Introduction
How do we reconcile praying the imprecatory psalms with Christ’s command to bless our enemies? Pastor Jim Butler shows the New Testament already does this, and offers a framework for when it’s legitimate to pray this way.
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Transcript
Keywords: imprecatory psalms, blessing enemies, New Testament curses, Christ’s prayers, God’s justice, church militant, civil authority, worship songs, biblical study
Speakers: Wim Kerkhoff (host), Pastor Jim Butler
The Question
Wim Kerkhoff: Pastor Butler, how do we sing and pray the imprecatory psalms and still bless our enemies? They seem contradictory. How do we reconcile that with Christ’s command to bless and not curse our enemies?
Imprecations Already Exist in the New Testament
Pastor Jim Butler: That’s a great question, and it may be difficult, but we can do it. Some in the church take the imprecations in David’s psalms, calling down a curse on enemies, and conclude that’s antiquated, confined to David, and shouldn’t be duplicated in a New Testament setting. But the New Testament itself contains imprecations. Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:22 says, “If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema,” which outdoes David. David says shatter my enemy’s teeth; Paul says let him be damned to hell. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul says, “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm. May the Lord repay him,” and I don’t think he means by grace and mercy. In Galatians 1, Paul pronounces an anathema on anyone who would twist or distort the gospel. To dismiss imprecations as unbiblical is to deal unjustly with the New Testament text.
The Imprecatory Psalms Are Prayers of Christ
Pastor Jim Butler: These imprecations in David’s psalms are ultimately prayers of Christ. Jesus is the subject, object, author, composer, singer, and prayer of the Psalms. He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and the Psalms let us into his mindset during his earthly ministry. As true humanity, there’s a hatred and detestation in him for what’s contrary to his Father. He cries out for vindication, for God’s justice. To reject the imprecatory psalms is to reject God’s justice and righteousness, and the reality that God is a just judge who will bring vengeance on his enemies.
If we want to sing or pray these psalms, we need to remember they’re Scripture, God-breathed, and about Jesus, as he himself says in Luke’s Gospel. To pray them and make them our own, we remember they’re Christ’s, David’s, and by extension the church’s. But they’re not for little issues. You don’t pray for God to smash your boss’s teeth because he was mean to you at work, or for the car that cut you off in traffic to crash and burn. That would be a vindictive, self-centered use of the psalms. We’re to bless those who curse us in the ordinary run of life.
When It’s Legitimate to Pray This Way
Pastor Jim Butler: But when it comes to grave attacks against the majesty of the Most High and against his Christ, is it legitimate to pray that God would stop his enemies? I think it’s perfectly legitimate. Can we use the language of the Psalter for that? Yes. Not my enemy who cut me off in traffic, but enemies of the gospel, enemies of Christ, those abusing and violating Christ’s little ones. We’re not called to love those who cut off our brothers’ and sisters’ tongues, who rape Christian sisters, who abort babies and celebrate it, with some sentimental affection. We can love them with a love of benevolence, not setting them on fire ourselves, but for the sake of God, the purity of his gospel, and the glory of his name, pray that these wretches would be taken out.
Praying for Civil Authority: Redeem, Restrain, Remove
Pastor Jim Butler: With civil authority, I pray first and foremost that God would redeem them. We saw in 1 Timothy 2 why we pray for kings and those in authority, because God wants to save all men without distinction, all kinds of men. So pray for their salvation. But if they’re not going to be saved, pray that God restrains them. Solomon says the king’s heart is in the hand of Yahweh, who turns it wherever he wishes, like water. And if not restrained, then removed, however God wants to do that is up to him. Herod in Acts 12 was eaten by worms and died, because he arrogated to himself that he was the Most High, and God took him out. Redeem them, restrain them, or remove them. Why would we stay okay with men promoting mass murder because we’re told to love our enemies? I love my enemies in that I’m not setting them on fire, but I don’t love godless men destroying countries through murder and mayhem. Take them out.
Reclaiming the Church Militant
Pastor Jim Butler: If there was ever a time to pray the imprecatory psalms of David, now is probably as good a time as any. The hymns and songs in churches today can be so effeminate. We’re the church militant. Let’s sing Psalm 68, Psalm 94, Psalm 58, Psalm 11, songs our brothers in Christ have sung throughout the centuries as they marched to the gallows and fought in battles for Christ and his cross. What the church sings is often indicative of how the church functions, and if it’s all shallow, vapid songs, of course we’re going to be effeminate.
The Conquering Warrior
Wim Kerkhoff: There’s a quote you always read, something about the weak coming reeking of hand cream, but he’s a conquering warrior on a horse.
Pastor Jim Butler: He’s a conquering warrior, crushing the enemies, though it could be by his grace too, humbling and bringing them to salvation. David gets pretty vocal, break their teeth, and we can repeat that in song or prayer, but David would ultimately have been content however God chose to remove those enemies. Some of the language is symbolic, invoking other images used in Scripture.
Recommended Reading on Imprecatory Psalms
Pastor Jim Butler: This is an area worth studying. There’s a book called Sing a New Song, edited by Joel Beeke, a multi-author collection of essays, and I believe David Murray wrote the essay on the imprecatory psalms, which was very good and brief. There’s also a book by a Reformed Baptist pastor called War Songs of the Prince of Peace, which earns high marks for the title alone, and is genuinely helpful. You can’t just dismiss this as Old Testament and irrelevant today. Paul invokes God’s wrath on distorters of the gospel. If in principle you take out God’s justice, judgment, and righteousness against his enemies, you have real problems.
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