Psalm 35 (especially verses 1-9)
David’s ‘Imprecatory Psalms’
We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God
and everything in it is in it for our good in some way,
so when we read about people and their actions and words,
we are to learn from them,
and either copy them or avoid them as the case may be.
We learn about Thomas doubting, not to doubt;
we learn from deceitful Judas, not to be deceitful.
What then are to we learn from David?
He was once a great sinner, in the case of Uriah and Bathsheba;
from this story we learn not to be a fornicator and cause of an innocent man’s death.
He was also a sinner who repented after humbly receiving Nathan’s message;
from this we learn to open our hearts to the Gospel message and come to God through Christ.
How then are we to understand David’s Imprecatory Psalms?
Psalms 35, 55, 59, 79, 109 and 137 are called the ‘Imprecatory Psalms’,
or the ‘Imprecatory Prayers’, the word ‘imprecatory’ meaning ‘curse’,
because all of these 6 psalms contain David’s prayers or pleas to God;
calling down curses on his or the Lord’s enemies.
In Psalm 35 David appeals to El Shaddai, Almighty God,
as Divine Warrior and Righteous Judge,
and that is what He is, and we believe God is almighty and omnipotent,
and we believe He will use His power to help or defend us;
but we must not forget that God is Sovereign.
He acts according to His will and eternal plans,
not our complaints and moaning, no matter how justified.
In his psalms, David said God is a Divine Warrior
and we believe He does help us by fighting our enemies;
helping us to fight our battles;
but when others suffer loss in some way,
they call out against God, or take as proof that He does not exist.
In many of his psalms David calls God a Righteous Judge
and so He has shown Himself to be in the history of Israel,
and so He will show Himself to be in the ‘End times’
and along with David there must have been times when we have called on Him
to vent His judgment on others,
because there is so much wickedness in the world generally
and in some cases, very close to us;
and many Christians have suffered in the past and are doing so today.
When it comes to blessing and cursing, you could say ‘God started it’.
In Genesis 3 verses 14-19 we learn how as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience,
God cursed the serpent who had to cral forever on his belly and eat dust;
cursed women with pains in childbearing;
cursed the ground of the earth,
and cursed mankind with hard work and physical death.
Then, in 1st Kings chapter 9 we read how after Solomon dedicated the Temple in Jerusalem
God promised to bless Solomon and all the kings of Israel after him
if they walked before the Lord in integrity of heart and uprightness,
keeping all of God’s commandments, decrees and laws;
but God also promised to curse Solomon or his sons
if they turned away from Him
and did not observe His commands and decrees,
and served other gods and worshipped them.
So, blessing and cursing are biblical ,
but as human beings and members of a fallen race,
as it says in Romans 3:23 and 1st John 1:8, we are sinners;
not one of us can claim to be without sin,
so is it right for us – for anyone - to ask God to curse and even kill people,
no matter how sinful and unrepentant they are?
David was a great king, but even he was not 100% upright.
We can read in 2nd Samuel chapter 11
how he abused his kingly position by having the soldier Uriah the Hittite
sent into a dangerous battle situation,
where David knew, or at least hoped, that he would be killed; and he was;
and David was able to get his hands on Uriah’s widow Bathsheba.
So what right did David have to call down curses on others?
What right do WE have to ask God to punish OUR enemies?
In Psalm 35 we read how David prayed that God will come to his defence
and rescue him from those who were once close friends
but who now accuse him, slander him, and condemn him with malice.
It is only right that we should pray similar prayers when we are attacked,
but look at some of the other things David asks God to do:
for example, in Psalm 35 verse 4: ‘let them be put to shame and dishonour’;
verse 5: ‘let them be like chaff before the wind’;
verse 6: ‘let their way be dark and slippery’;
verse 8: ‘let destruction come upon him when he does not know it!
And let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it – to his destruction!
then verse 9: ‘Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord, exulting in His salvation’.
In Psalm 59 verse 13 David prayed: ‘consume (my enemies) in wrath;
consume them till they are no more,
that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth’.
In Psalm 79 verses 6 and 7 David prayed:
‘Pour out Your anger on the nations that do not know You,
and on the kingdoms that do not call on Your name!
For they have devoured Jacob and laid waste his habitation.’
In Psalm 109 David does further:
in verses 8 to 13: ‘May (my enemy’s) 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.
May the creditor seize all that he has;
may strangers plunder the fruits of his toil!
Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
nor any to pity his fatherless children!
may his name be blotted out.’
And in verses 17 and 18: (My enemy) loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!’
and in verse 20: ‘May this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord,
of those who speak evil against my life.’
Then finally, in Psalm 137 verses 8 and 9, the Psalmist prays curses on Babylon,
saying: O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!’
Strong stuff!
Then there are Scriptures along the same lines but not so ‘strong’
such as Psalm 139 verse 19: ‘If only you would slay the wicked, O God’,
and verse 21:
‘Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you’,
and verse 22:
‘I have nothing but hatred for them, I count them my enemies’.
And Psalm 140 verse 9:
‘Let the heads of those who surround me
be covered with the trouble their lips have caused,
and verse 10: ‘Let burning coals fall upon them;
may they be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, never to rise’,
and verse 11: ‘Let slanderers not be established in their land;
may disaster hunt down men of violence’.
But should we ask God to slay people?
What right do we have to do this?
Is it ‘Christian’ to wish trouble and disaster on those who hurt us?
Is it right to hate people, even if they hate God?
God is a God of righteousness who will not put up with evil,
and the Bible records that God does inflict punishment on His enemies
and those who gave His people a hard time.
In the great Flood, recorded in Genesis 6, God drowned all the inhabitants of the earth
except for Noah and his immediate family;
In Genesis 19, He rained down fire and brimstone on the sinful people of Sodom and Gomorrah;
In Exodus chapters 7 to 12 we read how God sent 10 devastating plagues on the people of Egypt,
and in Exodus 14 how He drowned Pharaoh and his forces who were pursuing Moses;
and in Exodus 23 how God promised He would be with Israel
as they killed every man and woman and child of the Canaanites,
so that the tribes of Israel could occupy and inhabit the Promised Land.
In Exodus 24 verse 22 God promised ‘If you carefully obey My voice and do all that I say,
then I, God Almighty, will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries’.
And this is not just a feature of the Old Testament, for in the New Testament, in Acts 5,
we can read how God was responsible for the sudden and dramatic deaths of Annas and Sapphira who lied about how much money they had given to the church,
but He will not kill people just because we ask Him to.
After all, Scripture calls God a God of love and patience in 2 Corinthians 13:11;
in fact, throughout the Bible;
and are we not called to be like Jesus as far as it is humanly possible,
with the help of the Holy Spirit?.
Our God is not a God to be trifled with, for as it says in Galatians 6 verse 7
‘God is not mocked, for whatever a person sows, so shall they reap’.
So if the enemies of God and the enemies of His people are sowing trouble,
they will reap it themselves, but that is for God to do, and in His time, not ours.
‘David’s imprecatory psalms, pleas to curse, are not very Christian, we probably think’,
but those verses ARE in our Bibles.
They are in the Bible, but I think we have to understand
that the violent outbursts in these psalms
are not prescriptions for the behaviour of God’s people,
but illustrations of emotions that God’s people have, and will always experience,
because although we are saints through Christ,
until our dying day we will be sinners in the flesh.
So, is it right to read the ‘Imprecatory Psalms’ with OUR enemies in mind?
Is it right for US to ever pray ‘Imprecatory Prayers’, asking God to curse our enemies?
What SHOULD David’s response to attacks and opposition have been?
What was Jesus’ response to evil?
In the Gospel we can read how he threw the money changers out of the Temple,
saying ‘You have turned my Father’s house into a den of thieves’.
Anger is a sin, and we believe Jesus never sinned,
or his sacrificial death on the cross would not have brought about our atonement,
so when Jesus threw the men out of the Temple it could not have been ‘anger’,
but ‘righteous indignation’.
What should OUR response be to sin around us and attacks on us personally?
It must not be ‘anger’ because that is a sin;
but we are allowed ‘righteous indignation’
and are allowed, even encouraged to take the matter to God;
appealing for Him to exercise judgement,
but it is not for us to tell God what to do,
and as the story of the prophet Jonah teaches us,
we must hope and pray that the worst of our enemies repents and comes to Christ,
just as the people of Nineveh changed their ways.
Above all, we must admit OUR imperfections.
We are humans; we are part of a ‘fallen’ race,
and even though we are saved through the grace of God and the blood of Christ,
there are times when we give in to the flesh,
and react in the same way as unsaved people do, and in this we are not alone.
At the Last Supper the disciples argued among themselves
as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest;
Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed;
Thomas doubted that Jesus had been raised from the dead;
all the apostles doubted Paul’s conversion at first,
so when the devil comes along and whispers’ You’re not a very good Christian are you;
thinking those thoughts about what you would like to do X,
or praying that God would treat X harshly’,
we should not get sanctimonious and deny it,
but admit our feelings and our failings
and ask God to forgive us and help us to get through the trouble,
as He helped Paul when he was troubled by ‘a thorn in flesh’,
reassuring him, saying ‘My grace is sufficient for thee’.
We must not add to our enemies’ torments by allowing the devil to torment us more
through a guilty conscience.
The Bible is a realistic book and contains true events and true emotions.
If it was a collection of Fairy Stories all the heroes would be completely good
and all the villains would be completely evil,
but in the Bible we see how the pagan Naaman trusted God’s prophet
and was cleansed from his leprosy;
and we see how the prophet Jonah preferred to run away
instead of preaching to the sinners of Nineveh
because he didn’t want God to forgive them,
and we see how the disciples had their various weaknesses as well as their various strengths.
The Bible is a true record and records how the saints and sinners of Bible times behaved and lived,
and the Lamb’s Book of Life will contain a true and accurate record of OUR beliefs and actions also,
but remember, it is by GRACE that we are saved, not by WORKS, or the lack of them.
I remember seeing Gordon Wilson on the TV News,
interviewed just after his daughter was killed by an IRA bomb in Omagh some years ago.
He said he did not hate those who killed his daughter
and prayed that God would forgive them.
I wondered how I would have reacted if my daughter or my son had been murdered.
Christians who lose loved ones, especially to violent criminals or war,
will probably experience the same feelings of anger and the desire for revenge
that David prayed,
it is only NATURAL,
so praying or reciting the ‘Imprecatory Psalm’s can help us to express our anguish before God
rather than by acting out our feelings in an ungodly way.
‘Imprecatory Psalms’ prayed along with other psalms, of repentance and hope,
can guide our troubled hearts through the feelings which no human should experience,
but so often do, because we live in a sinful and fallen world.
But did David really expect God to answer his prayers literally, word for word?
Only God knows; but I hope not, because in his heart of hearts,
David knew he was a sinner too.
So how are we, living in 2011, to understand these ‘Imprecatory Psalms’
and especially in the light of the Gospel of grace;
in the light of references to His steadfast love;
in the light of one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in Galatians being patience;
and in the light of God’s offer of forgiveness to the worst of sinners
who come to Him in faith and a spirit of repentance?
In the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’, recorded in Matthew,
Jesus said ‘Forgive your enemies and pray FOR those who persecute you’,
not pray AGAINST them, or pray CURSES on them,
and this is what we should do.
Recognise our feelings as NATURAL
but invoke the SUPERNATURAL, the ‘dunamis’ (dynamite) power of the Holy Spirit.
God has done, and will do, some terrible things to some, who deserve it,
but He does wonderful things to others, even those like us, who do not deserve it.
With regard to His enemies He is a Mighty Judge.
With regard to His followers, His elect, He is a Mighty Provider, ‘Jehovah Jireh’.
We are a ‘Bible-believing church’ (as it pronounces on the Notice Board by the back door),
so on the one hand we accept the ‘Imprecatory Psalms’ as Scriptural,
and thank God for them,
but interpret them in the light of the Gospel,
in the light of the blood of the spotless Lamb of God shed for us
and shed for even the worst of sinners, our worst enemy, our worst tormentor,
who, with the help and guidance and strength of the Holy Spirit
we should pray FOR and not against;
praying that they also would repent and turn to God
and find the salvation that we have found.
Amen
