Understanding the Imprecatory Psalms

The imprecatory Psalms can trouble the tender conscience. David is hunted, hated, slandered, and persecuted by men who seek his life -- and he cries to God to overthrow them, consume them, and execute vengeance upon them. Yet our blessed Lord Jesus commands us, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44). How, then, can the prayers of David be reconciled with the spirit of the gospel?

We must not soften the difficulty by pretending that David was merely praying for some abstract justice. Often these were his personal enemies. Saul pursued David. Wicked men plotted against him. Men who hated David sought his destruction. And David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, brought their wickedness before God and asked God to judge them.

David was not, however, taking vengeance into his own hands. When Saul lay helpless before him, David refused to kill him, saying, "May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you" (1 Samuel 24:12). David could leave vengeance with God. He could pray for God's judgment while refusing to become the instrument of his own revenge.

Yet there is something more here. David belonged to an earlier stage of God's redemptive revelation. He was an inspired prophet and the king of God's covenant nation. The Old Covenant contained temporal judgments, divinely appointed warfare, and a theocratic kingdom. But Jesus has now brought His disciples into the light of the New Covenant and has given them a distinctly different command concerning their personal enemies.

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

The Christian is not told merely, "Do not personally avenge yourself -- let God destroy your enemy." He is told to love the very person who has injured him, to pray for him, and to seek his good. This is a higher and more searching calling.

Consider Saul's great persecutor, David. He could pray that God would overthrow his enemies. But consider Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor of the church. God did something more wonderful than destroy him -- He saved him! The persecutor became the apostle. The enemy became a servant of Jesus.

And here we see the glory of the gospel. We may pray that God will stop wickedness, restrain oppression, protect the innocent, and bring evil to an end. We may leave every wrong in the hands of the righteous Judge. But when the enemy is our personal enemy, Jesus teaches us to pray for something greater than his destruction -- his salvation.

Spurgeon beautifully expressed the Christian spirit: "The Christian man is not allowed to hate any one... When thou hatest the man's sins, thou art not to hate him, but to love the sinner, even as Christ loved sinners and came to seek and save them." [Spurgeon, "Righteous Hatred"]

And again, speaking of those who have wronged us, Spurgeon declared: "Never use any other weapon of retaliation than the weapon of love." He went on to say that if the Lord should save our enemy through our prayers, "it will be a splendid way of returning bitter speeches." [Spurgeon, "The Turning of Job's Captivity"]

What, then, shall we do with the imprecatory Psalms? We should not discard them, nor apologize for them. They reveal the holiness of God, the certainty of divine judgment, and the dreadful nature of sin. They teach us that God is not indifferent to wickedness. Every wrong will ultimately be answered at His judgment seat.

But neither should we simply take David's prayers against his personal enemies and make them our pattern for dealing with those who personally wrong us. We stand on this side of Calvary. We have heard our Lord say, "Love your enemies." We have seen Him stretch out His hands upon the cross for sinners. We have heard Him pray for His murderers, "Father, forgive them."

Here is the mystery and glory of the gospel: the God who will finally judge His enemies is the God who saves His enemies by sovereign grace.

Therefore, when someone wounds us, let us place the matter in God's hands. Let us ask Him to restrain the evil, defend the innocent, and uphold righteousness. But let us also pray, "Lord, if You will, save the very person who has wronged me."

David could cry, "Arise, O LORD!" The Christian can cry the same prayer for the triumph of God's righteousness. But beneath the shadow of the cross, we can add something more:

"Lord, conquer my enemy by Your grace. Make him Your friend. Save him, as You have saved me."

For perhaps the greatest victory God could ever give us over an enemy is not his destruction, but his conversion.

And what a humbling thought this is: the sinner I want God to judge, may be a sinner whom God intends to save -- just as He once saved me.
(The above was AI generated.)