Have you ever come across those poems of cursing in the book of Psalms? Scholars call them “imprecatory psalms,” which just means that they contain requests for judgment on evil. And not a general judgment on a vague sense of evil, but a concrete and specific sort.
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow! (Psalm 109:9)
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. (Psalm 3:7)
Let their way be dark and slippery, with the angel of the LORD pursuing them! (Psalm 35:6)
It is quite common to find psalmists asking God to judge their enemies in such ways. Many have struggled with these psalms, such as C.S. Lewis, who believed them full of “vindictive hatred” (Reflections on the Psalms).
Here’s the question: Are such psalms opposed to Jesus’ instructions to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors? Do such prayers of cursing represent an older way of selfish thinking that has been reversed by the coming of the new covenant? And what should Bible teachers or Bible study leaders do when we come to such psalms in our study or teaching?
Daniel R. Hyde addresses these questions and more in this thorough piece on the imprecatory psalms. Hyde writes particularly to preachers, but his insights apply easily to any teacher or small group leader as well. According to Hyde:
Imprecations in the Psalms are not an embarrassment to be managed. They are part of the Scriptures that “bear witness” to “the things concerning” Jesus (John 5:39; Luke 24:27; 24:44). If these prayers make us uncomfortable, that discomfort is no reason to avoid or edit them—it’s a reason to learn how to preach them. As Elizabeth Achtemeier said, “If we have some problem with a passage in the Old Testament, it is not the Bible’s problem. It is ours.” The question is not whether Christians may pray for God’s justice, but how.
Hyde shows us that the imprecatory psalms enable us to hand justice over to God so we’re not tempted to execute it ourselves. He gives three reasons why God gave us the cursing psalms.
- They hand vengeance to God
- They teach the church to long for the kingdom
- They form the whole person before God
He goes on to explain to go about teaching these psalms in a Christian context. In the face of great evil, do not deprive yourself of the one weapon (prayer) God has given you to directly resist it. Hyde’s counsel is well worth your time.
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