What are the imprecatory psalms?

Many of the Psalms give expression to the feelings of Christ in His sufferings (see, for instance, Psalms 22 and 69). Numerous verses in the Psalms provide excellent material to stimulate meditation and for Christian worship. However, the Psalms are prophetic. For the most part they give expression to the feelings of faithful Jews during the tribulation period (generally known as ‘the remnant'). These faithful believers are not Christians and do not know the Christian position (Q.19): the knowledge of God as Father, assurance of sins forgiven, etc. They are still under the wrath of God and they legitimately pray to God that He might save them out of their troubles by destroying their enemies (hence the term ‘imprecatory' psalms). This is why many Psalms – valuable as they are – do not lend themselves to give expression to Christian worship.

It would be impossible to give a complete review of the great message contained in the Psalms. A close study of each Psalm only can bring this out Fully and even then we probably touch but the surface of this marvellous mine of wisdom and knowledge. That a part of the message is the experience of the saint in the world, his trials, sorrows, the persecutions he suffers, his dependence on God, his deliverance and much else, is known to all readers of this book. Yet it must be remembered that the experiences are those of Jewish saints; true Christian experience is higher! In the midst of persecutions from the enemies, these Jewish saints call to God to destroy their enemies, to burn them up like stubble. The New Testament demands that saints should love their enemies. What these imprecatory Psalms mean and how perfectly in order they are in the message of this book we shall show in the annotations. Nor do we find in these experiences salvation made known as it is in the gospel dispensation. While the writers of the Psalms call on the Lord and use different names by which they call Him, as rock, fortress, shepherd, shield, etc., nowhere do we find that one ever utters the word "Father," nor is there a declaration of the sonship of the saint nor do we find anything of the blessed hope of glory to be with Him in the Father's house. The message of praise, giving thanks, adoration and worship is another prominent feature. But true Christian worship and praise is of a higher note and order. No such doxology like the doxology of Eph. 1:3 is found anywhere in the Psalms. Yet the Christian believer, with the light of the full gospel revelation, indwelt by the same Spirit who gave the Psalms, can get the sweetest comfort and encouragement from the experiences recorded in these songs.

This Psalm introduces us again to the suffering of the righteous, giving another prophetic picture of the distress of the remnant. When David composed this Psalm we do not know. But He casts himself completely on the Lord and calls to Him for help and vindication. Thus the godly have always done when surrounded by the enemies who persecuted them. The condition of the godly when violence is in the earth during the time of Jacob's trouble is here fully pictured, and their prayers prewritten by the Spirit of God. They look to Him to fight against their enemies, so that they may be confounded and put to shame, that they might be like the chaff before the wind, driven away. These are imprecatory petitions, such as a Christian is not authorized to pray, but these petitions will be perfectly justified in those final days, when judgment is decreed upon the enemies of God. The godly act in righteousness towards the wicked, but they reward evil for good, showing that they are ripe for judgment. And therefore their plea, "How long, O Lord, wilt Thou look on?" (verse 17) "Rescue my soul from their destructions, my darling from the lions." This reminds us of the Twenty-second Psalm where this expression applies to our Lord. The remnant suffers with Him. And then their faith looks forward to the time of vindication and victory.

Prayer for guidance stands first. "Lead me, Jehovah, in Thy righteousness because of mine enemies." What these enemies, especially the future enemies of Israel will be, their character, is described and this is followed by prayer for judgment. Here is the first imprecatory prayer (verse 10). This and the other imprecatory prayers will be prayed during the final days of this age, when the wicked are ripe for judgment. It will be answered and then the righteous will be delivered and have joy (verses 11, 12). All this we shall find very much more prominent in the Exodus section of the Psalms.

Describing the history of the Jewish remnant in the last days reflects the prophetic character of the Psalms. But again not the outward events are described but the inward feelings. This would also explain the pleas for punishment or for vengeance on the enemies (e. g. Ps. 137:9), which are difficult to understand for many a reader. The feelings explained in these Psalms are feelings of believers but not of Christians living in the household of grace (compare Rom. 12:17-21). They are feelings of believing Jews living in the coming last days. These Jews will await God's salvation and the just punishment of their oppressors, and especially of the Antichrist.

This fact, that the kingdom will be preceded by judgment, explains what is a difficulty to some people, that is, what are sometimes called the "imprecatory psalms." Owing to not understanding the difference between the Christian and the Jewish dispensations, and applying to the one what belongs to the other, some are led into confusion and error. We (Christians) do not look for judgment in the world; on the contrary, our place is rather to suffer, if called on to do so; and to be earnest in seeking the conversion of souls, out of the world. When the Lord comes, we leave the world to go to be with Him in heaven. But when it is a question of the government of the world, God must act in righteousness and put down evil. Israel will, therefore, rightly look for His judgment on their enemies, because they cannot have their rest and blessing on earth until the wicked are put down.

Righteous judgment upon the wicked, the enemy, and ultimate deliverance and triumph of the godly, is the burden of the Psalms. The godly, however, pass through great suffering before the day of triumph comes. While they wait for their victory, another and different warfare is now waged, it is carried on with different weapons. In rebuking Peter the Lord was disclosing a new principle, which was henceforward, during the day of grace, to guide the spirit and mark the conduct of those who bear His name. In the Psalms the sword is not "put up"; it is invoked and held over the head of all enemies, and this according to the will and purpose of God. While waiting, the Psalms record the exercises of a godly man suffering from the power of the wicked, and patiently enduring till the day of triumph. To these sufferers it was never said, "that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also" (Matt. 5:39). And again, "they that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26:52). Their warfare is with flesh and blood. Mingled with their cries of distress are the words of unwavering faith and confidence in God while calling upon Him to take vengeance upon the oppressor, which is not the Spirit of grace teaching us to love our enemies, save the pious expressions of dependence upon God, and the assurance of His mercy, and of ultimate deliverance, which saints of God can use at all times. We feel that the Psalmist is not on christian ground. The invocation of judgment is not christian prayer, and to rejoice in the destruction of human enemies is not christian feeling. The Psalms contemplate an aspect of God towards the ungodly different from that which is being declared in the gospel, now that He is not judging, but calling sinners to repentance and saving all who believe. "For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him." Almost the latest words of the Lord upon the cross give the character of this current time, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Stephen, the first martyr, if his be not the first christian death, echoes with his dying breath the prayer of his Lord and Master, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Grace and love are the characteristics of saints now, such as we do not find in the Psalms. It is clear then that, while we can legitimately and profitably use largely the words of piety and faith found in them, as a whole the psalms are not expressions of christian standing or of our proper hope. They are for the special use of another family of God, whose proper experiences will be in harmony with the dealings of God when He is judging the earth, as ours are, or should be now, in this day of sovereign grace, during which He is not judging, but calling out a heavenly people.

But while this is true, and our christian readers can all bear witness to it, where is there a Christian who has not met with passages in the Psalms which he felt it impossible to adopt as the utterance of his own heart. The book is generally read as though its prayers and cries, its anticipations and thanksgivings, might properly be adopted by any believer of the present dispensation. As to much contained in the book this is doubtless true: but even those who thus read it, would hesitate to say of the wicked — yea, of any wicked persons whatever — "Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell: for wickedness is in their dwellings, and among them." (Psalm 55:15.) Every Christian must feel that the Spirit of God does not lead him to such prayers and anticipations as the following: "Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth … Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melts, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun. Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath. The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked." (Psalm 58:6-10.) Christian reader, are these the anticipations which the Spirit of God leads you to cherish? We dare answer for you — No! You may not, indeed, have seen in other parts of Scripture the solution of the difficulty which such passages present. But you have felt the difficulty, and have wondered how such imprecations can be interspersed among such expressions of fervent, devoted piety as are found in the verses which immediately precede or follow the language under consideration.

If this is the main characteristic of the Psalms, they have an aspect entirely different from that in which the book is regarded by many, namely, as a book of Christian experience. The piety that the Psalms breathe is always edifying, and the deep confidence in God expressed in them under trial and sorrow has cheered the heart of God's saints at all times. These holy experiences are to be preserved and cherished; but who has not felt the difficulty of calling on God to destroy his enemies? What Christian can take up as his own language such a sentence as "Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones." Ps. 137:9. And how can such a sentence be spiritualised? But such appeals are intelligible in regard to a future day, when, apostasy being universal and opposition to God open and avowed, the destruction of His enemies is the only way of deliverance for His people.

Hence, remark, it is that we find in the Psalms these appeals to judgment, and demands for it, which have often stumbled Christians, when urged by the enemies of Christianity. They are not the expression of Christian feelings. We leave the world and go to heaven. In no sense have we to demand the destruction of our enemies in order to pass into glory. But Israel cannot have their rest on earth until the wicked are destroyed; and therefore they do demand this righteous judgment, and this is the way they will be delivered.