The Psalm 109:8 “prayer” for Obama

I recently have seen some right-wingers or Christian fundies promoting a “prayer” for President Obama using the Tanakh scripture psalm 109:8. This “prayer”, if it can even be called that, is a plea that “may his days be few; may another take his office.”

Psalm 109:8 is being offered as a legitimate source for entreaty to the god of the fundies, because they apparently think that the psalmist was asking his god for the same result. I suspect that many of these misguided fundies are reading the KJV, and not only because the KJV is the preferred bible of most fundies I’ve met.

But before I explain why I think the fundies are misunderstanding psalm 109 because of the KJV, let’s look at psalm 109 first. From the New American Bible: (or, skip to the next section)

1. For the leader. A psalm of David.
2. O God, whom I praise, do not be silent, for wicked and treacherous mouths attack me. They speak against me with lying tongues;
3. with hateful words they surround me, attacking me without cause.
4. In return for my love they slander me, even though I prayed for them.
5. They repay me evil for good, hatred for my love. My enemies say of me:
6. “Find a lying witness, an accuser to stand by his right hand,
7. That he may be judged and found guilty, that his plea may be in vain.
8. May his days be few; may another take his office.
9. May his children be fatherless, his wife, a widow.
10. May his children be vagrant beggars, driven from their hovels.
11. May the usurer snare all he owns, strangers plunder all he earns.
12. May no one treat him kindly or pity his fatherless children.
13. May his posterity be destroyed, his name cease in the next generation.
14. May the LORD remember his fathers’ guilt; his mother’s sin not be canceled.
15. May their guilt be always before the LORD, till their memory is banished from the earth,
16. For he did not remember to show kindness, but hounded the wretched poor and brought death to the brokenhearted.
17. He loved cursing; may it come upon him; he hated blessing; may none come to him.
18. May cursing clothe him like a robe; may it enter his belly like water, seep into his bones like oil.
19. May it be near as the clothes he wears, as the belt always around him.”
20. May the LORD bring all this upon my accusers, upon those who speak evil against me.
21. But you, LORD, my God, deal kindly with me for your name’s sake; in your great mercy rescue me.
22. For I am sorely in need; my heart is pierced within me.
23. Like a lengthening shadow I near my end, all but swept away like the locust.
24. My knees totter from fasting; my flesh has wasted away.
25. I have become a mockery to them; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26. Help me, LORD, my God; save me in your kindness.
27. Make them know this is your hand, that you, LORD, have acted.
28. Though they curse, may you bless; shame my foes, that your servant may rejoice.
29. Clothe my accusers with disgrace; make them wear shame like a mantle.
30. I will give fervent thanks to the LORD; before all I will praise my God.
31. For God stands at the right hand of the poor to defend them against unjust accusers.

Notice that verse 6 starts with a quotation mark? Verse 8, the line being offered by the fundies as the anti-Obama “prayer,” is part of this quoted material that ends at verse 19. Verse 5 ends with the phrase “My enemies say of me,” which introduces verses 6 through 19 as what the enemies say about the psalmist.

Apart from the quoted material being an utterly vile and disgusting litany by the enemy, anyone selectively extracting lines from that litany should read verse 20 specifically.

In verse 20, the psalmist is asking his god to take the solicitations of the enemies and visit those punishments back on them. Clearly, the fundies and right-wing nuts are trying to take on the role of the enemy who prays for these evil things to happen to the psalmist, and they are putting President Obama in the shoes of the psalmist himself. The psalmist is a friend of his god, so presumably the enemy is the enemy of the psalmist’s god. The psalmist’s god, the Christians claim, is their God. Therefore, the fundies and (almost certainly Christian) right-wingers are aligning themselves against their own god. Bizarre.

KJV, the Source of Most Biblical Misunderstanding

If you look at the same psalm 109 in a King James Version, you can see why the fundies are so confused, apparently without being aware. In the KJV, verses 6 through 19 are not clearly demarcated with quotation marks. For this reason, I think the funding are thinking that the psalmist is praying to his god for those evil things directly.

However, with the scantest bit of close reading of psalm 109, we can see that in the verses where the psalmist is talking in first person, he uses the pronoun “they” to refer to the enemy, but in verses 6 through 19, the psalmist uses “he” and his” and “him.” This is because, in 6 through 19, the psalmist is quoting the enemy—telling us what the enemy says about him. The psalmist doesn’t ask for any of the punishments in 6 through 19 directly; rather, he is directly asking that his god punish his enemies with whatever punishments they are seeking against him.

The “him” in verses 6 through 19 is the psalmist.

Considering this, the fundie supplication for Obama to GTH and die (see, e.g., verse 9) is, in point of fact, an absurd wish for the fundie to have these punishments reflected back on himself, by his own god!

Insanity.

Now, I’m categorically in support of the fundies’ right to offer these prayers to their god, under the freedom of speech and religious liberty protected by the First Amendment. But, even more than that, I think that this kind of behavior further marginalizes the fundies and the extreme right-wingers. I have no problem with that, at all.

In fact, I would encourage any behavior by fundies to marginalize themselves. Anything that promotes rationality and moderation is a good thing.

Tags: misunderstanding the bible, prayer for obama, psalm 109

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 at 2:21 pm and is filed under religious liberty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment below, or trackback from your own site.