The Imprecatory Psalms

The Imprecatory Psalms – Praying For and Against Our Enemies.

Read: Psalm 139:17-24  The psalmist sees no contradiction between intensely hating the enemies of God, and living a humble repentant life, in the presence of God. Such is the nature of the imprecatory psalms. – The word imprecation simply means a ‘curse.’ 

1 How to Read the Imprecatory Psalms.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE.

Let’s start this section by stating how NOT to read these psalms. We would expect that liberal clergymen and commentators would have difficulty with the strident language of the imprecatory psalms, and would simply write them off as uninspired, the human emotions of a frightened man, or the ranting of an ancient bigot. Such comprehensively liberal, inspiration-denying opinions are a challenge to biblical believers in Christ. READ 2 Timothy 3:16. Reading and understanding the imprecatory psalms simply requires exactly the same basic hermeneutical methods as any other portion of OT text. When we read an OT passage we read it:-

• Contextually. – Looking at what lies behind them, what events cause the psalmist to pray for God’s judgement upon his enemies.  
• Christologically.  The general OT hermeneutical principle. The OT is about Jesus. Everything in the OT points us forward to Christ. READ Luke 24:27,  Luke 24:44, John 5:39, John 5:46.  So, how do we apply this principle? There is no greater curse than the curse of eternal hell – a curse we are all under. We bear Adam’s curse. Galatians 3:10. It is an INESCAPABLE Curse. Someone had to bear the full burden of the curse, someone had to pay the debt for the broken covenant. Having grasped the awfulness of the curse, and the consequences of the curse,  think of what Jesus did for us when he died in the cross.  He TOOK OUR CURSE. The imprecation, the weight of our awful punishment was laid upon Him and he bore it, our of love for us!  Galatians 3:13 God answered the psalmist’s prayer, when He cursed his own spotless son, so that you and I would not have to suffer the consequences of our curse. Jesus, bore the imprecation, the curse for ME! These Imprecatory Psalms, like every other OT Scripture, point us to Christ. 
• Eschatalogically. In two senses…
  • They are Messianic! Most of the Imprecatory Psalms were written by David, although not all, as we shall see later. Jesus is ‘the Son of David.’ READ Psalm 132:11 cf Matthew 1:1  Romans 1:3  Revelation 12:1-4  David’s enemies, those who are seeking his life, – are doing the devil’s work, should they have succeeded they would have prevented the Messiah coming into the world, they would have thwarted God’s plan of salvation. David’s enemies, against whom he prays, truly are the enemies of God.  
  • They are symbolic of God’s coming judgment upon the whole world. This is where we really need to put our sentimentality to one side. When we pray for the Lord to return, when we pray, “Maranatha, – even so come Lord Jesus,” what are we praying for?  We are praying for the events of the Lord’s return, the resurrection of the righteous dead. But what of the unrighteous on that day? For them, Christ’s return will be a solemn, awful, vengeful day, when Christ will return as judge, to execute his righteous vengeance upon his enemies.  Like the men of Noah’s day, like the men of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the days of Lot, when sudden, unexpected judgement falls, they are LEFT to God’s terrible wrath upon sin. READ Matthew 24:36  Men, women, children – they will all be consumed in God’s wrath upon sin. David’s prayers of cursing upon the enemies of God are no different that our prayer, “Come Lord Jesus.”

Let’s put these principles into practice as we look at what is probably the most difficult of all the Imprecatory Psalms, Psalm 137.

2 Exegesis of Psalm 137.  Psalm 137:7-9  

Let’s think carefully and rationally, and without sentimentality about these words. The Israelites have been injured by a criminal nation, – they have a legal right to redress. Think of these words forensically, in legal terms, and see:-

• The statute that applies. happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us You would discover the legal underpinning of what the psalmist is saying here in Exodus 21:22-25. It’s a regulation providing for a proportionate punishment for sins, and it is how the ancient justice system in Israel had to work to be just and fair to prevent any progressive retribution.
• The legal argument made, retribution is not being enacted by the psalmist himself – this is a prayer that God would come and stand over these wicked people in justice. The psalmist is acting in the role of a barrister, presenting evidence to the eternal court of the King of Kings, calling for him to rule justly in the matter and pronounce a just and appropriate sentence. 
• The precedents established. In a legal setting one looks for precedent in other judgements and statements made by the court. What has God already said about the Edomites? Is there a precedent for this kind of prayer? There is! READ Ezekiel 25:14   and Obadiah 1:8. 
• The extent of the punishment. 9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.  Please don’t sentimentalise this. Think of the eschatological application, for when Jesus returns those who shall be resurrected to eternal damnation, will be cast into the lake of fire forever, and that will include all of mankind who are outside his kingdom – men, women, children, the old, the young, the able-bodied and the infirm the nasty and the nice… (James Adams in his book on the Imprecatory Psalms points out: “The Hebrew word here means “children” and does not specify the age but the relationship. All those who are followers of the evil kingdom (the children of Babylon/Edom) will be dashed to pieces). 

Incidentally, God did answer the Psalmist’s prayer. The great ancient city of Babylon is no more. Edom as a nation is gone. READ Galatians 6:7  

3 New Testament Perspective.

Let’s ask the important question.  How can I pray the Imprecatory Psalms when Jesus teaches me that I am to love my enemies?  Luke 6:27-36 So-

• We never curse OUR enemies. Like David, we curse God’s enemies. This is not personal. The imprecatory psalms are prayed that God would bring down those who oppose his kingdom, and those who do violence to his church.  
• We never take personal revenge! Romans 12:19  In this sense, the Imprecatory Psalms are a tool for us to use as a check upon our personal inclinations.  Cf Ephesians 4:26  It is good for Christians to be angry with those who are God’s enemies, – but we must never allow our anger to be come sinful anger, – to take root in our hearts, and fester and grow. cf Matthew 5:21-22  READ Matthew 5:39-41  The Lord will deal with it all, in his time.
• We practice humble repentance. The imprecatory Psalms are a plea to God, to help David in his weakness. In that same sense, we come to Him, who alone can help us, confessing our sins, admitting our needs, and seeking his will.

4 Contemporary Application. Psalm 149:5-9  

Thee is a serious question that needs to be asked. Who are my enemies? If I can pay these prayers of the psalmist, then against whom should I be directing them?  There is no doubt that the church us surrounded by evil forces. Cf Rev 20:99  But who are they?

Not my neighbours, – the unsaved world around us, who are deceived by the devil, lured away by sin and the enticements of this evil world, with their eyes blinded to the gospel by satan himself. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 They are those for whom we should pray, seeking their salvation, to whom we should do good, – we are love our neighbour as we love ourselves. 

But my enemies, – our enemies – are God’s enemies, those who have come to oppose the extension of his kingdom on this earth. In the modern world, as in David’s day, this may well be those ruling authorities in this world who have set themselves up against the Lord, and His people, and his kingship over the world, against his law, and against his creation, those who promote the culture of death and destruction.

And very often that leads us back to the technocratic globalist NGOs that so heavily influence our national and local governments, and whose malign influences can be seen in modern society.  Such people are not just our enemies they are the enemies of God and of everything that is good and decent and true. They are the enemies of thousands of years of human history, and they are the tools of Satan himself. These are the very anti-christian forces that are surrounding us at this time. But we don’t lie down – we fight!  

Just like King David – we are to do battle against the heathen, – against the united nations of this world, with their grandiose plans for world domination and a Godless, anti-Christian new world order. We are to wage war on them, to execute vengeance against them, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with iron fetters. Their condemnation has already been declared, their judgment has already been declared and their sentence handed down. God will be victorious in this battle, but it is his will that His people be involved in this battle. WE are 9 To execute upon them the judgment written.

So, how do we fight this battle? David was fighting physical battles against Saul and God’s enemies throughout his reign. We are in a spiritual battle, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 – so while the psalmist tells us about the ferocity of the battle and the glory of those who wage this war, he also details the weapons that are in our arsenal:-

• Prayer. These psalms are prayers. We must learn to pray like the psalmist. Like David, we too must raise our war cries, pleading with God for justice and truth to prevail in this world for Satan and his devious schemes to be thwarted, and his disciples destroyed out of the earth. 
• Praise. The psalmist emphasises this. let them sing aloud upon their beds. 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, We glory in the Lord! We are to SING these psalms, – just as readily as we sing psalm 23, or Psalm 100. When we sing these psalms as part of our praise we are raising our souls and hearts and minds to heaven, to the day when God’s victory will be celebrated in eternity! Revelation 19:1-3  When we sing these psalms we are preparing ourselves for that great day.
• Proclamation. . 6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand. We have the two edged sword. We have the scriptures, the inspired word of God, in which God has declared his will. Hebrews 4:12  Let us fearlessly lift the old sword, and wield it with confidence.  So, unsheathe your sword, sharpen it with daily reading, and take it with you into the battle.
• Political action too! Not party political – most of the political parties are completely sold out to the globalist agenda, and are compromised by their links with Common Purpose and the WEF and other NGOs. Over the past few years and months we have seen party leaders prepared to tell egregious lies, – even party leaders who profess to be Christians, – the party political system is a dangerous place for Christian believers, in my opinion. Political activism must now be a grass roots movement, across party political lines against the common enemies who would enslave us all. The war rages, but there are battles that can be won.

So let the prayers of David against his foes, against the enemies of God, who surround us, against the devil’s minions on this earth, – let those prayers inspire us to go forward into the battle.  Be bold in the Lord, be strong in the power of his might. The battle is the Lord’s – and we are more than conquerors, through Christ who loved us.

© Bob McEvoy 2024