Summary
Requited with hatred for love and cursing for prayer, David does not answer his accusers in kind. He brings the indictment to the bench of God and asks that the sentence be pronounced there. The long middle is not a wound venting itself but a doom recited: office forfeited, days shortened, a name cut off, the curse the man loved coming to rest on the head that chose it.
The apostles heard in the psalm the voice of the Messiah betrayed, and Peter applied verse 8 to Judas when the eleven filled his place — so it is sung in Christ and after Him, His cause joined rather than our malice borrowed. It ends where it began, in praise: the LORD stands at the right hand of the poor, and the mouth that asked for judgment gives thanks in the midst of the congregation.
Outline
Lying tongues encircle him; hatred without cause, evil rendered for good, cursing returned for prayer.
Let a wicked one stand against him; his prayer become sin, his days few, his office another’s, his house desolate, his name cut off — because he would not show mercy and loved cursing.
Deal with me for thy name’s sake: a heart wounded, days like a lengthening shadow, a body worn to reproach.
Save me, that they may know thy hand; let them be clothed with shame while I give thanks in the great congregation.
Stanza divisions provisional — to be conformed to the Book of Psalms for Worship. References NASB.