The writer of Psalm 109 has a highly developed sense of justice and truly believes that he’s the victim of injustice. The bad guys seem to be winning, while he, convinced that he’s one of the good guys, is getting a raw deal. He has tried to extend friendship to his adversaries only to have his efforts spurned. This echoes the cynical saying that “no good deed goes un-punished.”

Psalm 109 is notable in that it is one of the most vehement imprecatory psalms—those psalms that call down judgment on the writer’s enemies. This makes for difficult reading when we read it through grace-tinted New Testament eyes, but there is an important principle here. All of us at times feel hard done by, especially when we see others thriving despite their aberrant behaviour, while we find ourselves struggling even though we conduct our lives according to God’s principles.

The danger here is that we can allow bitterness to take root (Hebrews 12:15), and in our need to process things end up falling into gossip and slander as we talk things through with others—often in the guise of “sharing”. We should note that this psalm is addressed to God. The writer is pouring out a tirade of hurts and frustrations, but he’s doing it to a safe audience. 

First Peter 5:7 advises us to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” We aren’t going to offend God by telling Him how we feel; neither is there any point in keeping up a pretence of holiness that He’s going to see straight through. Sometimes all we need to do is get our frustrations off our chest, in which case God is the safest one to tell.

We can slander, gossip and complain about our adversaries all we like with God, because a) He knows the un-biased truth, b) He isn’t going to spread it any further, and c) in owning up to how we really feel, we allow God to in turn instill some of those Christlike attitudes we all so desperately need more of. However, the important thing to remember as we pour out our frustrations to God is that however close we may be to God, He is still God, and that along with our honesty He deserves our utmost respect.