Imprecatory Psalms?

 

 

We all know that shifting uncomfortable feeling when someone in the room goes just a bit too far with a joke. That moment of silence when the tension can be cut with knife, and everyone is darting their eyes around, looking for some kinds of out.

If there’s one part of the Bible that makes most evangelical Christians uncomfortable its the imprecatory psalms in the book of Psalms. To imprecate means to invoke judgment, calamity, or curses on ones enemy. And sometimes the language can be really stark. An example of this is Ps. 69:24, “Pour out your wrath on them; let your fierce anger overtake them.” Wow, that seems pretty harsh for a God of love!.

This is where we really need to be careful. A knee-jerk reaction may be to say, “Well, the God of the Old Testament is just like that, the one we see in the Gospels is different!” That understanding is Marcionism, which was a heresy in the early church that has been dealt with. God is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

So how do we reconcile or understand this?

One of the issues that really flattens how we seek to understand Scripture is our understanding of the spiritual world, and the realities of the spiritual realm. Most of us don’t know, but many Christians have imbibed more materialism into our worldviews than we think, even those in the Charismatic movement. Through Scripture and tradition we know that there is a lot more going on in the spiritual world than we give credit for. But when we take that into account, things really come into focus.

(For an introduction into the entire area of Biblical studies and theology I highly recommend Supernatural by Michael Heiser, and The Lord of Spirits by Andrew Damick as primers into understanding what goes on in the spiritual world.)

Once our spiritual landscape is more fleshed out then we begin to see what these imprecatory psalms are speaking to. The writer of the Psalms is not necessarily look to God to strike down his natural enemies (maybe we can read it that way). They are instead asking for the one true God to give them victory of the spiritual powers and authorities over pagan nations that they are facing against.

While yes God does command the destruction of humans when wickedness is full (i.e. the flood, the conquest of the Promised Land), there is always a strong influence of what we can only call demonic activity that is going on, that has corrupted humanity into doing great evil. These demonic forces have redirected worship that is due to the true God, and instead take it for themselves, having the people under them commit horrid acts.

It is against these spiritual foes, pagan demonic forces that are coming against God’s people, seeking to destroy them, or mix them up in what everyone else is doing.

This theme continues on through to the New Testament. The Apostle Paul speaks of our weapons not being natural and physical, but instead spiritual that can tear down strongholds (2 Cor. 10:4).

So what does this mean for us today? The people “out there” that we think are our enemies really aren’t. Those who are not followers of Christ are not just misguided or lost. They are slaves of demonic forces that are desiring nothing but the destruction of humanity because we are image bearers of God. No matter how vile or horrid they seem, they are ultimately lost and in need of the thing all of us are in need of. Christ, the savior and King to free them from death, and their slavery of sin, to become part of His Kingdom and join the fight in conquering the world with the Gospel.

As we do that, keeping singing these Psalms, asking Christ to strengthen you in the fight against the spiritual powers and forces that are holding those you love captive. And do not fear, love as won! Hell has been harrowed, and the enemy is in retreat.

Aslan is on the move.