Wednesday Bible Study: I am your retribution

Psalm 35 is one of many in which the petitioner calls on God to harm or destroy his enemies. SAB has provided a helpful list:

Ask the angel of the Lord to persecute them by making their paths dark and slippery.

Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. ... Let destruction come upon him at unawares. Psalm 35:6-8

Ask God to kill them and send them quickly to hell.

Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell. Psalm 55:15

Ask him to break their teeth (in their mouths) and then cut them in pieces.

Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.... Let them be as cut in pieces. Psalm 58:6-7

Let dogs' tongues lap their blood and dip your feet in whatever remains.

Thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of thy dogs in the same. Psalm 68:23

Ask God to darken their eyes and make their loins shake all the time.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake. Psalm 69:23

Treat them like Midianites. Let them be like dung on the earth.

Do unto them as unto the Midianites ... they became as dung for the earth. Psalm 83:9-10

Persecute them with God's storm, fill their faces with shame, and then let them die.

So persecute them with thy tempest ... Fill their faces with shame ... let them be put to shame, and perish. Psalm 83:15-17

Make them serve a wicked person with Satan as an adviser. Let their prayers become sin. Kill them and make their children beg for food. Etc.

Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand ... and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg ... Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. Psalm 109:6-14

Hate your enemies with a perfect hatred.

I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Psalm 139:22

 So now you understand the thinking of truly righteous and Godly people.

A Psalm of David.

35 Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me;
    fight against those who fight against me!
² Take hold of shield and buckler,
    and rise for my help!
³ Draw the spear and javelin
    against my pursuers!
Say to my soul,
    “I am your deliverance!”

⁴ Let them be put to shame and dishonor
    who seek after my life!
Let them be turned back and confounded
    who devise evil against me!
⁵ Let them be like chaff before the wind,
    with the angel of the Lord driving them on!
⁶ Let their way be dark and slippery,
    with the angel of the Lord pursuing them!

⁷ For without cause they hid their net for me;
    without cause they dug a pit^[a] for my life.
⁸ Let ruin come upon them unawares!
And let the net which they hid ensnare them;
    let them fall therein to ruin!

⁹ Then my soul shall rejoice in the Lord,
    exulting in his deliverance.
¹⁰ All my bones shall say,
    “O Lord, who is like thee,
thou who deliverest the weak
    from him who is too strong for him,
    the weak and needy from him who despoils him?”

¹¹ Malicious witnesses rise up;
    they ask me of things that I know not.
¹² They requite me evil for good;
    my soul is forlorn.
¹³ But I, when they were sick—
    I wore sackcloth,
    I afflicted myself with fasting.
I prayed with head bowed^[b] on my bosom,
¹⁴     as though I grieved for my friend or my brother;
I went about as one who laments his mother,
    bowed down and in mourning.

¹⁵ But at my stumbling they gathered in glee,
    they gathered together against me;
cripples whom I knew not
    slandered me without ceasing;
¹⁶ they impiously mocked more and more,^[c]
    gnashing at me with their teeth.

¹⁷ How long, O Lord, wilt thou look on?
    Rescue me from their ravages,
    my life from the lions!
¹⁸ Then I will thank thee in the great congregation;
    in the mighty throng I will praise thee.

¹⁹ Let not those rejoice over me
    who are wrongfully my foes,
and let not those wink the eye
    who hate me without cause.
²⁰ For they do not speak peace,
    but against those who are quiet in the land
    they conceive words of deceit.
²¹ They open wide their mouths against me;
    they say, “Aha, Aha!
    our eyes have seen it!”

²² Thou hast seen, O Lord; be not silent!
    O Lord, be not far from me!
²³ Bestir thyself, and awake for my right,
    for my cause, my God and my Lord!
²⁴ Vindicate me, O Lord, my God, according to thy righteousness;
    and let them not rejoice over me!
²⁵ Let them not say to themselves,
    “Aha, we have our heart’s desire!”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”

²⁶ Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether
    who rejoice at my calamity!
Let them be clothed with shame and dishonor
    who magnify themselves against me!

²⁷ Let those who desire my vindication
    shout for joy and be glad,
    and say evermore,
“Great is the Lord,
    who delights in the welfare of his servant!”
²⁸ Then my tongue shall tell of thy righteousness
    and of thy praise all the day long.

Footnotes

1. Psalm 35:7 The word pit is transposed from the preceding line
2. Psalm 35:13 Or My prayer turned back
3. Psalm 35:16 Cn Compare Gk: Heb like the profanest of mockers of a cake