Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into thy righteousness.
It is a prayer asking God to withhold His righteousness from persistent enemies, to darken the pathway they have chosen, to turn all their joy to grief, and to bring speedy relief by keeping them from rejoicing over the righteous. It is not a vindictive plea for personal revenge but a predictive prophecy declaring the retributive justice of a sin-hating God, telling what will become of the incorrigibly wicked who have despised His goodness to the utmost and are left to reap the harvest they have sown. The psalm to which it belongs is prophetic of the experience through which the Saviour passed in His life-and-death struggle with the enemy when the sins of the world rested upon Him, with David as a type of Christ so that its petitions concern the enemies of Jesus. This verse itself cannot apply literally to Christ, for to make it literal of Him would prove Him a sinner, and it is also a simple record of David's experience touching anyone in the present day who is hated without a cause. Its prayers can still be prayed by believers when circumstances call for them with assurance that God hears, the triumph Christ won through that experience having been won for His children, and the verse is fulfilled in a different sense from prediction when a Christian appropriates it because his history runs parallel to David's.
Prayer and Judgment
Add iniquity unto iniquity is a prayer about enemies, asking that God keep them from rejoicing over the sufferer, bring speedy relief, darken the pathway they themselves have chosen, and turn all their joy to grief. It is not a vindictive plea for personal revenge but a predictive prophecy typical of the tribulation that will come upon the enemies of the church. It declares the retributive providence and justice of a sin-hating God directed against sin and against persistent sinners. It is the Spirit telling what will become of the incorrigibly wicked, that those who have despised God's goodness to the utmost are left to receive the harvest they have sown, which God lets come upon them. The words are God's Word and do not contradict Romans 12, just as the judgments in the first and last parts of Psalm 136:15, 17 do not contradict mercy.
Christ and Believers
The psalm to which this verse belongs is prophetic of the experience through which the Saviour passed, including when the sins of the world rested upon him for humanity's sake and his life-and-death struggles with the enemy. Read in that light it helps show what Christ felt in his inmost soul as he suffered and was tempted. Its imprecatory passages are inspired rather than to be dismissed as uninspired, and understanding the psalm requires recognizing its reference to Christ. David stands in it as a type of Christ, so its series of petitions against enemies also concerns the enemies of Jesus, and the surrounding request that names be erased from the book of the living has significance for Christ's enemies.
The psalm relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, portions of it being quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm can be applied to Christ. This verse itself cannot apply literally to Christ, for to make it literal of him would prove Christ a sinner. The psalm therefore applies partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, partly literal and partly accommodated, and one text of a prophecy being used in an accommodated sense does not require the whole prophecy to be accommodated. By contrast, those who held otherwise taught that the psalm is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience, and that it does not apply to Jesus in any special way, no more than to anyone else in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history touches David's history at certain points.
The psalm's prayers can be prayed by believers when circumstances call for them, with assurance that God hears. The triumph Christ won through that experience was won for his children. The verse can be appropriated by a Christian when his history runs parallel to David's, and such appropriated quotation is a fulfillment of Scripture in a different sense from the fulfillment of a prediction.
It is a prayer asking God to withhold His righteousness from persistent enemies, to darken the pathway they have chosen, to turn all their joy to grief, and to bring speedy relief by keeping them from rejoicing over the righteous. It is not a vindictive plea for personal revenge but a predictive prophecy declaring the retributive justice of a sin-hating God, telling what will become of the incorrigibly wicked who have despised His goodness to the utmost and are left to reap the harvest they have sown. The psalm to which it belongs is prophetic of the experience through which the Saviour passed in His life-and-death struggle with the enemy when the sins of the world rested upon Him, with David as a type of Christ so that its petitions concern the enemies of Jesus. This verse itself cannot apply literally to Christ, for to make it literal of Him would prove Him a sinner, and it is also a simple record of David's experience touching anyone in the present day who is hated without a cause. Its prayers can still be prayed by believers when circumstances call for them with assurance that God hears, the triumph Christ won through that experience having been won for His children, and the verse is fulfilled in a different sense from prediction when a Christian appropriates it because his history runs parallel to David's.
Prayer and Judgment
Add iniquity unto iniquity is a prayer about enemies, asking that God keep them from rejoicing over the sufferer, bring speedy relief, darken the pathway they themselves have chosen, and turn all their joy to grief. It is not a vindictive plea for personal revenge but a predictive prophecy typical of the tribulation that will come upon the enemies of the church. It declares the retributive providence and justice of a sin-hating God directed against sin and against persistent sinners. It is the Spirit telling what will become of the incorrigibly wicked, that those who have despised God's goodness to the utmost are left to receive the harvest they have sown, which God lets come upon them. The words are God's Word and do not contradict Romans 12, just as the judgments in the first and last parts of Psalm 136:15, 17 do not contradict mercy.
Christ and Believers
The psalm to which this verse belongs is prophetic of the experience through which the Saviour passed, including when the sins of the world rested upon him for humanity's sake and his life-and-death struggles with the enemy. Read in that light it helps show what Christ felt in his inmost soul as he suffered and was tempted. Its imprecatory passages are inspired rather than to be dismissed as uninspired, and understanding the psalm requires recognizing its reference to Christ. David stands in it as a type of Christ, so its series of petitions against enemies also concerns the enemies of Jesus, and the surrounding request that names be erased from the book of the living has significance for Christ's enemies.
The psalm relates primarily to David and finally and antitypically to Christ, portions of it being quoted in the New Testament as fulfilled in Christ, yet not every verse of the psalm can be applied to Christ. This verse itself cannot apply literally to Christ, for to make it literal of him would prove Christ a sinner. The psalm therefore applies partly to what is immediately before the reader and partly to what is remote, partly literal and partly accommodated, and one text of a prophecy being used in an accommodated sense does not require the whole prophecy to be accommodated. By contrast, those who held otherwise taught that the psalm is not a prediction but a simple record of David's experience, and that it does not apply to Jesus in any special way, no more than to anyone else in the present day who happens to be hated without a cause and whose history touches David's history at certain points.
The psalm's prayers can be prayed by believers when circumstances call for them, with assurance that God hears. The triumph Christ won through that experience was won for his children. The verse can be appropriated by a Christian when his history runs parallel to David's, and such appropriated quotation is a fulfillment of Scripture in a different sense from the fulfillment of a prediction.