The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity

Since last year government-backed Arab militias of Sudan have displaced 1 million black Christians and animists. Today most of the victims eke out an existence in squalid refugee camps of Western Sudan. Unless relief arrives soon, 300,000 people face death within nine months from disease and starvation. They have survived rapes, village burnings, and wholesale slaughter at the hands of the Muslim militias, known as Janjaweed fighters. The Christian refugees are too afraid to return to their charred villages. No army has yet arrived that can stop the Janjaweed from striking again.

What are the Church’s weapons to combat her enemies? Her weapons are spiritual, and one of them is the book of Psalms; especially, the imprecatory Psalms. Unfortunately, that weapon is little used because few people appreciate the imprecatory psalms in the life of the worshipping Church. On this 17th Sunday after Trinity we’ll identify the imprecations of Psalm 10, and see why they are valuable to us. Beginning now at Psalm 10:1-2; also verse 15. [Read them.]

Can we really sing these words with a Christ-like attitude? Is it ever proper to pray or sing that God bring about the destruction of the wicked? That they be caught in their own deadly plots? It is an important issue, because we find in the Psalms more than one hundred such curses. Some Psalms are devoted entirely and passionately to the destruction of wicked people. They are called imprecatory Psalms. An imprecatory psalm calls for God to bring harm upon the godless – destruction, shame, judgment, fear, silence, defeat, scattering, persecution, confusion or death. And let’s not think that such imprecations are confined to the book of Psalms. They are sprinkled throughout the Bible.

“The New Testament quotes them freely. In Acts 1 Peter says, “For… it is written in the book of Psalms, “May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,” and, “May another take his place of leadership.” These two quotations are taken from two of the most notorious of all the imprecatory psalms: 69 and 109. They are applied to Judas who betrayed the Lord Jesus. St. Peter is here quoting an invocation of judgment and a curse against Judas Iscariot the betrayer of God’s Anointed.” [From War Psalms of the Prince of Peace by James E. Adams. p. 12.]

We have two imprecations in our Psalm for today; one in verse two; the other in verse 15. Psalm 10:15 implores God to “break the arm of the wicked and the evil man.” Why break an arm? The arm of the wicked man wields a sword against the innocent; the arm steals money, grinds the poor, and denies justice. To break the arm guarantees that the strength of the evil man will be significantly weakened.

But again, when is it suitable to ask God to perform violent acts? Can we apply this to the neighbor who irritates us, or the exasperating fellow at work, or someone else we dislike? In light of our own guilt and sin, how can we beseech the Lord God to punish someone else? Moreover, don’t the imprecations contradict the New Testament command to love our enemies, to forgive them 490 times, to show mercy, and to evangelize them? These questions have given Christians pause. The imprecatory psalms have especially embarrassed modern churchmen. They avoid them whenever they can, and when they do have to deal with them, they often insist that the imprecatory passages are defective, uninspired outbursts out of keeping for a child of God. Even C. S. Lewis regarded them as “devilish” and “diabolical.” Because the modern Church has largely rejected the imprecatory Psalms, if we are going to affirm them as beneficial, Holy Spirit-inspired songs for the Church today, we will be swimming upriver against a strong current.

How can we sing and pray these requests for God to curse the ungodly? Christ is the answer. When we encounter the Psalm passages that request God to destroy His enemies we must ask, who is praying this? Who can say this? And the answer is the Lord’s Anointed. Much of the difficulty is erased when we understand the Psalms cristologically. That is, Jesus Christ, the Greater David is the One who asks God the Father to blot out, desolate, and utterly destroy His enemies. This is part of Christ’s heavenly intercession. As our ascended High Priest, the Lord Jesus lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25).

Peter Toon comments, “Hebrews chapter seven teaches us to think of Christ as our exalted High Priest who as our Mediator in the presence of God is also our Intercessor there. When we pray in His name we are joined in the Spirit with His prayer which He continually offers to the praise of God and for the good of His people. Thus to pray these psalms is to pray them with Him in His priestly, heavenly prayer.” [Close quote.]

Psalm 10:3-11 paints a profile of the sort of evil character that we ask God to curse. [Read them.]

Is this a diatribe by David against one of his personal adversaries? Some people think so. And if we were to accept only a narrow reading of the text, we might agree. But consigning the imprecations to David’s anger against his opposition would be a short-sighted view. David, the anointed king, was a type of Christ. His life and struggles pointed to Christ. Therefore these are sentiments of Jesus the Messiah – the Anointed King – whose throne and dominion are forever. So if we interpret our Psalm in this wider perspective we see that the greed and blasphemy, cursing and deceit, murder and arrogance of the wicked man are earmarks of the world’s hatred for the Church. It is only right for our Great High Priest to ask God to destroy His enemies. In doing so He affirms the supremacy of God who puts “all enemies under his feet” (1 Cor. 15:25).

Charles Spurgeon gives another angle on these Psalms. He offers this illustration:
“I cannot forbear the following little incident that occurred the other morning at family worship. I happened to be reading one of the imprecatory psalms, and as I paused to remark, my little boy, a lad of ten years, asked with some earnestness: “Father, do you think it right for a good man to pray for the destruction of his enemies like that?” and at same time referred me to Christ as praying for his enemies. I paused a moment to know how to shape the reply so as to fully meet and satisfy his enquiry, and then said, “My son, if an assassin should enter the house by night, and murder your mother, and then escape, and the sheriff and citizens were all out in pursuit, trying to catch him, would you not pray to God that they might succeed and arrest him, and that he might be brought to justice?” “Oh, yes!” said he, “but I never saw it so before. I did not know that that was the meaning of these psalms.” “Yes,” said I, “my son, the men against whom David prays were bloody men, men of falsehood and crime, enemies to the peace of society, seeking his own life, and unless they were arrested and their wicked devices defeated, many innocent persons must suffer.” The explanation perfectly satisfied his mind.”

What Spurgeon told his son is helpful. In certain situations, it is proper to pray for the ruin of murderous people. This harmonizes with the Bible’s support for capital punishment and the Church’s wise theory that wars are sometimes just and unavoidably necessary. When bloodthirsty killers slaughter innocent people, God invites the Church to pray for their destruction. The ongoing genocide in Sudan and the schemes of Islamic terrorists in numerous parts of the earth are obvious examples. Anyone who loves God’s kingdom will abhor the kingdom of Satan and pray for its ruin and defeat.

And let’s acknowledge that there is a tension in the way we deal with our enemies. The imprecatory psalms are no excuse for hatred. This is no excuse for rage, meanness, or malice. Christians are governed by love for God and others. We love our enemies because Jesus tells us to, and we don’t know who is permanently identified with the kingdom of evil. Today’s foe may become tomorrow’s saint. We seek the conversion of all people. And yet we live in a tension. The Bible teaches us to pray for the overthrow of Satan’s kingdom, a kingdom composed of Satan, demons, and actual persons; and at the same time to evangelize those people and win them to Christ.

When we know that these psalms are not the emotional prayers of angry men, but the very war cries of the King of kings and Lord of lords, then it makes a big difference.
The Historic Church has sung and prayed the Psalms as the words of Christ to God or the words of the Church to Christ. This principle may not clarify every passage you encounter, but by regarding the words of the imprecatory psalms as the words of Christ to the Father, or the words of the Church to God we at least remove the element of personal vengeance. United to the body of Christ, we storm the gates of Hell singing, “O Heavenly Father, break the arm of the wicked and evil man.”

Let’s examine some other ramifications of these imprecations. What is the goal in these prayers? Why should we desire that the enemy be brought down? The answer to this question we find in Psalm 83. Turning to that one. Reading Psalm 83:1-5, 13-16. [Read them.]

The last phrase is key. “Make them like the whirling dust… that they may seek Your Name, O LORD.” Why do we pray that God’s enemies suffer blasts of whirlwinds, fire, tempest, and storm? It is not out of personal vendetta, nor is it to gloat. Our prayer must be, with the psalmist, “that they may seek Your name, O LORD.” Why pray for God’s judgment on the adversaries? So that they will be converted! Eagerly, humbly, and voluntarily. In Jesus Christ we pray this powerful prayer so that by means of God’s judgment the enemies of the Church will repent and put their faith in the Lord.

The truth is, God often works through judgment. C. S. Lewis put it well: “God whispers to us in our pleasures; he speaks to us in our work; he shouts at us in our pain.” A few of you may have been lifted to greater faith by some judgment of God. When I lived in sin many years ago God made me nearly suicidal with misery so that I would finally break down and surrender my life to Him. I thank the Lord that He disciplined me with such severity. I might have never bowed the knee if it were not for that. The same principle works in bringing other unbelievers to faith. No judgment is too great if it drives people to seek the true God in Jesus Christ.

God plainly declares that it is His purpose to bring down the evil empire of Satan in due time. But how has He chosen to do so? Not with carnal weapons, but with spiritual ones: the preaching of God’s Word, the celebration of the Sacraments, and through the prayers and worship of His saints – and a lot of that involves the Psalms.

Singing and praying the Psalter is our heritage. As Anglicans we have a rich Psalm-chanting tradition. The apostles and the early church prized every single verse in the Psalms. The Medieval monks and Protestant Reformers did too. Now it is our turn. God’s kingdom is still at war! We need these Psalms more than ever! Prayer and the Word and the Sacraments are the weapons of the Church that overcome the world, and we would be foolish to trash a most potent weapon.

Another point. If you reject the imprecations of Scripture you may eventually acquire a low view of the Bible. It’s a slippery slope. Once you begin separating what you think are the good parts of the Bible from the bad parts, it is hard to stop.

There is another reason why it is good for us to sing and pray the Psalms. They shape Christian piety. Without the imprecatory Psalms we run the risk of veering off into a lopsidedly sweet sentimentality. Our spiritual impulses become unbalanced. The inner warfare is de-emphasized, and we forget our baptismal vow. The baptism liturgy states that we are soldiers in Christ’s kingdom. “We receive this Person into the congregation of Christ’s flock; and do sign him with the sign of the cross, in token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under his banner, against sin, the world, and the devil; and to continue Christ’s faithful soldier and servant unto his life’s end. Amen.” [p. 465] If you are a soldier, you are in a war, and a soldier fights true enemies.

So let us not be embarrassed by the timeless and infallible war Psalms. God gave them to the Church as a mighty weapon for times like these. We would be foolish to go to battle without them.

Let us pray.

Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised… Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his wickedness until You find none. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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