Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 71:1 (NA 2020)
Article: A Quotation In Psalm 109 As Defence Exhibit A
Author: Steffen G. Jenkins

TynBull 71:1 (2020) p. 115

A Quotation In Psalm 109
As Defence Exhibit A

Steffen G. Jenkins

([email protected])

Summary

Psalm 109 contains an infamous imprecation, which roughly half of modern commentators identify as a quotation of an enemy curse. On the other hand, most who detect a quotation believe it to be aimed against the enemy anyway, in an act of poetic justice. This article assesses the debate and offers fresh grounds for a more recent proposal. The quotation includes not only curse, but an accusation, justifying the curse against David. David quotes his accuser’s case, to protest that it is the fabrication of enemies who have suborned perjury. Finally, he prays that this plot against him would fail.

1. Introduction

Open a translation or commentary of Psalm 109 and you have a fifty-fifty chance of being told that verses 6–19 are a quotation rather than part of the prayer.1 One might well be sceptical: this seems too ethically convenient, saving us from having to pray ‘the most difficult and most embarrassing psalm for conventional piety’.2 The question is

TynBull 71:1 (2020) p. 116

not quite that simple: if there is a quotation, what is it doing there? Whatever relief these quotation marks might bring to the reader, sanitising the psalm has not historically been the motivation for them. Hans Schmidt, usually credited for identifying a quotation,3 warned that it is futile to exonerate the psalmist via a quotation, since verse 20 asks for the quoted curse to rebound on to the enemy.4 We should not assume that identifying a quotation will bring any ethical relief, much less poison the well by impugning expositors with such a motivation.5 Despite the apparent convenience of inserting quotation marks, I hope to show that there is a good case for understanding a section of Psalm 109 as the words of David’s enemy, which David offers as Exhibit A for his own defence.

Many commentators argue that, whether verses 6–19 are a quotation or not, it is what David is praying for the enemy.6 Their view hinges on a particular interpretation of ver...