Imprecation, Vital for Strong and Faithful Perseverance in Grace

Some time ago I posted an entry titled The Propriety of Christians Invoking God's Wrath and Curses upon Evildoers. Imprecations, whether within the Psalter, the Prophets, the New Testament, or elsewhere in Scripture, remain a perennial problem for Christians. This is so, however, because Christians have hearts inadequately beating with God's full passion. Christians are keen to embrace God's love but quick to stand at a distance from God's wrath and anger.

Consequently, Christians are enormously impatient with other Christians who manifest wrath, anger, indignation, or contempt toward evil but especially toward evildoers. The old addage--"Hate the sin; love the sinner"--rules the day, as though this addage were true of God, in every sense, also, despite Psalm 5:5-6, " The arrogant cannot stand in your presence; you hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies; bloodthirsty and deceitful men the LORD abhors." Here is the ironic, if not sardonic, reality. Christians who are so terribly impatient with other Christians who manifest godly indignation and contempt toward evildoers actually exhibit sinful hatred for those whom they wrongly feel are sinful when they show contempt for real evildoers.

I have experienced this numerous times, particularly when I have been subjected to shocking hatred and spiteful meanness by leaders in high places, behavior borne out of their own astonishing personal insecurity and fear of losing their power and sway over those under their authority. Because they have foolishly viewed me as a threat to their positions of power, various leaders have sinfully abused me in numerous ways. Godly courage to remain subject under such tyrants' God-appointed leadership (Romans 13:1-7) while at the same time refusing to accept their wicked indictments as truthful comes off as ungodly to others who have subjected themselves to a decortication process, or more colloquially speaking, who have drunk the Kool-aid and who have come to believe the propaganda and falsehoods their leaders dish out. Such individuals have become propagandists themselves, propagandists for their leaders whom they adore with cultic devotion and unquestioning obeisance. Thus, having no eyes nor ears nor stomach for the truth about the leader they accept with cultic adoration, these individuals dare chastise and scold and rebuke anyone who has the courage to point out the leader's spiritual nakedness by saying, "But he has nothing on at all!" Much more intense is their loathing for anyone who makes the Bible's imprecations their own.

Nevertheless, how blessed is the believer whose heart for God begins to beat in rhythm with the heartbeat of God concerning evildoers! How blessed is such a believer, for this one has come to realize that in order to persevere in faith and in the grace of God, one must call upon God to curse evildoers lest one either (1) cry out with curses upon God for his not blighting the deeds of evildoers and ameliorating the dire effects of their wickedness or (2) begin to scheme to topple those evildoers who occupy God-ordained positions of authority and power and sin against God who placed those evildoers in positions of authority (Romans 13:1-7). To engage in either of these two tempting actions would put one on a pathway to eternal destruction, for to do either would be to sin against God.

Thus, in order to persevere in godliness, in such circumstances, if our hearts are in rhythm with God's heartbeat we cry out to the Lord to carry out justice now and to deliver us from the ravages of wickedness heaped upon us by those evildoers who occupy positions of authority over us, as they were appointed by the Lord, whether in government, in educational institutions, in industry, or in the church. It is good and fitting that we should cry out to the Lord to bring down evildoers who wantonly abuse the power of their positions of authority God has given them. It is good and fitting that we should cry out to the Lord to curse them and to blight their schemes and their deeds; it would be profound wickedness for us to presume to curse them and for us to scheme to undo their evil schemes and their wicked deeds as though we were enthroned in the heavens and held the scepter of God's Kingdom in our right hands (cf. 1 Samuel 24, esp. vs. 15).

The godly and believing individual, then, will make godly and believing use of imprecations such as we find in Psalm 109. Let us make good and effective use of this psalm in order that we might faithfully persevere in grace whenever we find ourselves subjected to the abuses of those who are over us according to God's providential placements of us and of others.

Let not any of us who would be godly be willing voyeurs of wickedness in high places. Have courage, friends, to say the obvious that others dare not speak. If those in high places--whether in government or institutions or the church--are naked or are empty suits who abuse their God-given authority, let us not join with the crowd that refuse to speak the obvious lest they be thought unfit for their positions or be regarded as stupid. Resist peer pressure. Refuse to submit to political correctness. Let your heart beat with the heartbeat of God. Speak the truth. Have courage to be the one who declares what is obvious, that the one in authority is empty and abusive. Do so by calling upon the Lord to curse his and your enemies and the enemies of truth and of righteousness. Join me and be an unwilling voyeur who puts to effective and saving use the imprecations of Scripture in order that we might be saved in the Last Day.

Let us not presume to take matters into our own hands to execute justice. Rather, in the presence of and within the hearing of our vaunted enemies, let us cry out with David, when he was harassed and pursued by Saul, "May the LORD be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand" (1 Samuel 24:15). Heartily enter in to godly use of Psalm 109.

Psalm 109

1 O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent,
2 for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
3 With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause.
4 In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer.
5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship.
6 Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him.
8 May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
9 May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
12 May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him.
18 He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.
20 May this be the LORD's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me.
21 But you, O Sovereign LORD, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I fade away like an evening shadow; I am shaken off like a locust.
24 My knees give way from fasting; my body is thin and gaunt.
25 I am an object of scorn to my accusers; when they see me, they shake their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God; save me in accordance with your love.
27 Let them know that it is your hand, that you, O LORD, have done it.
28 They may curse, but you will bless; when they attack they will be put to shame, but your servant will rejoice.
29 My accusers will be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in a cloak.
30 With my mouth I will greatly extol the LORD; in the great throng I will praise him.
31 For he stands at the right hand of the needy one, to save his life from those who condemn him.

The Propriety of Christians Invoking God's Wrath and Curses upon Evildoers

Finally, someone has written and published a book that does not attempt to mute or to mollify the Bible's imprecations--imprecatory psalms, imprecatory prayers, and imprecatory interjections. No contemporary author has addressed the issues with such clarity, candor, and correctness as John N. Day has done in his Crying for Justice: What the Psalms Teach Us About Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism.

John Day writes,

A few modern treatments can be found of the imprecatory psalms and the problem of their relation to biblical theology and to what is in some circles called the "New Testament believer." These treatments, however, have been, in large measure, cursory, and the proposed solutions have been largely inadequate theologically. The imprecatory psalms have been unsatisfactorily explained in three ways: (1) as evil emotions--whether to be suppressed or expressed [C. S. Lewis & Walter Brueggemann]; (2) and old covenant morality inconsistent with the new covenant church [Carl Laney & Meredith Kline]; (3) words appropriately uttered solely from the lips of Christ and consequently uttered only by his followers through him and his cross [James E. Adams & Dietrich Bonhoeffer].

In contrast, I propose to recover the proper use of the imprecatory psalms for the New Testament church. First, these psalms root their theology of cursing in Torah. Authorization to cry out for God's vengeance is strongly set out in the Song of Moses (Deut. 32), the lex talionis (e.g., Deut. 19), and the covenant of God with his people (e.g., Gen. 12). Second, this theology is carried through essentially unchanged to the end of the New Testament canon (e.g., Rev. 6:10; 18:20), buttressing its applicability to believers today. Some Old Testament and New Testament passages appear to contradict the cry of the imprecatory psalms, but texts through Scripture also confirm the right of God's people to plead for justice (pp. 10-11).

Why do so few Christians embrace biblical imprecations? Why do so few pray imprecatory prayers? Why do so few call upon the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to frustrate, to curse, and to destroy evildoers? Why do so many scowl when they hear us who preach imprecatory psalms as properly and rightly belonging to us as Christians? Why do so many scold us who do pray imprecations upon evildoers, including evildoers who claim to be Christians? Why do so many rebuff and rebuke us who instruct and admonish believers to follow in the apostle Paul's steps who interjects, "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!" (1 Corinthians 16:22), and to join those souls in heaven when they pray, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10).

I have long made the case that besides being poorly taught concerning the Scriptures by inadequate preachers and teachers, the principle reason Christians reject any proper use of imprecation for themselves or by other believers is that those who object are immature and falling short in godliness. Day agrees and cites J. W. Beardslee, "The Imprecatory Element in the Psalms," Presbyteriand and Reformed Review 8 (1897): 504 who agrees with both of us. Day summarizes Beardslee, by saying, "as the soul comes to stand where God stands, as it becomes progressively conformed to the image of its Creator (Col. 3:10), it will feel as God feels and speak as God speaks. Thus, not only will there be a deep abhorrence of sin, but there will also be a righteous indignation against the willful and persistent wrongdoer" (p. 125).

Why are we so loath to invoke imprecations against evildoers, whoever and wherever they may be? Do not be deceived, my friends. It is not because we have become godly and devout. It is because we are not godly enough. It is because we are not yet enough like God. It is because we do not yet sufficiently have God's abhorrence of wickedness and of those who do wickedness. If we do imitate God and invoke imprecations against evildoers, it is not because we are vile and wicked and full of evil wrath and vitriol and mean-spiritedness. It is because God's grace has worked mightily to transform us into his likeness. Thus, we invoke God's wrath and curses upon evildoers because of his grace and mercy shed abroad in our hearts and not contrary to his grace and mercy.

It is the godly alone who can say with the psalmist,

But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favor;

in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.
Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink;deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.

Charge them with crime upon crime;

do not let them share in your salvation.
May they be blotted out of the book of life

and not be listed with the righteous (Psalm 69:13-14, 27-28).