Sermon: Psalm Genres (Part Two): Imprecatory Psalms
Cursing One's Enemies
#1849
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 06-Dec-25; 77 minutes
description: Psalms of Imprecation consists of moments where oppressed believers call on Almighty God to judge their enemies. Imprecation means "a spoken curse," not as personal vengeance, but as a prayer asking God to act against evil. Scripture shows us that curses can be righteous when they align with God's justice, such as Joshua's curse on rebuilding Jericho or Jesus cursing the barren fig tree. Imprecatory elements appear through psalms of lamentation: Psalms5, 35, 69. 83. 109, and 137) usually arising from extreme injustice, brutality, or persecution. These prayers are not vindictive outbursts but appeals for Almighty God to uphold His covenant promises, defend His people, punish unrepentant evil, and restore moral balance. Frequently the psalmist stresses his own repentance or faithfulness, placing all judgment into God's hands rather than seeking revenge. The harsh language reflects deep outrage at grievous wrongdoing, often using hyperbole to express how severely God's people were suffering. In some cases, the goal is clearly redemptive. For example, Psalm 83 asks God to humble the wicked so they might seek His name. Ultimately, while God's chosen saints are commanded by Jesus to love their enemies, imprecatory psalms still serve a purpose, giving voice to raw human anguish, helping us to process anger before God rather than acting on it, reaffirming that divine justice will prevail, teaching us to wait for God's righteous timing.
transcript:
I think you'll find at the end of this sermon that Austin's sermon that fit very well into what I'm going to be saying today and also the song that we just sang it's at Psalm 62. I, I, I think what was the number Hunter? 50 it has the, the general theme of that, that Psalm is, you know, God is my rock, God is my fort, God is my refuge, you know, and that sort of thing, and that he's the one that avenges us and you'll see how that fits in in a bit. When I was a kid in Columbia, South Carolina, my dad normally did not get the daily paper, but he usually sprang for the Sunday paper the state down there in, in Columbia. I read exactly 2 sections of that newspaper. Uh, other members of my family read different parts. I know mom got all the coupons and stuff, but um, I read the sports pages. And I read the cartoons, those were the two that I, I really could sink my teeth into. You gotta understand I was somewhere between 9 and 15 or 16 when all this was happening, so those are the two going concerns in my life. One of my favorite cartoons at the time before Calvin and Hobbes. Uh, was Charles M. Schultz's Peanuts strip that was always full color on the front page of the comics there on Sundays. And I, I especially liked it when Snoopy was featured either imagining he was a great novelist, about to pen the great American novel, or when he was dogfighting, no pun intended, the Red Baron from the roof of his dog house. I found out recently that in 1966, which is the year of my birth, Charles Schultz published a book, Snoopy and the Red Baron. Uh, now you know what it's all about. Uh, it features Snoopy dressed in his pilot's aviator cap and goggles and a scarf always flying out behind him, hurling his sock with camel into the sky with defiance and dash and courage to challenge the infamous Red Baron. But for some reason, the Red Baron, who is never pictured in, in the cartoons always gets the better of the canine World War 2 flying ace. His dog house becomes riddled with bullet holes, and the last cell of the strip often has Snoopy shaking his fist in the air and shouting, Curse you, Red Baron. Now Snoopy's frustrated how. Is a form of what is called an imprecation. You remember that I talked about imprecatory Psalms just a little bit in last week's sermon and I decided to go full, uh. Whole hog, let's change beasts here from dogs to to pigs, ah. In about these imprecatory Psalms today. But an imprecation is simply a spoken curse. If one imprecates, he invokes or brings down a curse on. Uh, let me, let me restate that. He invokes or brings down a curse or some other sort of evil on someone or something. The word, if you know your Greek and Latin roots, you'll know that this one comes from Latin. It's the word impreccari. Imprecca and it means simply to invoke. Uh, And if we break the word down into its part, you parts you have M which is often in in English changes over but in this case it doesn't um and that usually means in or sometimes it could mean toward or even upon prepositions are are that way it's it's a little difficult sometimes to figure out what exactly. Uh, the direction of what you're talking about is going in, but M and Prakari Prakari means uh. To pray. So literally means to pray toward or to pray. A pond Not PREY, PRAY to prey upon or pray toward. And this word imprecation can also name a more formal prayer or a psalm. Asking for a curse or a calamity to befall someone. A similar word also from Latin is, and they had a lot of different words for for curse, but this one is malediction. It means basically, uh. A speaking of ill or the verb form would be to speak ill of another. But the biblical view of imprecation is that last one that I said before malediction it's a formal prayer or a song a psalm asking for a curse or calamity to befall another. Let's go to Joshua the 6th chapter. We'll start here. If you know your chapters, you know Joshua 6 is the fall of Jericho with all the Israelites going around the city with the priests and the trumpets and all that, and the walls came tumbling down as the old song says. But we are going to just read verses 26 and 27. This is after everything has happened, uh. Not only did the walls come tumbling down, and the Israelites go in and, and kill everything there, but Joshua burned the city to the ground. OK, verse 26. Then Joshua charged them, meaning Israel at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the Lord who rises up and builds this city Jericho. He shall lay its foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest, he shall set up its gates. So the Lord was with Joshua, and his fame spread throughout all the country. All right. Joshua invokes a curse on anybody who would dare to rebuild Jericho. Now this doesn't necessarily mean that anybody who would live let's say on the mound that was Jericho was cursed to give two sons because we find out from other places that there was settlement there um between this time of Joshua and later when somebody actually did try to rebuild Jericho and actually succeeded, uh. But so it doesn't mean that the curse would come down on anyone who would just try to live there it really means that the curse would come down on a person who tried to build it into a fortified city and use it as the, the people of Jericho had used it in Joshua's time. We know That Joshua could make this curse with some confidence. I obviously he was inspired to do this to make this prophecy. Uh, but we know that God had already cursed Jericho. Remember when uh. They were given the instructions about Jericho. They were to take nothing there because Jericho had been doomed to destruction. And the only things that that the Israelites, actually not even the Israelites, only the Levites were able to take away from that city was the medals that that they found there and those medals, silver, gold, bronze, what what have you were to go into the treasury of the tabernacle. Uh, they were set aside as holy for God's use, and the rest of the city was doomed to destruction. And so Uh, Joshua's cursing anyone who tried to rebuild it was backed up by this doom that, that God had put on the city already. Now, you may ask why did Joshua do this? Why did God allow Joshua to curse the city even further? Well, it's a pretty simple answer. And that is that Jericho, being the first city that they came to, the first major city that they came to and needed to to conquer was symbolic of the uh. What you call it the Canaanites iniquity and resistance to God. Even though they knew that coming through the wilderness, God had been with the Israelites Rahab even says that everybody knows what you guys did, you know, all these past 40 years and, and how you've had victory after victory, but you're coming to Jericho and they are ready to resist you. And of course, they were proud in the city walls and how defensible Jericho was. And God showed them. Uh, he showed them very spectacularly with great amount of strength who was the stronger and so Jericho then became a symbol of what God would do to the rest of the Canaanite cities that resisted him. And so, uh. Joshua's curse then tends to show that God wanted Jericho to stand as a memorial for at least several 100 years of how futile it is to withstand God. And to have that rebellious resistance against him. So I, like I mentioned before, a man named Heel. H I E L E L. Heil heel, I'm sure his middle name was not Hitler. Anyway, he rebuilt it in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. That gives you an idea what the tenor of the times was when he rebuilt that. Uh, city as a fortified city. And you can look at that in I Kings 16:34, and of course they Prophecy, the curse was exactly as said it it was fulfilled exactly as said he did lose his first born and his last born in the building of the city. Just as the curse predicted. OK, let's go to the book of Mark in the New Testament. We're going to look at another place. Where there is a curse. Made, this is in chapter 11, Mark 11 verses 12 through 14, and then we will pick up 20 through 24. And guess who the cursor is here? None other than Jesus of Nazareth. And he doesn't curse a city or a particular person, but he curses a fig tree. What had the fig tree done to him? Well, we will find out. This is Mark 1112. Jesus went into Jerusalem. This is after his triumphal entry. And into the temple. So when he had looked around at all things as the hour was already late, I'm reading verse 11, I meant to go to 12, he went out to Bethany with the 12. Now the next day when they had come out from Bethany, he was hungry, and seeing from afar a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps he would find some something on it. And when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response, Jesus said to it, Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. And his disciples heard it. Let's drop down to verse 20. Now, in the morning as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from its roots, and Peter, remembering, said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree which you cursed has withered away. So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God, for assuredly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you received them, and you will have them. Really interesting. Where this went So Jesus famously curses a fig tree, and he turns it into a lesson about asking God in faith for a thing to be done, and his disciples will receive it. He doesn't talk at all about curses or whatever he just says, look, this is what happens when you say something and believe it and ask God to do something and he responds. This actually ties into what we will be going into later just keep it in the back of your mind um that Jesus, the most righteous man who ever lived, asked God to curse this fig tree and he did it. Because he believed it and believed it needed to be done. I Don't think we have the time to go into the controversy about why Jesus cursed it for not having fig figs even when it was not the season for them. I'll leave that to others. Uh, we actually have a very good article in the archives by Dan Elmore who in 2012 did a fine forerunner article on this section of verses. um, he called it the cursed tree. If you want to check that out, but for our purposes today, I want to point out that not all curses are evil. Jesus Our Savior, the perfect man invoked. A curse on a tree. To teach a spiritual lesson or two. I mean, I'll just give you some key words here about the spiritual lessons that he drew from it. Obviously a lesson of faith. But there is also a lesson there about the hypocrisy of people who should have been bearing fruit, but all they have is showy leaves. And there is also Uh, well, I, that's basically the same thing that what happens to a person who doesn't continue to grow and bear fruit. Now this was not the only imprecation that Jesus ever did during his ministry. You can actually call all of his woes, woe unto you know, the scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, they are all curses. We know that He earlier, earlier than this, had cursed Carrazin and Besaida and Kaperna for not recognizing who he was and, and turning. He said, Sodom and Gomorrah are going to rise up in the judgment and do better than you. So we are going to be considering obviously the Psalms of imprecation. Another literary genre that we find in the book of Psalms, they are also called cursed Psalms, um, maybe that's easier to understand, but that's exactly what we are we are going to consider why do the Psalms contain curses? Now these are Psalms of imprecation or imprecatory Psalms. Are psalms in which the authors No, I want you to get this wording. In which the authors under severe persecution or oppression call for misfortune, disaster, and even death to strike their enemies. And what we will see as we go through all of this and think about it more deeply. We will see that in the end. These imprecations are cries for God's justice to fall down upon those who are doing evil. With no restraint or no end in sight. Puts them in a little bit different light. Then just merely calling down a curse because they are mean. Or or they have done something bad. These are imprecations that are shown in the Psalms are things that are said in a time of horror. Or severe persecution. Now technically, This may be may. Ah, maybe I should just sit down after this when I say this. But technically, there are no imprecatory songs. Technically. There are no Psalms that are filled entirely with curses. That's what I mean. I mean, there is not you, you do not open up to Psalm 175 and find out that this is curse after curse after curse after curse. Of course there is no Psalm 175, but there is no no Psalm that is fully imprecatory. It's more accurate to say that there are imprecation prayers within the particular Psalms that are considered imprecatory Psalms. And most often these curses. Appear in Psalms of lamentation. You know why now when I said what I said about the extreme circumstances in which they are uttered. Usually, the curses run for just a few verses, oftentimes it's 1 or 2 verses, maybe 3. Uh, but a few are a bit more extensive. There is one which we will get to at the end of the sermon that runs. Curses up to 15 verses. That probably is the only Psalm that would qualify as an imprecatory psalm because most of its verses or about half of its verses are, are actual curses. But I'm going to give you a list of those Psalms in which these curses can be found. This is a fairly long list. There are more imprecations in the Psalm than you may Psalms than you may think. OK, Psalm 5. 10 11 17 35 5558. 59 69 79 83 94 109137. 139 And 140 So, 5, 1011, 1735, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 94, 109, 137, 139, and 140. That's a lot. I mean that looks like about 15 psalms that I gave you there, and I did not give you. All of them. You can find imprecations in other songs as as well. These are the main ones that are agreed onAnd not only that, they are not just in the Psalms. Similar imprecations are found in the prayers of Jeremiah and in the prayers of Nehemiah, and you'll find at least two of them in the Book of Lamentations at the end of chapter 1 and chapter 3. So they are made frequently. Throughout, uh. Especially the the poetry books, so the poetry sections of the Bible. OK, let's look at one just as a kind of a teaser and as a template for what we can expect. So let's go to the end of that list and we are going to go to Psalm 137. Or you could pull out your hymnal if you like because 137 is a song we like to sing a lot. By the waters of Babylon. That's 103 in your hymnal. This is a Psalm of lamentation. Set in the time of exile after the fall of Jerusalem in 586, 587 BC. And this is a great song, and you know, there we wept and there sat down, hung our harps on the willow trees, Zion, yet we remember thee. So, you know, I love to lead that song, I I thought it was great. But let's read it. Psalm 1371 by the rivers of Babylon there we sat down, yeah, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it, for there those who carried us away away captive required of us a song, and those who plundered us required of us mirth. Singing, sing us one of the songs of Zion. Entertain us. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill, meaning to pluck the lyre there, the harp that they were playing. If I do not remember you, let my tongue. Cling to the roof of my mouth so that he could not sing the song that they were asking him to play. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Eden, OK. This is a very important detail. We're talking about. The perennial antagonism of Esau toward Jacob. Edom toward Israel. What happened? Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom, the day of Jerusalem. Who said The Edomite said, raise it, raise it to its very foundation. Take it down like Joshua took down Jericho. Make it a smoldering heap. So the reply here in verse 8. Of the people of Judah who were there in Babylon and thinking about this. Oh daughter of Babylon. Who are to be destroyed. Happy shall he be who repays you as you have served us. And this is the verse 9 is what we do not have in our hymnal. Probably good that Dwight Armstrong left this one out. Happy shall he be who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock. Not a very happy thing to end this song with. But that's the imprecation. The imprecations are in, in verse 8 and 9 and 8 actually is the reason for or explains, that's probably better, explains what's happening in verse 9. Now notice verse 8. Happy shall he be who repays you of you as you have served us. So what does this say? Verse 9 is what they did to the. Jewish babies and the Jews are saying. Watch out, You're going to be destroyed, and your babies are going to be dashed against the rock. And the people who do that, who come to destroy your nation. Will be rejoicing. When they do it. Pretty brutal, is not it? Pretty gruesome. What they are saying here at the end of this, this psalm is watch out, Edom. What goes around comes around. These things balance out. You're not going to stay on top of the nations for long because there is going to come somebody stronger than you who will come after you and treat you the exact same way that you treated. Nations like Judah. Your time is coming. They're saying You're going to receive the same sort of treatment. And in that way we will be avenged. OK. This is why Imprecatory psalms are the most controversial of the psalm genres. And you can see that you, these people, these people of God, the Jews in, in Babylon asking for the Edomites' babies to be dashed against the rocks. Doesn't sound too good. Sounds wrong. Sounds way over overboard. I, I can understand that. That people do not think it's righteous for God's people to curse others in this way. Aren't we just supposed to love our enemies? Isn't that what Jesus said? We'll go into that in a in a little bit. But he not only says it, Jesus, that is, he not only says love your enemies. But it's also found in the Old Testament before. The imprecatory psalms were penned. Places like Leviticus 19 verses 17 and 18. Or Proverbs 25:21. They say very similar things. Help your enemy. Don't despise them. Give them what they need. Of course Love your neighbor comes from the Old Testament too. So I can say with. A great deal of confidence that in most cases, yes, it is wrong to wish harm upon others. We shouldn't be going around cursing people. But we've already seen that two of the most righteous men in the Bible, obviously the most righteous man, Jesus Christ, and the type of Jesus Christ, Joshua. Uttered curses So we need to see when these type of imprecatory prayers can be used. And I'll tell you right now, it should be very rare. Now before we study any of these psalms any further. We need to lay some foundational principles about why they are there in the Bible in the first place. We do not want to ascribe evil to God. In saying that these curses are, are evil in themselves, nor do we want to ascribe evil, evil to those he inspired to write these songs like David. Or Asaph or Jeremiah or Nehemiah or whoever wrote Lamentations, which was probably Jeremiah again. Or Joshua or Jesus Christ Himself. These are in the Bible. They're true. But as I said they are not necessarily for us to do regularly on a willy-nilly basis. We cannot think these people are, are vicious in their vengeance against their enemies. Because by saying something like that, we misjudge them. If we do not have the right understanding of why they did it. And how they did it. Which will see So I just want to get across that these imprecatory Psalms appear in scripture for good reasons. And not just as bad examples. There are good things that come out of these curses for us in studying them, but we shouldn't be doing itIn our regular lives. Just put it that way. OK, I've got 4 principles here. Uh, it'll take probably most of the rest of the sermon to get through these. But, well, not at least half of the rest of the sermon. OK, the first one is. Realize that these imprecations are prayers. They are requests made to God for him. To act Let me say that again. These imprecations are prayers to God, requests. Of him For him to act. David Aesaph are saying, God, this is what's going on. Please help. OK, you help. All right. The psalmists never take vengeance into their own hands. Not once. You will not find them, you with a little note at the end of the Psalm and David went out and killed 40 40,000 Philistines. It it doesn't say that. He asked God, God. Answers God does the thing he asks. Gotta think of these situations that they are in. They're usually oppressed at the moment or they have already been conquered and they are in no position to act for themselves. They cannot take vengeance. They are literally unable. They do not have the strength. They know though, because usually these are righteous men, they know that the wages of sin is death. Just like Paul said in Romans 6:23. And the wages of sin is death is actually an imprecation. Or can be made into an imprecation. Just the fact that sin itself or the breaking of the law. Causes A curse, Isn't that the curse of the law, that when you break it, you come under the penalty? And that penalty cannot be erased unless One pays it for you, which Jesus Christ, that this is the thing that he became a curse for us to pay that, that price. To redeem us So that in itself. When you say that someone is a sinner. In a way, is saying. That You're calling down the curse of the law on them. You're making it, uh. No. That this person. Is under the curse of the law. And so the psalmist then knowing that the, the breaking of the law brings a curse, they ask God to mete out his wrath on their sinful enemies. They're just asking it, asking him to do it sooner rather than later. Speed up the timetable so that the curse of the law can come upon these people. They deserve it. Look what they did. That's what these imprecations usually are. Something along this line. And we will see this as we go through another one of the Psalms, how this is usually laid out in these various Psalms of imprecation. They usually give very good reasons why God should do these things. They do not just cry out, God slaughter these people! They make a case. For why God should speed up the timetable and give them death that they obviously deserve. OK, the 2nd thing, 2nd principle. The seeming hatred, that is the Psalms, psalmist seeming hatred, anger, and very extreme requests. Which seem very foreign to us are actually rooted in deep violations of their sense of fairness or justice. Rightness So wait, I know that was a mouthful. But the Palmas seeming hatred, anger, and extreme requests which are foreign to us are rooted in deep violations of their sense of fairness, justice, and rightness. They see with their own eyes, they feel in their own bodies that something is terribly lopsided and about in the way that they are being treated. They complained so bitterly because their foes's wicked treatment of God's people has gone so far overboard. It's not right. That is, they are witnesses to and sometimes even suffering from extreme evil. We talk about inhumane treatment. Well, that's what they are feeling and why they make these appeals to God for vengeance. They feel it and they know it's not right. Deep down to their bones, something has gone terribly askew. So, I can say with positivity that the things they are experiencing are not minor inconveniences like somebody cutting you off in traffic. Or Everyday slights somebody forgot to text you back. Or something like that. These are real. Life and death type of things. Terrible things. Extremely evil. Satanic The depths of wickedness you could say that are happening to them and they have no recourse. They only have God. Because they are so poor. They're so weak, they are helpless. They can't do anything and so God. God is their rock. God is their fortress. God is their refuge. God alone can do these things that that are necessary to level the playing field again to bring justice. So since evil is in every way contrary to God's nature and plan, the psalmist thus requests that God right these wrongs, that he reestablishes equity. And he brings peaceful conditions that allow righteousness and good relations to flourish once again. See their world has been totally flipped over. It's upside down. And they are asking God to write it to a point where they can live again without the fear, without the pain. So, one way to look at these cruel curses. is to consider them what the scholars called. Hyperbolic expressions of outrage. Meaning there are great exaggerations. Expressing How wrong everything is. How bad everything is. And these expressions of outrage are for egregious acts of wickedness against God's people. Like I said, this is not because somebody punched you in the nose. Or did something that you did not like. No, these are major existential type of things. Life or death. Alright, let's go on to the 3rd 1, 3rd principle. These imprecations are calls for God's justice to fall on their enemies. The implications are calls for God's justice, God's justice. Let's emphasize that God's justice to fall on their enemies, and there is a reason for this, why they call upon this. And they do so as Saying that God's justice will bring mercy and relief to those who are suffering. So the imprecations are calls for God's justice to fall on their enemies as a mercy to those who are suffering. That the only way that the people who are suffering Can be have their condition reversed is that their enemies feel justice they feel the wrath of God. That's the only way the wrong is going to be righted. So they asked for the scales of justice to be balanced, let's put it another way. They're not necessarily asking. For those who are suffering to be made strong again and punch down the wicket. They're just asking God. To write the scales of justice and to bring justice upon those who are currently strong and evil and wicked. Let's look at Psalm 83. As an example, This is the Psalm of Aesaph. And This 1 may be among the best of the imprecatory songs. We're going to read the 1st 4 verses, and then drop down to verse 9. Do not keep silent, O God. Do not hold your peace and do not be still, O God, for behold, your enemies make a tumult, and those who hate you have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against your people and consulted together against your sheltered ones. They have said, come and let us cut them off from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more. So here we have A setting of the scene, what's going on and it's a lot of bad people in the section that will skip here you list the nations that are conspiring against Israel and. He implores God. To, you know, do something. Don't be silent, he says. Say something, do something. Turn this around for us somehow. And he gives them gives God an idea of what's going on. Of course, God knows that, but he lays it out here in the 1st 4 verses. OK, down to verse 9, this is where the imprecations begin. Deal with them The enemy as with Midian. Now you'd have to go back into the Old Testament when they are in the wilderness and what happened with Midian once things Uh, got to a point where. God decided just to wipe them out. As with Cicera, what happened to Cicera? Cicero got a, a a nail or a tent peg through his, his temple. As with Jabin at the Brook Keishan. Another victory. Who perished at Endor, who became as refuse on the earth, make their nobles like Ore and like Zeb, yes, all their princes like Ziba and Zalmuna, who said, Let us take for ourselves the pastures of God for a possession. Now we are seeing how The height of what's going on here, they are trying to take the promised land. They're trying to take what's God's. And what God has given to His people. And so the psalmist Asaph here is saying, God, do not let them do this. You know what's going on? Let's say, let's go on. We just want well we will go to the end of the chapter here the imprecations spin up here. Oh my God, make them like the whirling dust, like the chaff before the wind scatter them, blow them away. As the fire burns the woods and as the flame sets the mountains on fire, so pursue them with your tempest and frighten them with your storm. Fill their faces with shame that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be confounded and dismayed forever. Yes, let them be put to shame and perish, that men may know that you, whose name alone is the Lord, are the most high over all the earth. All right. Like I said, this is one of the, the best ones because ASAP doesn't just leave it with, you know, kill them all, Lord. Get them out of our hair. Asaph takes it in a a step further and he says, God, scatter them, you know, chase them with your, the storm, confound them, but he says, make them ashamed of themselves. Why? So that they would repent and seek the Lord. That they would change their minds. That they would stop Persecuting Israel and stop trying to take the land from them and actually turn to the God of Jacob. And live And be better people. Aeph's hatred here if you want to call it that. is against his enemy's sinfulness. And their hatred of God. He's actually asking God to make it so they do not hate him anymore. And that will make things all the better. If they do not hate God, they take away the cause for what they are doing. We could also go to Psalm 139 verses 19 through 22. This is where David is doing a similar thing. And David really gets dinged for this one because he says that he hates God's enemies with a perfect hatred. And That means a complete hatred. There is, there is no love there. It says absolutely he hates what God hates and he hates them for their blasphemy and rebellion against God. Alright, let's go on to the next principle, the last one, the 4th 1. And that is we cannot ignore the covenant relationship between God and Israel because it plays a part in these imprecatory Psalms, it's a crucial factor in them. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 29. This is a uh. A section in which the covenant is renewed as they are about to go into the land. I want to read a fair amount of this so we get the progression of what's happening within the covenant and the various uh. Responsibilities of each party. So let's start in verse one, Deuteronomy 29:1. These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb, so he sang. He redid the covenant here not that he changed it at all, but he respoke it to them to help them understand. Uh, and he respoke it through Moses. OK, let's start in again in verse 9. Will go down through 15. Therefore, he says, keep the words of this covenant and do them that you may prosper in all that you do. All of you stand today before the Lord your God, your leaders and your tribes, your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones and your wives, also the stranger who is in your camp from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water that you may enter into covenant. With the Lord your God and into his oath which the Lord your God makes with you today, that he may establish you today as a people for himself and that he may be God to you just as he has spoken to you and just as he has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I make this covenant and this oath not with you alone but also with Him who stands here with us today before the Lord your God as well as with Him who is not here with us today. So Setting it up here, you're supposed to do what the Lord says in the covenant. And he says not only with you but with all of the people who are here and future generations. OK, let's drop down to verse 18. So that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away today from the Lord your God to go and serve the gods of these nations and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood, and so it may not happen when he hears the words of this curse. That he blesses himself in his heart, saying I shall have peace even though I walk in the imagination of my heart, meaning I go in my own way. I do not keep the covenant. As though the drunkard could be included with the sober. Let's go one more verse. The Lord would not spare him. That is the person who went his own way against the covenant. For then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. So within the covenant there was this. Curse or a series of curses that would come upon a person who had taken the oath who had vowed to keep the covenant. If he went against the covenant. So there was, there were penalties within the covenant that he had to be aware of and that would help him as the stick to keep him from wandering away. OK, so the Israelite knew that when you did well, you did good, you obeyed the voice of the Lord. He would bless you and prosper you. But when you did evil and went away from the covenant, there were automatic curses that fell upon them. They would begin to have a difficult time. OK, it doesn't, doesn't end here. I mean, God is very fair and just. He will give blessing and reward for obedience, and he will give. You know, punishment and curses. For disobedience, let's go on verse 27. If you have this, this whole nation going against God. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land to bring on it every curse that is written in the book. So not only is it personal, it is the whole nation. Verse 28 This happened. The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land as it is this day. Now he is talking about a historical occurrence and then he is also a prophecy. OK, let's go into chapter 30. Verses 1 through 3. Now it shall come to pass when all these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord. Your God and obey His voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart, with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. That was that happened in type after God brought back Jews, Levites, priests from Babylon, and it's going to happen again at the end time. In in the antatype when he regathers Israel to himself after his return, OK, let's uh. Let's see verses 7 and 8 will will end here. Once this happens, once he regathers and reestablishes, also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you and persecuted you, and you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. This is part of the covenant that we have to understand in order to really comprehend what's going on in these imprecatory Psalms. It's part of the covenant that when Israel goes astray and they repent and they are righteous again, they are doing God's will, that he will reverse. What is happening, what has happened to their land and put those curses on their enemies. He will avenge them. OK, this gives them a foundation for why. The psalmists asked for the curses on their enemies. They're following the covenant. They're reminding God. Look, you said this in the covenant that you would do this. Now do unto them. Give them the same curses that you cursed us with because we went astray. This is especially uh. Evident in lamentations. You know, Jeremiah going through all that recognizing how far Judah had gone astray and why God brought the hammer down on Jerusalem and Judah, and then in the aftermath, he is able to see. Uh, all of this and finally ask God to turn this around and bring those same curses on the Babylonians, for instance. So The imprecatory prayers become cries to God to uphold his end of the bargain. As their protector, as their defender. God promised to curse Israel's enemies and to fight their battles for them. And the imprecatory Psalms are just that. Asking God To defend them, protect them, and fight their battles for them. These prayers of vengeance are appeals to him. To do just that. To fulfill the covenant promises he made with Israel. Now in many imprecatory psalms, the Psalmist frequently stresses at some point that he is obedient or he is clean or he is righteous or he listens to God's voice or he does the law. He in some way expresses a repentant or a humble attitude. And his suffering, a result of God's wrath usually for disobedience and rebellion, has drawn him back to the Lord. He's repented and in that state he asks for God's justice for him or for the nation. It's Following what we read here in Deuteronomy 29 and 30, he's going like a real legalist. He's going right along the law and saying this has happened. I've done this. I've repented. You told me that once I repent and back in your good graces that you will put these curses on my enemies. And so he does. It mirrors the course of events here that are described in Deuteronomy 29. And 30. OK, let's, let's go to Psalm 5. As a An example of one of these Psalms. This is another one of the Psalms in our hymnal. Give ear unto my words, O Lord, it's page 4 in our hymnal. We'll just read the whole thing. It's not very long, Psalm 5 or page 4 in your hymnal. Give ear to my words, O Lord. Consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, my king and my God, for to you I will pray. My voice you shall hear in the morning, O Lord. In the morning I will direct it to you, and I will look up, meaning he will expect an answer. For you are not a God who takes pleasure and wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand in your sight. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those who speak falsehood. The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man. But as for me, I will come into your house in the multitude of your mercy. In fear of you, I will worship toward your holy temple. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth. The inward part is destruction. Their throat is an open tomb. They flatter with their tongue. Pronounce them guilty, 00 God. Let them fall by their own counsels. Cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against you. But let all those rejoice who put their trust in you. Let them ever shout for joy because you defend them. Let those also who love your name be joyful in you, for you, O Lord, will bless the righteous with favor. You will surround him as with a shield. OK, I think you're, you're getting some of this and these principles are coming together as to why they would be these Psalms would be curses in this way. This is a good template for the other imprecatory Psalms. It's a lament or a cry for help. With a few verses of imprecation to implore God to act on his or her behalf and then asking for blessings on the righteous. Now we do not know all the circumstances of David's life at this time, but he expects God to hear his prayer and give him help and guidance in dealing with his enemies. And in verses 4 through 6, he let, he lets God know. Uh, the wicked people he's dealing with they are boasters, they are sinners, they are liars, they are bloodthirsty men, they are deceitful. And he knows that God takes no pleasure in sinners like that in such people. And then in the next sections, section verses 4 through 8, he reminds God that he himself, David, is faithful in worshiping him, and he asks for help. In how to deal righteously with his enemies. That's what it says in there in verse 8. Lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before my face. He's asking him how should I, I, I work with them, you know, how, how can I still follow you? Yet You know, work this problem out. And then in verses 9 and 10, that's the imprecatory section. Um, He begins with repeating their sinfulness. Their deceitful words aim to bring David to destruction. They want to kill him while they flatter him in hypocrisy. So David asks, God, please judge them guilty of their sins. Judge them and bring their sentence upon them. Let them be caught in their own deceitful stratagems and even let them be cast out. Now you can take this as literally being cast out like banished or outlawed or excommunicated, but such phraseology could also mean that they would be executed. They would be cut off from their people. And they all of this. He is asking of God is for his enemy's transgressions against God and man. They're already under a curse. God speed it up. And in verses 11 and 12, he returns to the faithful among God's people in in his thought and he asked God to use his vengeance for them as an example to them that God will act as a shield to them. That they will look and see this example and know that God has worked out a great deliverance and that they too can share in this if they ask God in faith. Isn't that what Jesus said? If you ask God something and you believe, He will give it to you. So these people, God's people will rejoice because they know they have seen an example that God will defend them even from the worst of things. Even when they have evil, implacable enemies, God will stand for them. OK, let's go to Psalm 109. CS Lewis Commented about this psalm that he felt it was quote perhaps the worst unquote. Because it feels so hateful. Harsh and vindictive. Why did he say that? Because it contains 24 curses. He wrote about imprecatory psalms in general, quote, In some of the Psalms, the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like heat from a furnace's mouth. Unquote Now we have to remember though that the hatred that is shown in these imprecatory Psalms is not against the people necessarily, it's against what God hates. That is sin. Evil wickedness. Especially those kinds of sins that are aimed spitefully and undeservedly at God's people. Remember the covenant. God has made promises. That he is going to protect his people. And so he has to hold up his part of the of the bargain, and the people of God are should be totally on his side and hate the things he hates and be against those things that he's against. And so in unison or in unity the people of God ask God to act on those things that are totally evil. OK, let's let's go through this. How much do I want to read here? I have in my notes to read the whole thing. But let's just, just start here. Do not keep silent, oh God, of my praise. That sounds familiar. He had said that another one we saw. For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful have opened against me. They have spoken against me with a lying tongue. They have also surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause. In return for my love, they are my accusers, but I give myself to prayer. Thus they have rewarded me evil for good and hatred for my love. Here starts the imprecations, the 24. Set a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is judged, let him be found guilty and let his prayers become sin. Let his days be few and let another take his office. That's actually used in Acts one about Judas. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children continually be vagabonds and beg. Let them seek their bread also from their desolate places. Let the there is very little bread in desolate places. Let the creditor seize all that he has and let strangers plunder his labor. Let there be none to extend mercy to him, nor let there be any to favor his fatherless children. He's asking for a lie here. Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following, let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out, and it goes on and on and on. Verse 21. But you, O God, the Lord, deal with me for your name's sake, because your mercy is good. Deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I am gone like a shadow when it lengthens. I am shaken off like a locust. My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh is feeble from lack of fatness. I have also become a reproach to them. When they look at me, they shake their heads. That's a messianic prophecy of Jesus on the on the cross. Help me, O Lord my God. Oh, save me according to your mercy, that they may know that this is your hand. That you, Lord, have done it. Let them curse, but you bless. When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let your servant rejoice. Let my accusers be clothed with shame. Let them cover themselves with their own disgraces with a mantle. I will greatly praise the Lord with my mouth. Yes, I will praise him among the multitude, for he shall stand at the right hand of the poor to save him from those who condemn him. So David here is asking God to bring such people down. Take away their power and even their lives that need be. For their sins Which is part of the curse of the law. They already carried the death penalty. David is just asking for it to be enacted. Their actions which are clearly unrepented of. deserved the worst of punishments. And David requests God to fight for him. He asks for deliverance and he asked for it that they may know that this is your hand. That you, Lord, have done it. He doesn't want to be part of the of the uh. The curse, he doesn't want to give them. The violence that he's asking for, he wants God to do that. What does God say? It's mentioned in both testaments. Vengeance is mine. I will repay. And he's just basically saying, God, please take that vengeance. I do not want to be part of it, but you know the best way to do this. So he's putting dealing with his enemies in God's hands, not his own, because he knows God will deal with them righteously and give them what they deserve. David Here ask only for justice and equity. OK, let's finish in Matthew 5. Matthew 5. Part of the sermon on the Mount verses 43 and 45 or 43 through 45. Where Jesus says you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. So under the New Covenant, not anymore under the old, Jesus raises the bar for us. Under his law. He's He's talking in the spirit of the command to love one's neighbor. It has to extend not just to the neighbors that we are at peace with, but the neighbors that that we are at war with. It even extends to one's enemy. So what should we think about the imprecatory Psalms? Knowing what we've seen in the Old Testament and knowing what Jesus says here in the sermon on the Mount. I can say that they have the the potential of being very wrong. Of being very wrongly used by us. But with the proper attitude and perspective they can be good. Now we have to have the righteousness of David and Joshua and Jeremiah and Nehemiah to use them properly. That is, if they are made in truly righteous indignation. Without hatred. Spite or a spirit of vengeance. Which is difficult for us to do with our deceitful human nature. Then they Could be used properly. So they are tricky Imprecatory psalms are tricky, and it is not recommended that we take up cursing our enemies. Especially considering what Christ advised. But they can be useful. These psalms can be helpful in praying through our anger. Frustrations and spite that we may feel, so that the end is to come into submission to God's will. They help us to remember that God will punish the wicked. He will punish the wicked. In his own time and manner. Even if it must wait until Christ's return in judgment. Cause we are told in Revelation that he's coming to judge the earth, and he will do it thoroughly. No one Ever Gets away with sin Cause we have a God who knows. And he wants us to repent of those things, and he wants those enemies of ours to repent of those things. So, thus, when experiencing trials of persecuting adversaries, These psalms can teach us patience. In endurance And they could help us to seek God's strength and wisdom. Knowing that the curse of sin will strike our enemies in God's time.
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