IMPRECATORY PSALMS & PRAYERS!

IMPRECATORY PSALMS & PRAYERS!

Ps 109:5-16

5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

6 Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.

7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.

8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.

11 Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour.

12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the Lord ; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the Lord  continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.

16 Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.

Imprecatory psalms are those psalms that contain curses or prayers for the punishment of the psalmist's enemies. To imprecate means to invoke evil upon, or curse.

Do Christians have permission to pray for God’s judgment upon their enemies? Greater minds than mine have wrestled with this question and there are contradictory answers available. The fact that David did so in so many of his Psalms indicates that the answer might be yes. Jesus, however, urged us to pray for and to bless those who treat us unkindly. (see Luke 6:28)

John Piper says: "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." He continues by pointing to 1 John 5:16 which says: “If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” The idea, he says, is that you may discern someone who is so hardened in sin that you shouldn’t pray for them! This, of course, leaves as many questions as it answers.

Can you separate your personal injury from the attack? Can you see the evil done to you as evil done to God? If you can remove revenge from your prayer, focus on the honor of God, and seek his righteous judgment, then you may pray imprecatory prayers.

2 Tim 4:14

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

Dear Lord, give me a heart that would bless those who hurt me and my loved ones. Nevertheless, please halt those who maliciously plague the righteous. Either grant them repentance or judge them according to your will. Give relief to those who suffer the wrongs of others today. AMEN