Springfield PFWB Church wants you to read the Bible.
From Bible reading resources on our home page, to near-daily passages sent straight to our news blog or social media feeds (& here), we are convinced that people who read and understand Scripture are better equipped to live abundantly, regardless of day to day circumstances.
Even sporadic readers of the Bible know there are some hard passages among its chapters. Since the beginning of this calendar year, we’ve shared from the Psalms. Some psalms are worshipful, familiar, and comforting. Others read like Psalm 58:6-10:
“God, knock the teeth out of their mouths;
LORD, tear out the young lions’ fangs.
May they vanish like water that flows by;
may they aim their blunted arrows.
Like a slug that moves along in slime,
like a woman’s miscarried child,
may they not see the sun.”
Those verses aren’t exactly Instagrammable, are they?
The imprecatory psalms can be a tough read. For some, they’re proof of a God they believe is vindictive and hateful. Others misread them as emotional outbursts inconsistent with God’s character. Some enjoy them just a little too much, misreading them as permission to pray “mean” prayers and get away with it.
It’s understandable if some think we should skip over the imprecatory psalms altogether. But here’s why we won’t:
“All Scripture is inspired by God [literally, God-breathed] and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). All means all, even the hard parts. In God’s wisdom, there is something about even these imprecatory psalms that teach, rebuke, correct, and/or train in righteousness.
Pay attention closely when you read. Many of the prayers of imprecation follow a call to repentance. In other words, the psalmist doesn’t pray for curse without first praying for a change of mind and action away from evil and toward holiness, even for his enemies. We’d do well to follow suit.
The language of the imprecatory psalms do not model personal spite. Names aren’t named; specific individuals are not put on full blast for everyone to know the details. We simply have a record of the psalmist, often King David, asking God to handle his enemies. The prayers hand the action over to God in His wisdom.
Many of the imprecatory psalms are provoked by the overwhelming ugliness of evil. It’s possible for us to become numb to the wickedness that we encounter daily, but a conscience tender before the Lord will be troubled by evil. It is not only right, but essential for those who are in Christ to cry out against evil to the One able to defeat it.
The imprecatory psalms model for us how to entrust our security and well-keeping to God alone. In our anger, we may sin; but God’s wrath is righteous. Our judgments may be partial or inaccurate; God’s justice is holy and right. Rather than vindicate our own cause, we follow the example of Jesus Christ who “when He was insulted, He did not insult in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten but entrusted Himself to the One who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). Following the admonition of Romans 12:18-21, we take action in prayer, not in vengeance. The imprecatory psalms teach us how.
Luke 11:1 records an important request of Jesus by His disciples: “He was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…” What follows is commonly known as the Lord’s Prayer, which includes the request “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Luke 11:2, see Scripture footnote).
“To pray the imprecatory psalms is ultimately to pray as Jesus taught us to pray. As Christians, we long for God’s kingdom to come. We yearn for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Praying the imprecatory psalms is not a call to arms but a call to faith. We lift our voices, not our swords, as we pray for God either to convert or curse the enemies of Christ and His kingdom” (Tweeddale, 2019).
Tweeddale, J.W. (March 2019). Can I pray imprecatory prayers? Retrieved online April 20, 2024 at https://tabletalkmagazine.com/article/2019/03/can-pray-imprecatory-prayers/
