Psalm 109: “The Imprecatory Psalm”
In days of war where anger and hatred has consumed regions of the world, what do we do as Christians with the imprecatory psalms and other similar Scripture that seem to promote hatred and holy war, especially when there are groups of people who justify their hatred religiously? The imprecatory psalms are considered to be very hard to understand and many even believe should be avoided because of the circumstances our world is in today. Some argue that these scriptures have no place within the modern church and our civilized culture. Through a quick synopsis of scripture we find that God’s people where commanded to enter the land that is flowing with milk and honey. Much of the Old Testament is filled with stories of conquest. God’s people were taking or fighting for what was theirs. The New Testament Christians were given a different task, commissioned to go throughout the world sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ. Whatever our views are we are still stuck with the dilemma of the psalms. We mistakenly conclude that Psalms is a book of praise, songs of worship being sung to God that is why some have a difficult finding a place in worship for vengeance, but most struggle comes from the understanding that Psalms is the truthful out pouring of a believer’s heart.
Before we can look at the imprecatory Psalms we must come to understand what is the book of Psalms all about? Psalms is not God’s words to us as we read in other areas of the scriptures. Psalms is the cry of the human heart. It is human words to and about God. It is the humanity of the Psalms, the struggles they present, that make the Psalms intimate to readers. John Calvin describes Psalms as, "An Anatomy of All Parts of the Soul, reflecting all the grief, sorrows, fears, doubts, hopes, cares, perplexities with which human minds are wont to be agitated." In this context the imprecatory psalms is much harder to grasp. They are apart God’s Holy Word so we are to...