A few weeks ago in church we were reading Psalm 109, which is full of “delightful, lighthearted poetry” such as,
“When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
May his days be few;
may another take his office!
May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!” (Vs. 7-10)
This passage made me squirm in my chair. Yes, apparently the man David was calling this curse down upon was a terribly evil person. But isn’t this vengeful prayer really a merely human response? What about Jesus command in Matthew 5:43-48 to pray for your enemies and show them kindness?
The prayers for wrath in the Book of Psalms are called the Imprecatory Psalms, and they include Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137 and 140. “Imprecate” means “to pray evil against” or “to invoke curse upon” someone. What can we as Christians learn from these vengeful prayers?
1. David called for God’s vengeance.
As king of Israel, David lead his army against the enemy to destroy them. But when it came to his personal enemies, rather than taking revenge himself, David called on God to do it, leaving it in God’s hands. This is in obedience to what God said in Deuteronomy 32:35-36 ,
“Vengeance is mine, and recompense,
for the time when their foot shall slip;
for the day of their calamity is at hand,
and their doom comes swiftly.’
For the Lord will vindicate his people
and have compassion on his servants”
Basically, David is calling on God to fulfill His promise.
2. Vengeance belongs to the Lord.
Psalm 40:14
“Let those be ashamed and humiliated together who seek my life to destroy it. Let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt.”
Psalm 71:13
“Let those who are adversaries of my soul be ashamed and consumed. Let them be covered with reproach and dishonor, who seek to injure me.”
In these prayers David does not go out and attack his personal enemies He simply leaves them to the wrath of God.
Paul repeats this idea to believers, quoting the verse in Romans 12:19, “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.” Notice that it is not saying that there will be no wrath against those who attack God’s people. You see, we (God’s people) have been given the righteousness of Christ, and so when we are attacked, the righteousness of Christ is attacked. But this is why it is Christ who will bring judgment and justice when He returns, because it is His righteousness that the enemies of God have attacked, not our own. We are in Christ, and the Holy Spirit is in us, so when we are attacked, Christ is attacked. (I’m not talking negative consequences for our actions, but true persecution.)
Here is another verse that shows that this idea of believers calling on God for justice carries to the end of the ages:
Revelation 6:9-11
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.”
3. In the Old Testament, under the Law, justice meant fair punishment for the sin or crime.
For there not to have been vengeance would have meant injustice. But to New Testament believers, who were condemned under the law, but forgiven and justified through Jesus, we are called to pray for our enemies, condemned under the Law as we once were, that they may come to know that same forgiveness and justification that we were given by grace. David didn’t know about Jesus or the sacrifice Jesus would make. We do now know this, and it gives us greater responsibility to be like Christ in forgiving our enemies, just as He forgave us while we were still His enemies. That is the “love your enemies” verse, that we should love them in the sense of praying for their salvation and telling them about Christ if they will listen.
Jesus brought in a new covenant with His people, (1 Corinthians 11:25 “In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”) In which He offered payment for sins so that now God’s holiness is expressed through bringing people into the righteousness and mercy of Christ. For this reason, instead of praying for punishment of those who offend us, we first forgive as God has forgiven us, and we pray that God will bring His forgiveness and righteousness into their life.
Matthew 5:20
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
The scribes and Pharisees were known for following the law with behavioral exactness; Jesus calls on His people to exceed this by having hearts internally transformed to be like the Father
Matthew 5:44-45
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”
4. God wants us to hate the enemies of our souls.
God’s people sin when they fail to hate what God hates, like spiritual adultery, lies, pride etc. The New Testament says we battle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities (the kingdom of Satan and the world). God wants us to have the passionate hatred for sin and evil, and all that promotes evil. He wants us to absolutely not tolerate it in our lives, but to resist the devil, and to get rid of the evil things. Have imprecatory attitudes towards all that threatens our well-being by leading us away from God. It is a godly thing to hate evil and injustice and to pray against it. Sometimes we get so used to seeing evil that we become complacent with it. We should continue to abhor the things that God hates. The imprecatory psalms remind us that prayer is a powerful weapon against evil, both externally and the evil we find within ourselves.
Furthermore, let’s look again at Psalm 109:9-10,
“May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow!
May his children wander about and beg,
seeking food far from the ruins they inhabit!”
David is saying may this evil man die young, which would leave his children as orphan and his wife as a widow. This would leave them as beggars, as a consequence of the outcome of the guy’s evil choices, not as a direct curse on them. Sin doesn’t affect just the sinner; it has consequences for the innocent too. This is another reason we must not take sin lightly. On the contrary, we should hate evil and be disgusted by it.
The question may arise, “Should we as Christians today ever pray the Imprecatory Psalms?”
Today as always there exist malicious, militant groups such as ISIS who are every bit as evil as the enemies of David. Should we, like David, pray God’s wrath upon evil regimes?
The church’s mission is to feed the worldwide flock of Christians, not hope for the downfall of non-believers. Actively torturing and calling for the downfall of “infidel” is exactly what ISIS does and what makes them so diabolical. We as Christian are not called to such degeneracy, nor are we even to harbor the desire of violence. We are to hate evil with a passion, but we are to show kindness and love to non-believers and pray for their salvation.
We must note that David was a king; a ruler of a nation. The imprecatory psalms were not directed merely at David’s personal enemies, but at evil regimes who were actively committing heinous crimes and attacks against nations.
Psalm 59:5
“You, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel.
Rouse yourself to punish all the nations;
spare none of those who treacherously plot evil.”
In short, we are not to pray God’s wrath upon our obnoxious neighbors who anger and annoy us. And we are not to pray God’s wrath upon those who differ in their doctrine from us. Since Jesus has opened up the doors of salvation, the best thing we can do is to pray for the salvation of our fellow human beings. We’re to pray God’s wrath upon the enemies of our souls; evil itself which we find in the world. My conclusion is that believers bring their honest feelings and thoughts to the Lord, and pray for the righteousness of His kingdom to come upon this earth, but for those who hurt them personally, believers are not to pray imprecatory prayers, but to pray that God will save and/or sanctify them, giving them mercy and grace, just as He has given to the believer. This, of course, can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit, and is part of the tools that He uses to make us like our Father in heaven.
Anna Sojourning 
Hi Anna, This is a great statement about these prayers of David. Your perspective regarding them and our attitudes toward our enemies is correct. There is one sentencethat needs to be corrected. It is in #2 where you state “In these prayers David does…” and you refer to them as “her personal prayers”, and the pronoun shouldobviously be “his”. Keep up the good work. You are a very thoughtful writer. Bob
From: Sojourner To: bob.sherbondy@yahoo.com Sent: Saturday, December 30, 2017 7:35 AM Subject: [New post] Psalms of Wrath #yiv2439684458 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv2439684458 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv2439684458 a.yiv2439684458primaryactionlink:link, #yiv2439684458 a.yiv2439684458primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv2439684458 a.yiv2439684458primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv2439684458 a.yiv2439684458primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv2439684458 WordPress.com | Sojourner posted: “A few weeks ago in church we were reading Psalm 109, which is full of “delightful, lighthearted poetry” such as,”When he is tried, let him come forth guilty; let his prayer be counted as sin!May his days be few; may another take his office!Ma” | |
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Thank you, Bob! I just fixed it. 🙂 I preached this in church for New Year’s service, wanting to encourage people to enter the new year with fearlessness and kindness.
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