Imprecatory Prayer in Scripture

Imprecation: pleas to God by the righteous for justice against evil

Problem: Jesus taught us to love our enemies and to pray for them, do good to them and bless them (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27,28) [Leviticus 19:18 teaches the same thing]; he forgave those who crucified him (Luke 23:34)

Solution: Can you do both? Psalm 83:16 (Can Paul and Manasseh serve as examples?)

God cannot be God if there is no justice meted out by Him on the atrocities of evil perpetrated by human beings. God cannot be God if there is no mercy granted to those who confess their atrocities.

Humans are not fully human if they do not yearn for justice from the hand of God, and like God, if they do not feel anger against injustice. Justice (or equity) requires a punishment equal to the crime.

Wrong Views:

(1) the Psalms merely record the venting of the psalmist’s angry feelings;

(2) the teaching of the Old Testament is replaced with the teaching of Jesus and the New Testament (there is a contradiction between the Old and New Testament);

(3) the writers of the Old Testament were not as enlightened morally as we are (any enlightenment we have comes from the “influence of the Lord and his apostles,” not from ourselves).

Right View:

(1) these prayers are prayers, not determinations by the authors to take matters into their own hands. Vengeance belongs to the Lord and these prayers recognize that.

(2) Loving our enemy does not absolve them of sin or from the justice their sin deserves.

(3) The experience of justice might be the very thing that moves a person to repentance (Manasseh, Paul).

(4) We should move from pleas for justice against evil to prayers for repentance and salvation. (so, should we pray for Satan’s forgiveness? NO, he cannot repent).

(5) God will judge the wicked and we are right to recognize that and ask for that, while at the same time asking that repentance could change their lives from evil to righteousness. As Darrell Bock says, “Love for one’s enemy does not fix a view of him in stone.” Love believes and prays for change in the hearts of the wicked, and is willing to rejoice in their repentance and forgiveness (Jonah)

 

When, for whatever reasons, we find ourselves unable to appropriate the mind of the Master for “the enemy,” these prayers can provide a place of prayer from which to start, leading through the desire for vengeance to the prayer for blessing and redemption to which we are called. Further, having begun with their primary point, the forceful response to actual sin and evil against the people of God, one can walk through this door to the larger arena of our own desires for the destruction of evil in our own lives and our disdain for those enemies within.

Lamentation: A lament is spiritual permission to process the pain of life all while searching for God’s grace and understanding

Examples of Old Testament Imprecatory Prayers:

Psalm 5:10, Declare them guilty, O God! Let their intrigues be their downfall. Banish them for their many sins
Psalm 40:14, May all who want to take my life be put to shame and confusion; may all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace.
Psalm 54:5, Let evil recoil on those who slander me; in your faithfulness destroy them.
Psalm 58:6, Break the teeth in their mouths, O God
Psalm 59:11-13, But do not kill them, Lord our shield, or my people will forget. In your might uproot them and bring them down. For the sins of their mouths, for the words of their lips, let them be caught in their pride. For the curses and lies they utter, consume them in your wrath, consume them till they are no more.
Psalm 109:8-10, May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.
Psalm 137:8-9, Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Psalm 83:13-18
13 Make them like tumbleweed, my God,
like chaff before the wind.
14 As fire consumes the forest
or a flame sets the mountains ablaze,
15 so pursue them with your tempest
and terrify them with your storm.
16 Cover their faces with shame, Lord,
so that they will seek your name.

17 May they ever be ashamed and dismayed;
may they perish in disgrace.
18 Let them know that you, whose name is the Lord—
that you alone are the Most High over all the earth.

New Testament imprecation:

Matthew 23:13, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!
1 Corinthians 16:22, If anyone does not love the Lord, let that person be cursed! Come, Lord!
Galatians 1:8-9, But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 5:12, I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
2 Timothy 4:14, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works

Got Questions: It is not sinful to pray the imprecatory psalms against our spiritual enemies, but we should also pray with compassion and love and even thanksgiving for people who are under the devil’s influence (1 Timothy 2:1). We should desire their salvation. After all, God “is patient . . . not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Above all things, we should seek the will of God in everything we do and, when we are wronged, leave the ultimate outcome to the Lord (Romans 12:19). [https://www.gotquestions.org/imprecatory-psalms.html]

“There is a kind of hate for the sinner (viewed as morally corrupt and hostile to God) that may coexist with pity and even a desire for their salvation… [T]hat there comes a point of such extended, hardened, high-handed lovelessness toward God that it may be appropriate to call down anathema on it.” John Piper

Jesus: “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly” (Luke 18:7–8)