Imprecatory psalms
Psalm 109
- the challenge of the cursing psalms and a loving God
- Why are they in the Bible? (cultural difference: honour/shame, magic)
- How should we read them? (the reality of evil, the need for justice)
- What use are they to us today? (persecution, justice)
Words
When I was at university, an email did the rounds of the internet asking a bunch of questions of Christianity. Actually, 'asking questions' is probably too light a term. The truth is, the email didn't want answers. It wanted to fire a cannon ball of hatred at God, expressing the anger and frustration of the unbeliever against a system of belief which they thought was to blame for all the pain and trouble in the world. Many non-Christians got this email and simply forwarded it on as a chain letter, and it no doubt appeared in millions of people's email inboxes. And among the vitriol was the question, “If God is so loving, why does he want people to dash babies against rocks in psalm 139? What kind of messed up, sick God is that? Read psalm 139, people.”
Now, there was a very simple answer to this particular question – can anyone tell me what it is? That's right, there is no mention of dashing babies against rocks in psalm 139! The writer of the email was obviously working on second-hand information, and had never bothered to open the Bible for themselves and check. Instead, they had simply grabbed a bunch of “Hard questions to ask Christians about their beliefs” from a list online, which in this case had a typographical error. Because of course we all know that the Bible doesn't mention dashing babies on rocks in psalm 139 at all – it talks about it in psalm 137 verse 9. The problem of course is that this answer just shifts the focus to the mistaken chapter and verse reference, but leaves the real question asked fundamentally unanswered. An answer to that question is a lot more difficult, because psalm 137 does indeed contain people praying to God about how happy those would be who take the babies of Israel's enemy, Babylon, and dash them against rocks. It's not wicked people talking about this, it's not the ungodly – it is God's people, Israel, praying to God, cursing their enemies with thoughts and images and requests and acceptance of violence against young children.
And this isn't the only time it happens, either. In fact, there is a whole group of psalms which can be called imprecatory, or cursing, psalms. These are psalms where God's people call out to him in a direct way to act against their enemies, and in doing so call for terrible, sometimes disturbing retribution. They are called cursing psalms because basically they involve God's people calling down curses on God's enemies. And let me tell you, the hate-filled vitriol of internet atheists has to work pretty hard to keep up with the vengeful savagery of the psalmists. There are some that I would simply not read publicly in church. The psalm we're focusing on today, Psalm 109, has been called a “raw, undisciplined song of hate” by some. There are some Christians, even theologians, who say that it has no place in the modern world, or in modern Christian churches. It doesn't talk about dashing babies against rocks, or bathing our feet in the blood of our enemies, some of the more disturbing language that one can find. But what it lacks in disturbing imagery, it makes up for in volume of spite.
So what does it say? Starting from verse 6, just let me look at what David, a man who sought to serve God in everything he did and said, requested God do to his enemies. Let me paraphrase and summarise them into everyday language. David wants his enemies to be ruled by a tyrant, and accused of wrongdoing by their friends. He wants them to be found guilty of wrong, he wants their very prayers to show they are guilty. He wants them to have only a short life, and for them to lose their position of importance. He wants them to die young so their children and wives are left without fathers and a husbands. He wants their families to be poor and ruined. He wants the debt collectors to come and clean out their houses. He wants people to ignore the needs of their poor, fatherless children as they beg on the street. He doesn't want these people's families to survive another generation. He wants their parents to be judged harshly by God, so that their whole family both above and below his enemies are blotted out from existence. He wants them cursed, he wants God to hold back blessings, he wants curses to never leave them, he wants his enemy wrapped in disgrace and shame forever.
Ouch. David, king of Israel, man of God's heart, is espousing a litany of hate against his enemies, and God sees fit to include this in the songbook of his people! We could probably be convicted of inciting hatred if we sung this sort of song today. How are we to understand this psalm of cursing? There really is a lot more to an ancient curse than we can easily understand from our modern viewpoint. Curses often included a list of complaints about the actions of another person, and why they deserve to be cursed. In this way, the public cursing of someone could bring shame upon them as the curser publicly voiced the real, or imagined, crimes of the cursee. We see this in psalm 109, where David complains in verse 2 that, “people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.” Again in verse 25 he says, “I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.” So in this way we can see something of a similarity with modern cases of defamation, where by slander and libel someone seeks to undermine another person's character in public. You may have heard the political saying, “Whenever you throw mud at someone, no matter how clean they are, some of it sticks.”
But there is much more to it. In ancient times, curses were seen as powerful words that could cause harm and injury to another person. Cast your mind back to the story of Balaam in the book of Numbers. Although we sometimes get distracted by the fact that Balaam had a talking donkey, the reason he enters the story of Israel at all is that Balak, king of Moab, summons him to come and put a curse on the Israelites. In Numbers 22 we read, “So Balak son of Zippor, who was king of Moab at that time, sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, who was at Pethor, near the River, in his native land. Balak said: "A people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the land and have settled next to me. Now come and put a curse on these people, because they are too powerful for me. Perhaps then I will be able to defeat them and drive them out of the country."”
So you see a curse was more than just a list of obscenities or complaints about someone's character or actions. A curse was looked at like magic words that you could use to call down pain and suffering on an enemy, to weaken them. With a curse, Balak hoped to weaken his enemy, Israel, enough that he could then defeat them in battle. These were not idle words, any more than pointing a loaded gun at someone is an idle threat. If you point a gun at someone and pull the trigger, you don't hope a bullet flies towards them, you expect them to get hurt. In calling down a curse, you were doing more than wishing, you were expecting suffering to come that person's way. What are we left with, then, in psalm 109, or psalm 137 with the babies on the rocks, or the breaking of people's teeth in psalm 58? We are left with a smoking gun in the hands of God's people, who are pointing these curses at their enemies.
Now obviously God's people realised that cursing words in and of themselves are not as powerful as their mighty God, Lord of Hosts. So they just changed their language and called down the curses in God's name, called on God to make the curses happen, and so now God is also complicit in these events – he gave the Israelites the bullets for their smoking gun by accepting their curses as prayers.
By now, the question that should be ringing loud and clear in our minds as Christians is, “Where is the love?” How does these curses stack up alongside Jesus' call to love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you? We say that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but does God really want prayers of cursing from his people today? How can we say we are loving our enemies when we are asking for their kids to wander the streets as beggars and not survive to the next generation? You can see the temptation here to try and drop these cursing psalms like a hot potato. The other curses in the Bible are a little more easily dismissed – the prophets curse Israel's enemies? Well, that's just specific to the historical context of the prophets. Curses are called down in the Law? We are not under law, we are under grace. Jesus Christ himself curses Jerusalem? Well, he's Jesus, he's allowed. But the psalms – the book of prayers and songs in worship of God – these cannot be so easily dismissed. These words are inspired and attested to by God, affirmed by him in his inclusion of them into the Bible, which we believe he has made perfect and inerrant. And the psalms are included as the songs and prayers for God's people to use – they teach us how to pray! We can't just ditch bits of the Bible because they make us feel uncomfortable. Otherwise, why not drop out “You shall not commit adultery” or “be perfect because I am perfect” or “with man it is impossible” or “the wages of sin is death”? Of course, we can't go too far the other way either. We have to be culturally sensitive to our own times. We are no longer restrained by the food laws established under the Jerusalem council in Acts 15, but we are still sensitive to people's needs. We don't anoint people with oil when they are sick, but we still care for them. We don't wash people's feet, but we still welcome them and serve them humbly in God's name.
So, where does a psalm of cursing fit in this balance? When is it right for us to curse our enemies in God's name? To answer this question, we need to discover three things. Firstly, in the context of Jesus words, “love your enemies”, can we do this cursing at all? Secondly, who are our enemies? Finally, what should we ask for, and what should we expect? The first question is a real obstacle. Jesus' words in Matthew 5:44 are crystal clear, “I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Well, there it is, folks. How can we love our enemies if we're calling on God to kill their children, or bring them into shame and despair, or cause them to be ruled by tyrants? Shouldn't we just knuckle down and get on our knees and pray to God for their salvation? Shouldn't we pray that God will change their hearts? The answer, of course, is yes. And you know what? David did this. Listen to David's words in Psalm 35:11-17: “Ruthless witnesses come forward; they question me on things I know nothing about. They repay me evil for good and leave me like one bereaved. Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered, I went about mourning as though for my friend or brother. I bowed my head in grief as though weeping for my mother. But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; assailants gathered against me without my knowledge. They slandered me without ceasing. Like the ungodly they maliciously mocked; they gnashed their teeth at me. How long, Lord, will you look on? Rescue me from their ravages, my precious life from these lions.”
But King David knew what else God wants – God wants justice. God wants to see evil punished, he wants to see those that set themselves up as enemies of himself defeated. And for us, that can be a bitter pill to swallow. The idea of God as a loving God is one we cherish, and cling to. It's a warm, comforting truth, and it is true. But it's not the whole story, and we know it. For God is a just God, who desires to see justice meted out on those who disobey him, and rebel against him. This is a hard thing to say, but we have to come to terms with the truth of it. Hell is not empty. God sends people there. God hates sin. God wants justice. When people disobey God, ignore God, and refuse his authority as God, it is God's will that they are punished both in this world and in eternity. In psalm 109, David is putting voice to God's will to see the enemies of God punished, if they do not repent. The situation for us is no different. God still has enemies, God still loves justice, God will still bring down punishment on them. In praying for the punishment of sin and unrepentant sinners, we are praying in line with God's will. This is a hard teaching. Can you accept it? Do you accept that God's will means some people do not go to heaven? Can you accept that in the one hand God holds love, and in the other he holds judgement? Because this is the one true God.
No doubt you still struggle with this, and honestly I don't blame you. I think it's got a lot to do with our second question – that is, who are our enemies? How many of us today in the modern western world even really have enemies? I mean, I suppose technically we have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, so I suppose they are our enemy in some sense. Perhaps you have an angry next door neighbour whose fruit always falls on your side of the fence, or plays his music too loud or something, or sends you angry letters. But seriously, how many of us have enemies that are like David's enemies – who spread lies about us, physically attack us, mistreat us or discriminate against us, and want everything we stand for and believe in destroyed? These are not just David's enemies, they are God's enemies. This is probably the reason why these psalms are so far from our understanding – we simply don't have people knocking on our door ready to kill us simply for coming here this morning. That idea for many of us is unfathomable. Perhaps we don't even see the enemies of God. So then are these psalms of any worth to us at all?
The answer is yes, but it means expanding our frame of prayer reference a bit. Will we pray against those who seek to undermine and destroy Christianity here at home? Those in positions of power and privilege who use their influence to try and attack God through his church, in whatever way they can? The Richard Dawkinses and the Peter Singers, and the university lecturers who go out of their way to give their Christian students a hard time, the atheist employers who won't give a Christian a job, those members of the sceptics societies or the atheist societies who lobby the government to deny right to Christians. God has no end of enemies. Remember too, there are Christians who live in fear. There are Christians who wait for that knock on the door, who receive threats in the mail, who are attacked, slandered and mistreated where they live. Do we feel the injustice when our brothers in Christ get sentenced to 15 years in jail simply for being a house church leader, like Alimujiang Yimiti was in October 2009? Do we feel for the families of three Christians who were killed, and many more injured, by Muslim bombing attacks on churches in Iraq over Christmas? Do we get angry when Christian women get raped, and are then forced to marry their rapists in countries like Egypt? The enemies of Christ are very real, and are striking harshly and evilly at God's people around the world. Will we pray for justice? Will we stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ and pray for God to judge his enemies for their evil deeds?Even as we love these enemies, even as we pray for them as they persecute us or our brothers and sisters far away, there is a place for asking God to bring his judgement on those who wilfully seek to continually disobey and rebel against his rule.
Which brings us to the final question about how these cursing psalms relate to us. What is it we should be asking for, and what exactly should we expect from God in this matter? Are we really going to be praying for people's teeth to be knocked out? For their children to be killed, or their homes to be looted by debt collectors? To be honest, I just don't think we feel the anger for these crimes against God and his church to be able to muster up this sort of language. Maybe if our turn comes to feel the whip of persecution on our backs, we will change. But for now, we can at least pray for justice. We can pray that those who attack Christians will be defeated. On Christmas Day in Mosul last year a group of armed Muslim extremists stormed a church demanding to perform Muslim rites in the church building. They started shooting and the church guards – because over there churches need guards – returned fire. Who are we praying will win such a gunfight? May their rifles jam and their ammunition explode in their faces. May those who oppress and persecute churches in their country be discovered for their fraud or their adultery or their mistreatment of animals, and lose their important office. May those who seek to crush the spirit of Christ in our young people with militant atheism face depression and anxiety and sadness at their life's work.
But what we can not forget, what we must not forget, is that this justice only holds if they do not repent of their wrongdoing. It makes for a challenging prayer, to both pray for the salvation and judgement of wrongdoers. But that is what we must do. As Christian author John Day put it, loving prayer for repentance and salvation is the business as usual of God's church – but when evil men remain unrepentant, the godly call for God's extreme justice. Because God is faithful and just, and will forgive all sin of those who repent of it, who turn away from it and turn to God for forgiveness. Those people are no longer enemies, but friends, brothers, sisters, and we should welcome them with open arms. Just like Christ has done for all of us.
If these cursing psalms give us a greater appreciation of God's love and his justice, then we are already well served. If they assist us in praying and caring for our persecuted siblings in Christ, then they are a valuable tool. And if they enable us to recognise those enemies of God in our own midst, and pray for their salvation and judgement, then we can only be more effective in the places God has put us.
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