Psalms 109:17

My Notes

What Does Psalms 109:17 Mean?

David is describing a specific enemy — someone who loved cursing and refused blessing. The Hebrew ahav q'lalah — he loved cursing — uses ahav, the same word for deep, chosen love. This person didn't just curse occasionally. He loved it. Cursing was his preference, his habit, his delight. And "he delighted not in blessing" — lo chaphets bivrakhah — he found no pleasure in speaking good over others. Blessing was available. He chose otherwise.

The prayer is that the man receive exactly what he chose: "let it come unto him... let it be far from him." The cursing he loved — let it arrive at his door. The blessing he refused — let it stay away. David is asking God to honor the man's own preferences. You chose cursing? Receive it. You rejected blessing? It's gone. The judgment is self-selected.

This is the principle of moral harvest applied to speech. Your words create the environment you live in. A person who sows cursing doesn't just send harm outward — they create a climate of cursing that eventually encircles them. The verse isn't God imposing an arbitrary punishment. It's God letting a person live in the world their own mouth built.

Reflection Questions

• 1.If you're honest, what do your unmonitored words reveal about what you 'love' — blessing or cursing?
• 2.Have you experienced the principle of this verse — living in the climate your own speech created?
• 3.Is there someone in your life who loves cursing — whose default is destruction, criticism, or tearing others down? How do you protect yourself from that climate?
• 4.What would it look like to intentionally choose blessing today — to speak life in a specific situation where your instinct is to curse?

Devotional

He loved cursing. That word — loved — is the key. This isn't about someone who lost their temper once. It's about someone who chose, repeatedly and with pleasure, to speak destruction over others. They found satisfaction in tearing people down, in speaking ruin, in using their words as weapons. And they rejected every opportunity to bless — to speak life, to encourage, to build up. Blessing was available. They didn't want it.

David's prayer is terrifyingly simple: let them have what they chose. Let the cursing they loved come home. Let the blessing they refused stay away. God isn't manufacturing a punishment here. He's honoring a preference. You want to live in a world of cursing? You built that world with your own mouth. Welcome to it.

That should make you examine your own speech with seriousness. What are you loving? What comes out of your mouth when you're not monitoring it — in the car, in the group chat, in your own head? Are you building a world of cursing or a world of blessing? Because this verse says you end up living in whichever one you build. The person who blesses lives surrounded by blessing. The person who curses lives surrounded by cursing. Not because of karma, but because your words create the soil you stand in. What are you planting?

Commentary

Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.

Cross References

Related passages throughout Scripture