact location: NETS Psalms, Pietersma introduction pp. 542–543 and exact Greek translation headed Ps 109 for Psalms 109:21–31
Open NETS Psalms ↗peer reviewed open access research overview
An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms: Reformed and Evangelical Approaches to the Interpretation of Imprecatory Psalms
Daniel Simango and P. Paul Krüger
Old Testament Essays 29.3, 2016
Supports: Major historical, literary, covenantal, ethical, and reception approaches to curses and enemy language.
Exact location: Simango and Krüger, 'An Overview of the Study of Imprecatory Psalms,' OTE 29.3 (2016), pp. 581–600, complete approach survey; applied to Psalms 109:21–31
Open the imprecatory-psalm overview ↗peer reviewed open access literary and ethical study
Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words in the 21st century
Nancy L. deClaissé-Walford
Acta Theologica Supplementum 32, 2021
Supports: Imprecation retained as difficult prayer and communal speech without converting violent wishes into commands or erasing Jewish reception.
Exact location: deClaissé-Walford, 'Embracing the Psalter's imprecatory words,' Acta Theologica Suppl. 32 (2021), pp. 275–292, especially literary, liturgical, trauma, and ethical proposal; applied to Psalms 109:21–31
Open deClaissé-Walford on imprecation ↗public health communication guidance
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, 2023
Supports: Communication safeguards against romanticizing, sensationalizing, diagnosing, blaming, or simplifying despair, isolation, death wishes, and severe loss; not exegesis.
Exact location: WHO, Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2023, quick guide p. xiii and dos and don'ts pp. 11–16; applied only to modern safety-aware presentation of Psalms 109:21–31
Open the WHO communication guide ↗