ABSTRACT
by
John N. Day
In this dissertation, I attempt plausibly
to demonstrate that the utterance of imprecations (including the appeal for divine vengeance)
against the recalcitrant enemies of God and his people—as is found in the
Imprecatory Psalms—is consistent with the ethics of the Old Testament and finds
corresponding (albeit somewhat lessened) echo in the New. This thesis is rooted
(1) in the establishment of the psalms’ theology of imprecation in the very
essence of the Torah—especially seen in the promise of divine vengeance
expressed in the Song of Moses, the principle of divine justice outlined in the
lex talionis, and
the assurance of divine cursing as well as blessing articulated in the
inaugural covenant of God with his people; and (2) in the presence of this
theology carried, in essence, unchanged through to the end of the Christian
Canon, and likewise utilized as the foundation for the infrequent imprecations
in the New Testament. There is indeed a degree of difference in the progress of
the testaments, but it is a difference in degree not a difference in kind.
Thus, it is argued that whereas “love and blessing” is the dominant tone and
characteristic ethic of the believer of both testaments,
“cursing and calling for divine vengeance” is the believer’s extreme
ethic—legitimately utilized in extreme circumstances, against sustained
injustice, hardened enmity, and gross oppression.
This thesis is developed in
four discrete sections: (1) an evaluation of the principal solutions proffered
with regard to the Imprecatory Psalms and Christian ethics; (2) an
investigation into the broader ancient Near Eastern practice of imprecation;
(3) an exploration of the three harshest psalms of imprecation (Pss 58, 137, 109) and the theological foundations upon
which their cries were uttered; and (4) an examination of the apparently
contradictory statements of the New Testament (“love your enemies” and “bless
and curse not”) coupled with the continued presence of imprecations.
THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS
AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS
_______________________
A
Dissertation
Presented to
the Faculty of the Department of
Old Testament Studies
_______________________
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
_______________________
by
John N. Day
August 2001
Accepted by the Faculty of the Dallas
Theological Seminary in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
Doctor of Philosophy.
Examining Committee
____________________________________
____________________________________
____________________________________
To my beloved wife, Lorri
and our dear children
Tiffanie, Hannah, and JohnEzra
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Chapter
1. INTRODUCTION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 1
Facing
the Problem
The
Breadth of Definition
The
Stigma of Vengeance
Narrowing
the Field
The
Method of Approach
2. UNSATISFACTORY SOLUTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 25
Evil
Emotions
Not
to Be Expressed
To
Be Expressed and Relinquished
Old
Covenant Morality
Inferior
Morality
Differing
Dispensations
Songs
of Christ
Summary
iv
3. THE CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE CURSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
The
Function of Imprecation in the Ancient Near East
Treaty
Curses
Inscriptional
Curses
Incantations
to Undo Curses
The
Power of the Curse
4. THE HARSHEST PSALMS OF IMPRECATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Psalm
58
Curse
Against a Societal Enemy
Theological
Foundation
Psalm
137
Curse
Against a National Enemy
Theological
Foundation
Psalm
109
Curse
Against a Personal Enemy
Theological
Foundation
5. COLLIDING WITH THE NEW TESTAMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Apparent
Contradictions
“Love
Your Enemies”
“Bless,
and Curse Not”
v
Instances
of Imprecation
Christ
The
Apostles
The
Saints in Heaven
Conclusion
6. CONCLUSION
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 176
Appendices
A. WOE AND CURSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 186
B. THE TEXT OF DEUT 32:43 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
C. COALS OF FIRE IN ROM 12:19-20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . 197
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
vi
ABBREVIATIONS
AER American
Ecclesiastical Review
ANET J. B.
Pritchard (ed.), Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 3d ed
BDB F.
Brown, S. R. Driver, and C. A. Briggs, Hebrew
and English Lexicon of the Old Testament
BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the
New Testament
BHS Biblia hebraica stuttgartensia
Bib Biblica
BSac Bibliotheca Sacra
BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW
CBQ Catholic
Biblical Quarterly
DCH D. J. A. Clines (ed.), Dictionary
of Classical Hebrew
ExpTim Expository Times
FN Filologia Neotestamentaria
GKC Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, ed. E. Kautzsch,
tr. A. E. Cowley, 2d ed
HALOT L. Koehler and
HUCA
ICC International Critical
Commentary
vii
JAOS Journal
of the American Oriental Society
JB A. Jones (ed.),
JBL Journal
of Biblical Literature
JETS Journal
of the Evangelical Theological Society
JNES Journal
of Near Eastern Studies
JNSL Journal
of Northwest Semitic Languages
JQR Jewish
Quarterly Review
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament—Supplement Series
JTS Journal
of Theological Studies
KJV King James Bible
NICNT New
International Commentary on the New Testament
NICOT New International Commentary on the
Old Testament
NIDOTTE W.
van Gemeren (ed.),
New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis
NIGTC New International Greek Testament
Commentary
NIV New International Version
NRSV New Revised Standard Version
NTS New
Testament Studies
OTL Old Testament Library
PTR
RB Revue
biblique
viii
RevQ Revue de Qumran
RTR Reformed
Theological Review
TDNT G. Kittel and
G. Friedrich (eds.), Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament
TDOT G. J. Botterweck and H. Ringgren (eds.),
Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament
TEV Today’s English Version
TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries
TNTC Tyndale New Testament Commentaries
TWOT R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., and B. K. Waltke (eds.),
Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament
TynBul Tyndale
Bulletin
VT Vetus Testamentum
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
WTJ
ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
ix
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
There is hardly an area of biblical theology more troublesome to the Christian conscience than that expressed in the so-called Imprecatory Psalms—those psalms whose characterizing element is the desire for God’s just vengeance to fall upon his and his people’s enemies, including the use of more formal curses or imprecations. These psalms naturally evoke a reaction of revulsion to Christians schooled in the “law of Christ”; the venom these psalms exude collides abrasively with their sweeter instincts. For are not Christians called to “love your enemies” (Matt 5:44), to “bless and not curse” (Rom 12:14)? How, then, can such calls for the barbaric “dashing of infants against the rocks” (Ps 137:9), the “bathing of feet in the blood of the wicked” (Ps 58:10), the “curse passed down to the offender’s children” (Ps 109:10-15) be justified? [1] Are the Imprecatory Psalms merely a way of venting one’s rage without really meaning it? Has the morality of Scripture evolved? Or is cursing enemies the Old Testament way and loving enemies the New Testament way? And is there any legitimate echo of the substance of these psalms in the New Testament?
There have been a few modern treatments of the Imprecatory Psalms vis-à-vis their relation to biblical theology and the New Testament. However these treatments have been, in large measure, cursory, and the proposed solutions have been, in my view, theologically inadequate. [2] The Imprecatory Psalms have been unsatisfactorily explained chiefly as expressing (1) evil emotions—whether to be suppressed or expressed (e.g., Lewis, [3] Brueggemann [4] ), (2) a morality consonant with the Old Covenant but inconsistent with the New (e.g., Zuck, [5] Laney [6] ), or (3) words appropriately uttered solely from the lips of Christ, and consequently only by his followers through him and his cross (e.g., Adams, [7] Bonhoeffer [8] ).
In contrast, I will seek to establish that the sentiment expressed in the Imprecatory Psalms is consistent with the ethics both of the Old and New Testaments, [9] while at the same time recognizing that the New Testament evidences a certain progress in the outworking of that essentially equivalent ethic. This I will do by plausibly demonstrating that the Imprecatory Psalms root their theology of cursing and crying out for God’s vengeance [10] in the Torah—principally the Song of Moses (Deut 32), the lex talionis (e.g., Deut 19), and the covenant of God with his people (e.g., Gen 12)—and that this theology is carried essentially unchanged through the expanse of the canon to the end of the New Testament (e.g., Rev 15:2-4; 18:20). And yet, there is indeed a degree of difference in emphasis between the testaments: in the New Testament there is a lesser stress on imprecation and the enactment of temporal judgments combined with more frequent and explicit calls for kindness in anticipation of the eschatological judgment. [11] This is to be expected, for the new era is the age of “grace upon grace” (John 1:16), inaugurated in the coming of Christ.
But this is a difference in degree, rather than a difference in kind. In the progress of revelation, the New Testament reflects a development, not in morality per se, but in the way the divinely ordained ethic is to be lived out in daily life: it becomes a matter of emphasis, which is a matter of significance. Steadfast endurance under unjust suffering for the sake of Christ and after the pattern of Christ, entrusting both temporal and eschatological judgment to God, becomes a more predominant theme in the New Testament, [12] whereas it is more restrained in the Old. And yet, the New Testament still finds a legitimate place for imprecation, based upon the same elements as serve to justify the imprecations in the Psalms.
As stated in the introductory paragraph, the Imprecatory Psalms as a class refer to those psalms whose characterizing element is the impassioned plea for divine vengeance to fall upon the enemies of God and his people, including the use of what may be con-sidered more formal curses or imprecations proper. By consensus of those works consulted for use in this dissertation, the above represents the breadth of definition involved in the use of the term “imprecation”—particularly in the context of the Imprecatory Psalms, but also in the related passages of both Old and New Testaments. Laney’s definition serves as a characteristic example: “An ‘imprecation’ is an invocation of judgment, calamity, or curse uttered against one’s enemies, or the enemies of God.” [13] Zuck describes such imprecations simply and broadly as “prayers for the destruction of enemies”; [14] and Brueggemann addresses the issue in terms of a “yearning for vengeance.” [15] Vos recognizes this definitional breadth and tension when he proffers that “these Psalms are indeed imprecatory if this term be understood in its proper sense of invoking a judgment, calamity or curse” [16] —whether done so directly (e.g., Ps 137:7) or indirectly (e.g., Ps 137:8-9). [17] Thus, such an understanding will be presumed in the ensuing discussions. So, for instance, although the bold and poignant appeal for divine recompense voiced in Psalm 137 differs markedly from the detailed litany of curses rehearsed in Psalm 109, both are universally recognized as imprecations and Imprecatory Psalms—indeed, they are the premier examples.
The central issue of divine vengeance [18] presents an initial stigma partly because the promise of such vengeance forms much of the basis upon which the psalmists voice their cries of cursing [19] and partly because of the concept of vengeance itself. [20] To the modern ear, the word “vengeance” evokes images of malice and revenge; by its very nature it bears sinful and negative connotations. Thus, in this mindset, vengeance—whether human or divine—is in no sense to be construed as virtuous. But to the ancient Israelite, and through the pages of Scripture, the concept of vengeance is tied to the requirements of justice. [21] Where justice is trampled, vengeance is required. [22] Specifically, in the presentation of the canon, the enactment of God’s vengeance is coupled with his character as just and holy and his claim as world sovereign. [23] Indeed, the Scriptures do not equivocate in their proclamation of Yahweh not only as Warrior, but also as Judge and King. As Peels assesses, in his justification of Yahweh’s vengeance: “If it is said of this God, who is King, that He avenges himself, this can no longer be considered to be indicative of an evil humour, a tyrannical capriciousness, or an eruption of rancour. God’s vengeance is kingly vengeance. If He takes vengeance, He does so as the highest authority exercising
punishing justice. The vengeance of God is the action of God-as-King in the realization of his sovereign rule. This action is directed against those who offend God’s majesty through transgression against his honour, his justice or his people.” [24]
Furthermore, the observation of Mendenhall holds true: the significance of divine vengeance derives primarily from the relationship between the recipient of that vengeance and God. “To the rebel it is punishment, but to the God-fearer, it is salvation.” [25] God’s vengeance is inseparably linked to his lovingkindness; [26] it is the other side of his compassion, the (perhaps inevitably) “dark side” of his mercy. [27] The Scriptures are unequivocal in affirming that God is by no means an indifferent Being, but one who has passionately and decisively taken sides for his people in history. [28] And if he is to save his people from sin, oppression, and injustice, then he must exact vengeance upon his enemies—the enemies of his people.
This understanding of divine vengeance is borne out, for example, by the depictions of Yahweh’s execution of vengeance against
The “vengeance” for which
But the question may yet be asked: How can it be right for an Old or New Testament believer to cry out for divine vengeance and violence, as exampled in the Imprecatory Psalms? Several observations from Scripture cohere to address this question: (1) The vengeance appealed for by the pious in the Psalms is not personally enacted; rather it is called upon from God. (2) This appeal is based upon the covenant promises of God, [34] most notable of which are: “He who curses you, I will curse” (Gen 12:3), and “Vengeance is mine, I will repay” (Deut 32:35). And if God has so promised, then it would seemingly not be wrong for his people to petition him (even passionately) for the fulfillment of these promises. [35] (3) Scripture records, through both testaments, examples of God’s people on earth justly calling down curses or crying for vengeance without any literary or theological intimation of divine disapproval at the expression of such sentiments. Indeed, the implication is that, in its appropriate place, such utterances are commendable (cf. the Imprecatory Psalms, and the Pauline and Petrine curses of Gal 1:8-9 and Acts 8:20, respectively). (4) Scripture further records an instance in which God’s people in heaven, where there is no sin, cry out for divine vengeance and are comforted by the assurance of its near enactment (Rev 6:9-11). And since these martyred saints are presumably perfected, their entreaty would then be presumably “right.”
Thus, whereas “love and blessing” is the dominant tone and characteristic ethic of the believer of both testaments, “cursing and calling for divine vengeance” is the believer’s extreme ethic—legitimately utilized in extreme circumstances, against the hardened deceitful, violent, immoral, unjust. Indeed, when one examines the way of God, of Christ, and of God’s people from a canonical approach, one finds this dual reaction toward enmity exampled: the one reaction characteristic of the divine and Christian life, and the other exhibited in extreme instances. For example, (1) the pattern of God found in Scripture is that of repeated grace; but then comes the point of judgment. The inhabitants of Canaan experienced this extended grace followed by decisive judgment when, after four hundred years, their “iniquity became complete” (cf. Gen 15:16); likewise also, the Israelites of the Exodus, after repeated rebellion and unbelief, were finally barred from the Promised Land (cf. Num 14); [36] and the generation of the Exile found out what life was like when, after two hundred years of his longsuffering, God’s hand of grace was released and justice given her due (cf. Hosea). [37] There is longsuffering to God’s grace, but there is also judgment (cf. the balance between the two in that supreme revelation of the character of God, Exod 34:6-7). [38] (2) The pattern of Christ is also that of repeated grace; but then comes the point of judgment. [39] In the closing chapters of the canon, both God and Christ are revealed as the Divine Avenger (Rev 6:9-17; 18:21–19:2; 19:11-16); and after the bloody winepress of God’s wrath is trampled (Rev 14:19-20), [40] the saints in heaven sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb (Rev 15:3-4). [41] The same Christ who said, “Love your enemies,” will return one day in vengeance to destroy those who are recalcitrant. (3) So also, the pattern of God’s people is to be that of repeated grace; but there may also come a point in time when judgment must be called for (i.e., the voicing of imprecations), and the righteous will delight to see it accomplished (cf., e.g., Ps 58:11-12; Rev 18:20).
Although in the New Testament the allowable extent of temporal enmity is lessened and the expected extent of temporal kindness is heightened, the tension between the characteristic ethic and the extreme ethic of the Christian toward evil continues. For although Christians are called to continually seek reconciliation and practice longsuffering, forgiveness, and kindness (after the pattern of God, notably portrayed in Matt 5:44-45 and Luke 6:35-36), [42] there comes a point in time in which justice must be enacted—whether from God directly or through his representatives (in particular the State and its judicial system, cf. Rom 13:1-4).
Narrowing the Field
To address the entirety of the imprecations in the Psalms would require a treatment too voluminous for the constraints of this dissertation. Indeed, the passages in
the Psalms which contain an element of imprecation, or the desire for divine vengeance, are quite numerous, [43] including at least: 5:11; 6:11; 7:7, 10, 16-17; 9:20-21; 10:15; 17:13; 28:4; 31:18-19; 35:1, 4-6, 8, 19, 24-26; 40:15-16; 52:7; 54:7; 55:10, 16; 56:8; 58:7-11; 59:6, 12-14; 68:2-3, 31; 69:23-26, 28-29; 70:3-4; 71:13; 74:11, 22-23; 79:6, 10, 12; 83:10, 12, 14-19; 94:1-2; 104:35; 109:6-15, 17-20, 29; 129:5-8; 137:7-9; 139:19, 21-22; 140:9-12; 141:10; 143:12. This covers ninety-eight verses in thirty-two psalms. However, those psalms which may be rightly deemed “imprecatory” (i.e., whose characterizing element is the imprecations or cries for divine vengeance found in them) are better limited to fourteen: Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 94, 109, 129, 137, 139, and 140. Yet, even to address each of these extensively would be to overextend the limits of this inquiry.
Therefore, I will be addressing the problem of the Imprecatory Psalms and their relation to Christian ethics via primarily three psalms, each representing one of the three spheres of cursing found within the larger corpus of Imprecatory Psalms: (1) Psalm 58—imprecation against a societal enemy, (2) Psalm 137—imprecation against a national or community enemy, and (3) Psalm 109—imprecation against a personal enemy. All the other Imprecatory Psalms find their lodging in the shade of these three and will be dealt with there but secondarily. Furthermore, I have chosen these three psalms specifically because they contain the harshest language or most severe imprecations against the enemies. Thus, if an answer may be given to these, then an answer may be given to all.
Psalm 58 contains a series of graphic imprecations against what is deemed a societal enemy—judges who have become blatantly unjust, deceitful, and violent. In it, appeal is made to the true Judge to swiftly and decisively mete out true justice:
58:7 O God, smash their teeth in their mouths;
Break off the fangs of the young lions, O Yahweh!
8 Let them flow away like water that runs off in all directions;
let him prepare to shoot his arrows, only to find them headless!
9 Like a miscarriage, let him melt away;
like a woman’s abortion, let them not see the sun!
10 Before your pots feel the heat of the brambles—
as lively as wrath—may he sweep them away!
11 The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance;
he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked (58:7-11). [44]
Under this umbrella Psalm 94 may be subsumed, for it involves the cry for divine vengeance from the “Judge of the earth” (94:2) against a corrupt and oppressive judicial throne (94:5-6, 20-21).
94:1 God of vengeance, Yahweh,
God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, Judge of the earth;
pay back to the proud what they deserve! (94:1-2).
Psalm 137 is a shockingly emotive cry from the bowels of the exiled remnant against those who had, with such carnage and cruelty, devastated
137:7 Remember, O Yahweh, against the Edomites—
the day of
They cried, “Raze her, raze her—
down to her foundation!”
8 O Daughter of
blessed is he who repays you
what you deserve for what you did to us!
9 Blessed is he who seizes and shatters
your little ones against the cliff! (137:7-9).
Stationed under Psalm 137, several psalms call for divine vengeance upon a national or community enemy, uttered either by the community itself, or by an individual speaking from the community’s perspective:
68:2 May God arise, may his enemies be scattered;
may those who hate him flee before him.
3 As smoke is driven away,
may you drive them away;
as wax melts before the fire,
may the wicked perish before God.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
31 Rebuke the beast of the reeds,
the herd of bulls among the calves of the peoples—
trampled down, bringing bars of silver.
Scatter the peoples who take pleasure in battle (68:2-3, 31).
74:11 Why do you draw back your hand—even your right hand?
(Draw it) from the midst of your bosom; finish (them)!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
22 Rise up, O God, and defend your cause;
remember how fools mock you all day long!
23 Do not forget the clamor of your foes,
the uproar of your adversaries, which rises continually (74:11, 22-23).
79:6 Pour out your wrath on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call on your name.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Before our eyes, make known among the nations
that you avenge the outpoured blood of your servants.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12 Pay back into the laps of our neighbors seven times
the abuse they have hurled at you, O Lord! (79:6, 10, 12).
83:10 Do to them as you did to Midian,
as you did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12 Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb,
all their princes like Zebah and Zalmunna.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
14 O my God, make them like whirling dust,
like chaff before the wind.
15 As fire consumes the forest
and as flame sets the hills ablaze,
16 so pursue them with your tempest
and with your storm-wind terrify them!
17 Fill their faces with shame
that they may seek your name, O Yahweh.
18 Let them be ashamed and dismayed for ever;
let them be abashed until they perish.
19 Let them know that you, whose name alone is Yahweh—
are the Most High over all the earth (83:10, 12, 14-19).
129:5 May all who hate
be turned back in shame.
6 May they be like grass on the roof,
which withers before it can grow;
7 with it the reaper cannot fill his hands,
nor the binder of sheaves his arms.
8 May those who pass by not say,
“The blessing of Yahweh be upon you;
we bless you in the name of Yahweh” (129:5-8).
The majority of the Imprecatory Psalms, however, are situated against a personal enemy, or a collective enemy viewed from the perspective of the individual (notably, David). Of first place, and most offensive, is Psalm 109:
109:6 Appoint a wicked man against him,
and let an accuser stand at his right hand!
7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and let his plea be considered as sin.
8 May his days be few;
may another take his office.
9 May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
10 May his children wander about and beg,
and may they be driven from their ruined homes.
11 May a creditor seize all that he has,
and may strangers plunder what he has gained from his labor.
12 Let there be no one to extend lovingkindness to him,
nor to take pity on his fatherless children.
13 May his descendants be cut off,
may their name be blotted out in the next generation.
14 May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before Yahweh,
and may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
15 May they remain before Yahweh continually,
and may he cut off the memory of his descendants from the earth.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
17 He loved cursing—so may it come on him;
and he found no pleasure in blessing—so may it be far from him.
18 He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
so may it enter into his body like water,
and into his bones like oil.
19 May it be like a cloak wrapped about him,
and like a belt tied forever around him.
20 May this be Yahweh’s payment to my accusers,
even to those who speak evil against my life.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28 Let them curse, but may you bless;
may those who rise up against me be put to shame,
but may your servant rejoice.
29 May my accusers be clothed with disgrace
and may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a robe (109:6-15, 17- 20, 28-29).
Under this plethora of imprecations, the various and remaining personal Imprecatory Psalms may be comprehended:
5:11 Declare them guilty, O God!
Let them fall by their own intrigues.
For their many transgressions, cast them out,
for they have rebelled against you (5:11).
6:11 May all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled;
may they turn back in sudden disgrace (6:11).
7:7 Rise up, O Yahweh, in your anger;
raise yourself up against the rage of my enemies!
Rouse yourself on my behalf with the judgment you have decreed.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
10 Bring an end to the evil of the wicked!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16 He dug a pit and scooped it out—
so may he fall into the pit he has made.
17 Let the trouble he has caused recoil on his head;
and let the violence he has wreaked descend on his pate! (7:7, 10, 16-17).
9:20 Rise up, O Yahweh, let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged in your presence.
21 Strike them with terror, O Yahweh;
let the nations know they are but men (9:20-21).
10:15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
may you seek out his wickedness
that would not be found out (10:15).
17:13 Rise up, O Yahweh, confront them, bring them down;
rescue my life from the wicked by your sword (17:13).
28:4 Repay them in accordance with their deeds
and in accordance with their evil work;
in accordance with what their hands have done, repay them,
and bring back upon them what they deserve (28:4).
31:18 O Yahweh, let me not be put to shame,
for I call on you;
let the wicked be put to shame
and go silent to the grave.
19 Let their lying lips be silenced,
which speak arrogantly against the righteous
with pride and contempt (31:18-19).
35:1 Contend, O Yahweh, with those who contend with me;
fight against those who fight against me.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
4 Let them be put to shame and humiliated
who seek my life;
let them be turned back in dismay
who plot my ruin.
5 Let them be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of Yahweh driving them away;
6 let their path be dark and slippery,
with the angel of Yahweh pursuing them.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8 Let ruin overtake them by surprise;
and let their own net they hid ensnare them,
let them fall into the pit, to their ruin.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
19 Let not those rejoice over me
who are wrongfully my enemies;
let not those who hate me without cause
(maliciously) wink the eye.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
24 Vindicate me according to your righteousness, O Yahweh my God;
and let them not rejoice over me.
25 Let them not say to themselves, “Aha, just what we wanted!”
Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up.”
26 Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether,
who rejoice at my ruin;
Let them be clothed with shame and disgrace
who exalt themselves over me (35:1, 4-6, 8, 19, 24-26).
40:15 Let them be put to shame and confusion altogether
who seek to take my life;
let them be turned back in disgrace
who desire my ruin.
16 Let them be appalled at their own shame
who say to me, “Aha! Aha!” (40:15-16).
52:7 So, may God tear you eternally down:
may he snatch you up and tear you from your tent;
and may he uproot you from the land of the living! (52:7).
54:7 May he repay with evil those who watch me with ill intent.
In your faithfulness annihilate them! (54:7).
55:10 Swallow them, O Lord, divide their speech,
for I see violence and strife in the city.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
16 Let death take them by surprise;
let them go down alive to the grave,
for evils find lodging among them (55:10, 16).
56:8 For (such) wickedness, will they escape (punishment)?
In your anger, O God, bring down the nations (56:8).
59:6 And you, O Yahweh God of Hosts, God of Israel,
awake to punish all the nations;
show no mercy to all wicked traitors.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
12 Do not kill them, lest my people forget;
make them tremble by your power, and bring them down,
O Lord, our shield.
13 For the sins of their mouths,
for the words of their lips,
let them be captured in their pride.
And for the curses and lies they utter,
14 consume them in wrath,
consume them till they are no more.
Then it will be known to the ends of the earth
that God rules over Jacob (59:6, 12-14).
69:23 May their table set before them become a snare;
may it become retribution and a trap.
24 May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see,
and their loins tremble forever.
25 Pour out your wrath upon them;
and let your burning anger overtake them.
26 May their camp be deserted;
let there be no one to dwell in their tents.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
28 Add iniquity to their iniquity;
and let them not enter into your righteousness.
29 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
and let them not be listed with the righteous (69:23-26, 28-29).
70:3 Let them be put to shame and confusion
who seek my life;
let them be turned back in disgrace
who desire my ruin.
4 Let them turn back because of their shame
who say, “Aha! Aha!” (70:3-4).
71:13 May they be put to shame and perish
who accuse me;
may they be covered with reproach and disgrace
who seek my ruin (71:13).
104:35 May sinners vanish from the earth,
and may the wicked be no more (104:35).
139:19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies (139:19, 21-22).
140:9 Do not grant, O Yahweh, the desires of the wicked;
do not let their plans succeed,
or they will become proud. Selah
10 The heads of those who surround me—
may he cover them with the trouble of their lips.
11 May (fiery) coals fall upon them;
may He throw them into the fire,
into watery pits—may they never rise!
12 Let men of slander not be established in the land;
men of violence—may evil hunt them down swiftly! (140:9-12).
141:10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I safely pass by (141:10).
143:12 And in Your lovingkindness annihilate my enemies
and destroy all my foes,
for I am Your servant! (143:12).
The Method of Approach
In this dissertation, I will seek to establish the plausibility that the utterance of imprecations or appeals for the onslaught of divine vengeance in the face of sustained injustice, hardened enmity, and gross oppression—as is found in the Imprecatory Psalms—is consistent with the ethics of the Old Testament and finds corresponding (albeit lessened) echo in the New.
In the development of this thesis, I will investigate first the principal solutions proffered with regard to the Imprecatory Psalms and Christian ethics and evaluate their legitimacy. Secondly, I will seek to settle the Imprecatory Psalms in their ancient Near Eastern context, in which cursing was an every-day facet of life. Following this, in the major focus of the dissertation, I will explore the three harshest psalms of imprecation (Pss 58, 137, 109) in greater detail and seek to ascertain the theological foundations upon which their cries were uttered. Lastly, I will examine the categorical and apparently contradictory statements of the New Testament (particularly the command of Jesus to “love your enemies” and of Paul to “bless and curse not”) vis-à-vis the imprecations in the psalms, coupled with an attempt to account for like imprecations in the New Testament.
Moreover, I will approach the issue at hand from a biblical-theological, rather than a systematic-theological, standpoint. Therefore, I will limit my inquiry into the ethics of such imprecations to the corpus of the Old and New Testaments as they have been progressively revealed. This approach further entails the recognition of a direct connection between the testaments: that the Old and New Testaments speak alike of the same God,
[45]
and essentially of the same people of God,
[46]
who are governed by essentially the same ethic.
[47]
Indeed, the New Testament, by its own testimony and inference, is both the necessary complement and completion of the Old.
[48]
[1]
Partly based upon a negative reaction to the invectives hurled against their enemies by the psalmists, Gunkel asserts: “the opinion that the Old Testament is a safe guide to true religion and morality cannot any longer be maintained.” Hermann Gunkel, What Remains of the Old Testament and Other Essays, trans. A. K. Dallas (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1928), 16.
[2] The reasons for their respective inadequacy will be dealt with below. Chiefly and summarily, a theologically adequate reconciliation of the Imprecatory Psalms with Christian ethics must deal fairly with the entirety of scriptural revelation.
[3]
C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958). Idem, Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967).
[4] Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984). Idem, Praying the Psalms (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 1986).
[5] Roy Ben Zuck, “The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms” (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1957).
[7] James E. Adams, War Psalms of the Prince of Peace: Lessons from the Imprecatory Psalms (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1991).
[8]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “A Bonhoeffer Sermon,” trans. Daniel Bloesch, ed. F.
[9] Therefore, the Imprecatory Psalms—or their like tenor—were at times appropriate on the lips of both Old and New Testament believers.
[10] Both of these elements are included as characteristic of an imprecatory psalm (cf., e.g., Pss 58, 79, 109, 137).
[11] The New Testament evidences markedly fewer imprecations, and the imagery of those which exist (save, notably, the imprecatory sentiments in the Book of Revelation), are markedly muffled. For example, the horridly explicit and characteristic calls, such as “smash their teeth in their mouths!” (Ps 58:7), are conspicuously absent from the New Testament.
[12]
The New Testament epistle of 1 Peter, for example, which addresses Christians in the context of persecution and advocates endurance in the midst of suffering, speaks nothing of imprecating one’s enemies. Rather, it heralds the importance of patiently awaiting the return of Christ the Judge. This is significant, in that it starkly underscores what is to be considered the characteristic Christian approach to persecution and oppression—indeed, the characteristic Christian ethic. For example, 1 Pet 2:18-23 adjures Christian slaves to endure unjust beatings, based upon the example of Christ, entrusting their lives and the realization of justice to the God of justice. It is the life of blessing and endurance which is to characterize the Christian life (cf. 1 Pet 3:9; 4:12-19). To this the epistle speaks. And in principle, this is the dominant mood of the New Testament, and also (albeit in a more subdued tone) of the Old as well. However, the imprecatory passages of both Old and New Testaments supplement this general tenor, articulating the minor—yet complementary—ethic evidenced in instances of extremity.
[16]
Johannes G. Vos, “The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms,” WTJ 4 (1942): 123. Zenger prefers to refer to these “psalms of cursing” as “psalms of enmity,” averring that the common label “invites misunderstanding—because they do not curse; they present passionate lament, petition, and desires before God.” Erich Zenger, A God of Vengeance? Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), viii. Now, although he overstates the issue, Zenger’s observational assertion nonetheless serves as a helpful corrective.
[17]
The gruesome cries of Psalm 137:8-9 are not technically imprecations, as narrowly defined, but are nonetheless universally recognized as the infamous exemplars of imprecations—as such are commonly defined. These verses are a wish addressed to
[18]
To my knowledge, the only detailed monograph on the subject of divine vengeance in the Scriptures is H. G. L. Peels, The Vengeance of God: The Meaning of the Root NQM and the Function of the NQM-Texts in the Context of Divine Revelation in the Old Testament, Oudtestamentische Studiën, ed. A. S. Van der Woude, vol. 31 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995). His thoroughness and depth make this an invaluable work. Cf. also Joel Noel Musvosvi, Vengeance in the Apocalypse, Andrews University Seminary Doctoral Dissertation Series, vol. 17 (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 1993).
[20] McKeating is one who expresses his offense at the presentation of divine vengeance in the Old Testament. He asks: “Why the stress on the vengeful character of God? Does God require in man a nobility and a charity which He Himself is not prepared to display? There is plenty of evidence for the idea that God is one whose vengeance is quite inescapable, and who pursues vengeance even where a mere man would let the matter rest. . . . When the Israelite refrains from taking vengeance he thinks of himself as deliberately acting unlike God. Man ought to refrain from taking vengeance precisely because God will do so. God, therefore, though it appears that He approves of men forgiving one another, does not do it Himself, or not so readily. . . . The argument of the New Testament, ‘Be merciful, as your Father in heaven,’ . . . [has] no place in the Old. . . . It is at this point, the perception that there is an analogy between human and divine behaviour, and that human forgiveness should be an imitation of that of God, that the New Testament forgiveness concept develops away from that of the Old.” Henry McKeating, “Vengeance is Mine: A Study of the Pursuit of Vengeance in the Old Testament,” ExpTim 74 (1963): 243-45. However, his analysis runs counter to the self-testimony of the character of God as found in, e.g., Exodus 34:6-7, ignores the eschatological realization of divine vengeance heralded throughout the New Testament (notably 2 Thess 1; Rev 16-19), and sets up an antithetical and adversarial relationship between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New, who are one and the same.
[21]
Peels notes that the biblical concept of vengeance “is determined by the notion of legitimate, righteous, even necessary enactment of justice by a legitimate authority.” Peels, The Vengeance of God, 265.
[22]
So, for instance, note the frequent pairing of MqAnA, “vengeance,” with MUl.wi or lUmG;=, “recompense”—paying back what is deserved (e.g., Isa 34:8; 35:4).
[23]
Cf., e.g., Deut 32:34-43; Pss 58:10-11; 94:1-2; Isa 34:1-2; 59:15b-20; Luke 18:1-8; Rev 6:10; 16:5-7; 18:4-8, 20; 19:1-2.
[25]
G. E. Mendenhall, “The Old Testament Concept of Vengeance,” JBL 68 (1949): viii-ix. Thompson concurs: “The term vengeance (na„qa„m) denotes the zeal of God in the discharge of justice. To the repentant, God’s zeal issues in forgiveness and salvation. To the unrepentant and the rebel, God’s zeal issues in judgment.” J. A. Thompson, Deuteronomy, TOTC, ed. D. J. Wiseman (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1974), 302.
[26]
Though “lovingkindness” is an archaic rendering of the Hebrew ds,H,, I believe it reflects much of the richness inherent in the term.
[27]
Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms, 62.
[28]
However, the culmination of this dual relationship comes only in the eschaton.
[29]
[30]
Cf. Isa 34:2, 5. In the language of “holy war,” whatever was labeled Mr,He@ was dedicated to God almost invariably for the purpose of utter annihilation.
[31]
Cf. the imagery that culminates in Isa 34:8. From the prophet’s perspective, divine jealousy expressed on behalf of his covenant Bride is a virtue.
[32]
Raymond H. Swartzbach, “A Biblical Study of the Word ‘Vengeance’,” Interpretation 6 (1952): 457. Smick elaborates: “The Bible balances the fury of God’s vengeance against the sinner with the greatness of his mercy on those whom he redeems from sin. God’s vengeance must never be viewed apart from his purpose to show mercy. He is not only the God of wrath, but must be the God of wrath in order for his mercy to have meaning. Apart from God himself the focus of the OT is not on the objects of his vengeance but on the objects of his mercy.” Elmer B. Smick, “MqanA,” TWOT, 2:599.
[33]
Hans-Joachim Kraus, Theology of the Psalms, trans. Keith Crim (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1986), 67.
[34]
As Surburg notes, “The imprecations and maledictions in the Psalter may be understood to ask God to do with the ungodly and wicked exactly what the Bible says that God has done . . . , is doing, and will do.” Raymond F. Surburg, “The Interpretation of the Imprecatory Psalms,” Springfielder 39 (1975): 99.
[35]
Dabney notes that “righteous retribution is one of the glories of the divine character. If it is right that God should desire to exercise it, then it cannot be wrong for his people to desire him to exercise it.” Robert L. Dabney, “The Christian’s Duty Towards His Enemies,” in Discussions by Robert L. Dabney, ed. C. R. Vaughan, vol. 1 (Richmond, VA: Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1890), 715. Similarly, Beardslee notes that as the soul comes to stand where God stands, as it becomes progressively conformed to the image of its Creator (
[36]
See especially Num 14:22-23, in which the Israelites are said to have tested Yahweh “ten times” and thus treated him with contempt.
[37] After enduring two centuries of the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, as instituted by Jeroboam (1 Kgs 12:26–13:2), and of the increasing compromise to pagan ways and the worship of Baal, as instituted by Ahab (1 Kgs 16:30-33), God said, in essence, “No further!” For example, Hosea 8:1 speaks of Israel’s imminent destruction by the image of a “vulture (poised) over the house of Yahweh” (8:1); her “days of punishment/recompense have come” (9:7), in which God will “remember their wickedness” (8:13; 9:7; cf. Jer 14:10; contrast with Jer 31:34, in which God promises to “remember their sin no more”); their sins have reached the point where God has “hated/rejected” them (9:15, 17); because of which they will be subject to the depth of human depravity—“their little ones dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open” (14:1 [Heb.]); they will “return to Egypt” (8:13; 9:3; 11:5)—that shocking reversal of their redemption story (though even here hope is held out, 11:11); they will no longer be shown compassion (1:6), no longer be called “my people” (1:9, and Yahweh will no longer be their “I Am”)—though even here hope is held out (2:1-3; 2:16-25 [Heb.]; chapter 3). For similar expression of the severity of God toward his people for their stubborn sin, cf. Jer 7:16; 11:14; 14:11. In each of these, Yahweh tells Jeremiah not to pray for them.
[38] “Yahweh, Yahweh, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and faithfulness, maintaining lovingkindness to thousands, and forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. Yet he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished . . . .”
[39] Indeed, if the fullness of the character of Christ is to be known, the prime exhibit in Heb 12:2-3 of enduring the cross and opposition from sinful men must be expanded to include his symbolic curse on the nation who rejected him (Mark 11:12-21)—a curse realized in that generation in the desolation of Jerusalem.
[40] This is a judgment in which Christ, the “Son of Man,” participates (Rev 14:14-16).
[41] Notice here how the Song of Moses—the song of divine vengeance—is equated in some measure with the Song of Christ the Lamb.
[42] The radical demands of love Jesus places on his followers are patterned after the example of God: “Love your enemies . . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:44-45); and “Love your enemies . . . and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and evil. Be compassionate, just as also your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:35-36).
[43]
Versification here and throughout the dissertation follows that of the Massoretic Text as reflected in BHS.
[45]
For example: in Rev 1:17 Jesus is, by ascription, equated with Yahweh (alluding to Isa 44:6; 48:12); and in Rev 21:3, 7 God proclaims the culmination of the defining covenant declaration (cf. Gen 17:7-8; Lev 26:11-12; 2 Sam 7:14; Jer 31:33).
[46]
For example: 1 Pet 2:9 speaks of the New Testament church in language drawn from that inaugural declaration of Old Testament Israel as the people of God (Exod 19:5-6); Gal 3:29 attests that those who are in Christ are heirs of the Abrahamic promise; and Rom 4 affirms Abraham as our father in the faith and the exemplar of our faith. Although there have been historical disagreements between covenantal and dispensational theologians regarding the degree of continuity versus discontinuity between the testaments and the people of God, dispensationalism, as it has been most recently expressed, embraces an essential unity to the people of God. Ware argues that “we can think responsibly about the continuity and discontinuity between
[47]
For example: in Matt 22:36-40 our Lord distills the essence of the Old Testament commands as that of love for God and love for one’s neighbor (quoting from Deut 6:5 and Lev 19:18); in 1 John 4:21 this same dual-faceted command is given to govern God’s New Covenant people; and in Gal 5:13–6:2 the “law of Christ” is linked to this very “law of love.”
[48] For example: in Matt 5:17 Christ asserts that he came not to abolish the Old Testament, but to fulfill it; 2 Cor 1:20 teaches that all God’s promises find their ultimate realization in Christ—and thus also to those united to him; and Rev 21–22 and Gen 1–3 together form an overarching inclusio to the Scriptures in their entirety.
CHAPTER 2
Across the centuries much has been written regarding the relation of the Christian to cries of imprecation as are found in the Psalms. Yet even in modern treatments of this vital issue, there have been little more than cursory efforts to integrate such imprecations holistically into the larger trans-testamental biblical theology,
[1]
and the solutions proposed have proven theologically inadequate for reasons outlined below. The Imprecatory Psalms have been unsatisfactorily explained as chiefly (1) expressions of evil emotions—either to be suppressed or expressed, (2) utterances consonant with Old Covenant morality but inconsistent with New Covenant ethics, or (3) words appropriately spoken solely by Christ in relation to his work on the cross,
[2]
and thus only by his followers through him.
Evil Emotions
Not to be expressed. The esteemed C. S. Lewis of last generation
the Psalms the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like the heat from a furnace mouth”
[3]
—the worst of which is perhaps Psalm 109. But “even more devilish in one verse is the, otherwise beautiful, 137 where a blessing is pronounced on anyone who will snatch up a Babylonian baby and beat its brains out against the pavement.”
[4]
Lewis uses such phrases to describe these psalms as: “terrible or (dare we say?) contemptible,”
[5]
“indeed devilish,”
[6]
“wicked” and “sinful,”
[7]
“this fury or luxury of hatred,”
[8]
“ferocious” and “dangerous.”
[9]
He further believes with regard to them that “we must face both facts squarely. The hatred is there—festering, gloating, undisguised—and also we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves.”
[10]
However, to embrace this position is questionable on four counts. Firstly, to insist that the numerous Imprecatory Psalms breathe words of hateful revenge and, as such, are not to be repeated by those trained in the school of Christ who taught his followers to “love your enemies,” is to run counter to the prevailing piety of the psalmists—notably that of David, the principal author of these psalms. Though he did succumb to the temptation of rage and revenge (e.g., 1 Sam 25:21-22) and committed gross sin (notably, the account of his adultery, deception, and murder in 2 Sam 11), these failings did not express his pervading character, which was rather revealed in his repentance (cf. Ps 51; 1 Sam 25:32-34). Moreover, he was quick to exhibit a Christ-like spirit toward his enemies—in particular, King Saul.
[11]
It would thus appear an unlikely inconsistency if this principal author of the Imprecatory Psalms (23 of the 32 bear his explicit seal of authorship
[12]
) were to exhibit in these psalms a heart consistently far from the character of Christ.
[13]
To the contrary, we find as a core practice that precedes the personal imprecations of David a pattern of love-in-action. Indeed, the utterance of any imprecation in the psalms comes only after the enemy’s repeated return of “evil for good” (Pss 35:12; 109:5), or after gross (and frequently, sustained) injustice (cf. Pss 58, 79, 137). For example, in Psalm 35:12-14, David relates:
12 They repay me evil for good—
what bereavement to my soul!
13 Yet I, when they were sick, I clothed myself in sackcloth,
I humbled myself in fasting,
but my prayers returned unanswered.
14 As though for my friend or brother, I paced back and forth;
as though mourning for my mother, I bowed my head in grief.
Secondly, the purposes which govern the expression of imprecation in the psalms and the principal themes that run repeatedly through them are of the highest ethical plane: (1) a concern for the honor of God (e.g., Ps 74:22, “Rise up, O God, and defend your cause; remember how fools mock you all day long!”); (2) a concern for the realization of justice amidst rampant injustice (e.g., Ps 58:12, “Then men will say . . . ‘Surely there is a God who judges in the earth!’”); (3) a concern for the public recognition of the sovereignty of God (e.g., Ps 59:14, “Then it will be known to the ends of the earth that God rules over Jacob”); (4) the hope that divine retribution will cause men to seek Yahweh (e.g., Ps 83:17, “Fill their faces with shame so that they may seek your name”); (5) an abhorrence of sin (e.g., Ps 139:21, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh?”); and (6) a concern for the preservation of the righteous (e.g., Ps 143:11-12, “For the sake of your name, O Yahweh, preserve my life! . . . And in your lovingkindness annihilate my enemies and destroy all my foes, for I am your servant”).
Thirdly, to maintain that the expressions in the Imprecatory Psalms are evil and exude a spirit far distant from the Spirit of God is contrary to the inspiration of the Psalms.
[14]
By the testimony of both David and David’s greater Son, the Psalms come under the purview of divine inspiration. David’s own attestation in 2 Samuel 23:2 is that “the Spirit of Yahweh spoke through me”—and this David is the premier human author of the Imprecatory Psalms. Furthermore, Jesus, in Mark 12:36, stated that “David himself spoke by the Holy Spirit.” He used this clause preparatory to a quotation from the Psalms.
[15]
Moreover, and perhaps most pertinent, is the quotation of Peter from both Psalms 69 and 109—two of the most notorious of the Imprecatory Psalms—introduced by the statement that these Scriptures “had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through the mouth of David concerning Judas” (Acts 1:16, 20). Indeed, Lewis himself recognized that there is a certain compromise of the divine inspiration of the Psalms that is necessitated when his view is held. Since he believed that the Imprecatory Psalms were “so full of that passion to which our Lord’s teaching allows no quarter,”
[16]
he courted the middle territory “that all Holy Scripture is in some sense—though not all parts of it in the same sense—the word of God.”
[17]
Fourthly, this view is contrary to the nature of the Psalms as a book fashioned for the worship of Yahweh by his people. To explain the Imprecatory Psalms as outbursts
of evil emotion not to be emulated may well account for the initial writing of the Psalms, but it does not adequately explain why these psalms were incorporated into the canon—indeed, the book of worship for God’s people! Gunn perceptively observes that to regard the Imprecatory Psalms “as wholly vindictive may be a sufficient explanation for the writing of them, because anyone in certain given circumstances of distress and provocation may have surrendered to this dark spirit. What we have to account for, however, is not the writing of them but their incorporation into the Psalter at the time when it was compiled, and in view of the purpose for which it was compiled. It is as nearly certain as can be that there was a higher reason for their inclusion in a collection that was intended solely for use in the worship of God.”
[18]
Indeed, these troubling curses and cries for vengeance appear with such frequency that they form an integral part of the canonical Psalter
[19]
—and this without any literary or theological intimation of divine disapprobation for the expression of such sentiments.
[20]
Nor was there felt any need by later copyists and compilers to expunge such material as unbefitting the Book of God. Gunn further muses that there
must be some thought—albeit vivid and painful—in these psalms which the compilers “regarded as seemly and necessary in the people’s approach to God in worship; and they took the risk—a very large one—of the misunderstanding which would arise and has constantly arisen from the type of language in which that thought was clothed.”
[21]
This reality must be duly grappled with.
[22]
To be expressed and relinquished. Walter Brueggemann, in a related position, understands the Imprecatory Psalms as hateful cries for revenge—but cries which Christians must move beyond. Yet this way beyond the psalms of vengeance “is a way through them and not around them.”
[23]
He feels that rather than disowning them, Christians ought fully to embrace these harsh psalms as their own. They voice a common sentiment, for humans are vengeful creatures. “Our rage and indignation must be fully owned and fully expressed. Then (and only then) can our rage and indignation be yielded to the mercy of God.”
[24]
Rather than banning such rage from the worship of God and the life of faith, Brueggemann nobly insists that this “rage is rightly carried even to the presence of Yahweh,”
[25]
that it may be relinquished there.
[26]
This position is to be commended (1) for seeking to maintain the rightful place of the Imprecatory Psalms in the life of the Christian and in Christian worship, and (2) for contending that all of life is to be brought to God in prayer and relinquished to his lordship. However, in yet viewing the imprecations therein as “evil,” Brueggemann fails to reckon fully with the presence of similar imprecations in the New Testament, as well as the Old Testament foundations upon which the imprecations are voiced.
[27]
Indeed, the larger trans-testamental testimony appears to exonerate and even commend them in limited and appropriate instances. These “curses” are based upon the covenant promises of God, and if that is so, then it would apparently not be inherently evil for his people to—albeit passionately—petition him for the fulfillment of these promises.
And initially, this yearning for God’s just vengeance on the inveterately wicked that we find in the Psalms is far from evil—Jesus himself was known to display the rage evoked by stubborn sin. Prominent in this regard are: “He looked around at them in anger, deeply grieved at their stubborn hearts” (Mark 3:5), and “Snakes! Brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to Gehenna?!”
[28]
(Matt 23:33). In both cases Christ was reacting against the hardened unbelief and opposition of the religious leaders of his day. Although neither of these statements is strictly imprecatory, they do bear the same sense and intensity: they exhibit a similar sentiment (i.e., the yearning for divine vengeance)
[29]
expressed through a similar emotional state (i.e., rage), which are the cornerstones of Brueggemann’s contention that the imprecations in the Psalms are indeed evil. And if this is the example of the supremely ethical Jesus, then a righteous “rage” has been reclaimed. In addition, an instance of actual imprecation from the lips of Christ is recorded in Mark 11:12-14, 20-21 (cf. Matt 21:18-20). As both the near context and the larger development of the Gospel elucidate, Christ’s cursing of the fig tree is a not-so-veiled imprecation against faithless and fruitless
Moreover, weighted against the contention that the Imprecatory Psalms pulsate with the venom of malice and revenge is the sheer volume of Imprecatory Psalms in the Psalter. If imprecations or calls for divine vengeance against the inveterately evil or unjust are to be construed as expressions of the faithful believer’s dark side—even if intended as a teaching tool, how is the inclusion in the Psalter of such a disproportionately large contingent of imprecations to be explained? Indeed, their prevalence in the Book of Worship by those of established piety
[31]
lends credence to the opinion that such cries are to be embraced as the believer’s justified appeal to divine power and rectification in the midst of human powerlessness and oppression, rather than utterances to be desperately avoided.
Old Covenant Morality
Inferior morality. Approaching the issue from a dispensational and progressive-revelational standpoint,
However, there are two principal objections to this proposed solution to the problem of the Imprecatory Psalms and Christian ethics. Firstly, the narrow understanding of love placed upon the Old Testament (or the New, for that matter) is countered by the broader teaching and example of Scripture. In both testaments, love is expressed tangibly in acts of kindness, so that a deed of kindness is viewed as an act of love. For example, Leviticus 19, from which the second great commandment arises, is replete with various “actions” that reveal a heart of love for one’s neighbor. These include such things as “intentionally leaving the edges of the harvest field for the poor and the foreigner” (Lev 19:9-10); “paying your workers in a timely fashion” (Lev 19:13); “showing respect for the elderly” (Lev 19:32); and “treating the foreigner as if he were a native” (Lev 19:34). Indeed, in this latter passage, Yahweh goes on to command the Israelites to “love him [the foreigner] as yourself, for you were foreigners (Myrige) in the
Secondly, the approach which seeks to explain the ethics of the Imprecatory Psalms on the basis of a morality inferior to that which we possess in the New Covenant runs counter to a proper understanding of progressive revelation. Hibbard has insightfully explained the nature of progressive revelation: God withholding from one age what he has bestowed upon a subsequent one. “But what the Holy Spirit actually commanded, or inspired the Old Testament writers to utter, on moral subjects, is, and must be, in harmony
with absolute morality.”
[40]
And Archer well echoes that “progressive revelation is not to be thought of as a progress from error to truth, but rather as a progress from the partial and obscure to the complete and clear.”
[41]
There is indeed a degree of difference in the progress of the testaments; but it is a difference in degree not in kind. Beardslee freely admits this development, yet rightly insists that “in essence there is only one principle in regard to morals pervading the Scriptures.”
[42]
This essential moral principle is articulated by Jesus, who asserted that the two “great commands” given in the Old Testament are the same two “great commands” reinforced in the New. When he was tested by one of the Pharisees with the question, “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt 22:36-40). Thus, from Jesus’ own testimony, the morality of the New Covenant in its highest expression is constant with that of the Old.
[43]
The way that morality is expressed in the varying dispensations, however, may indeed vary. This is due, among other things, to the centralized status of God’s people in the Old Testament versus the decentralized status in the New. In the Old Testament, God’s people were surrounded by enemy nations: the necessity of their survival and the fulfillment of God’s promises required a prevailing posture of caution or war.
[44]
But with the coming of Christ and the outpouring of the Spirit as the culmination of the ages and the climax of promise has come a more explicit embrace of enemy-love and enduring abuse
[45]
and the opening of the nations to the gospel of grace.
On a similar basis as the above, Chalmers Martin distances the praying of the Imprecatory Psalms from the New Testament believer when he asserts that the “distinction between the sin and the sinner was impossible to David as an Old Testament saint,”
[46]
but is a distinction which must rightfully now be made. According to Martin, the progress of revelation alters the Christian’s stance toward the enemies of God from one of enmity against the whole being to one of mere hatred of the governing principle of sin operating through the sinner. This conclusion is similarly echoed by Althann who, after examining the use of imprecation in the Psalms vis-à-vis the cultural milieu in which they appear, proposes a solution to our present repugnance for such severe and unseemly language by “interpreting the expressions about the extermination of the godless in terms of the eradication of the causes of disequilibrium in the private and community life of Yahweh’s faithful. . . . Thus, a Christian re-reading turns the execration of individuals into a denunciation of the unjust situation provoked by them.”
[47]
Yet, however common this sentiment may implicitly be in modern Christendom,
[48]
it insufficiently characterizes the broader theology of Scripture. Therein, it is not merely “love the sinner but hate the sin,” but also paradoxically, “love the sinner but hate the sinner.”
[49]
For even in the New Testament, the fullness of revelation’s progress, it is sinners—not just sin—who will be destroyed, suffering the eternal torment of hell.
[50]
On the part of God, this seeming paradox of “loving yet hating the sinner” is evidenced by his raining both judgment and blessing upon them, as seen by the compari-son of Psalm 11:5-6, “the wicked and him who loves violence his soul hates. He will rain
[51]
on the wicked coals of fire
[52]
and sulfur,” with Matthew 5:44-45, “Love your enemies . . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he . . . sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” alike. It is further compounded by the comparison of Isaiah 63:3-4, “I trampled them in my anger . . . their blood splattered my garments . . . for the day of vengeance was in my heart,” with Ezekiel 33:11, “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” As Piper muses upon this paradox, he observes that “God is grieved in one sense by the death of the wicked, and pleased in another.”
[53]
This is evidence of what he labels “the infinitely complex emotional life of God,”
[54]
in which he is able simultaneously both to love and to hate unbelievers—loving them in the sense of his common grace distributed “commonly,” and hating them in the sense that they stand as rebellious sinners before a holy God.
And this life of God is a life the Christian is to emulate—albeit in a vastly inferior manner.
[55]
In so much as the Christian is able, as a finite being, to image the
character and sentiment of God, he is called to do so.
[56]
In this endeavor he finds as his pattern the person of Christ, who both lived pervasive love, yet did not shy away from severe denunciations against the (even religious) unrepentant wicked.
[57]
On the Christian’s part, then, this paradox is lived out practically and particularly with regard to those hardened sinners deemed “beyond the ken of repentance;”
[58]
and imprecations of judgment against them are uttered “on the hypothesis of their continued impenitence.”
[59]
Under such circumstances, “to wipe out the sins results in the destruction of the sinner.”
[60]
This is most often seen in the necessity of public justice executed against flagrant criminals. And it is against men such as these—“bloodthirsty men”—that David cried, “Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh?” (Ps 139:21).
[61]
Differing dispensations. In a distinct but related dispensational approach, Carl Laney sees the issue as one not of inferior morality versus superior morality, but as one simply of differing dispensations. He astutely observes that “the fundamental ground on which one may justify the imprecations in the Psalms is the covenantal basis for the curse on Israel’s enemies”
[62]
as found in the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12:1-3, which promised blessing on those who blessed Abraham’s seed and cursing on those who cursed them. But because he views Abraham’s seed as including solely those of the race and nation of
However, in addition to ignoring the manifest presence of imprecations on the lips of saints in the “dispensation of grace,”
[64]
this position runs counter to the testimony of the New Testament which affirms the enduring validity of the Abrahamic promise for those who embrace Christ through faith (cf. Gal 3:6-29).
[65]
Laney’s restriction of the Abrahamic promise to “
Bobby Gilbert follows in a kindred line of argument. After establishing the trans-temporal justice of the lex talionis
[67]
as the basis upon which the author of Psalm 137 cries out for violence against the violators, he retreats in response to the question of whether this same attitude would be appropriate for a Christian. The basis upon which he asserts that the Christian is unable to respond in such a manner is that “the lex talionis was a civil law given to the nation
This proposed solution is to be questioned, however. Gilbert rightly insists that the divinely instituted lex talionis “is based upon the retributive nature of God himself.”
[69]
Although Yahweh is a God of love, he “is also a God of retribution who deals with His creature’s trespasses against His holiness on the basis of His retributive justice.”
[70]
This is seen most clearly and poignantly in the necessity of the cross—and it is the cross which both bridges and binds the two testaments. Since, moreover, it is a grounding assertion of Scripture that the nature of God does not change (e.g., Mal 3:6; Heb 13:8), the principle of divine justice based upon that nature, as encased in the lex talionis, must as well remain constant.
[71]
Although he approaches the problem of the Imprecatory Psalms from a covenantal perspective, Meredith Kline comes to a similarly dispensational conclusion. He posits that the Old Covenant witnesses to “Intrusion ethics”—that the ethics of the consummation have been “intruded” into the era of common grace. He believes that the ethics of the Sinaitic Covenant in particular are “an anticipatory abrogation of the principle of common grace”
[72]
inappropriate for the New Testament age, but which will be realized as the ethics of the age to come. He notes in this regard the example that believers in the eschaton, in patterning their ways after God’s, “will have to change their attitude toward the unbeliever from one of neighborly love to one of perfect hatred.”
[73]
The Imprecatory Psalms, then, in their expressions of hatred and their cries for vengeance, witness to this divine abrogation of common grace and, as such, would be illegitimately echoed by the New Testament church.
One of the principles of common grace, as Kline elucidates, is that “we may not seek to destroy those for whom, perchance, Christ has died.”
[74]
Mennega shares his sentiment, claiming that “we do not by special revelation know who are and who are not reprobate, as the psalmists of old did. We can therefore never use these psalms to refer them to particular individuals or groups of individuals who at any specific time by their actions display enmity at God’s kingdom. Those who are enemies of God at present may be his choice vessels tomorrow.”
[75]
Now, however true this latter statement may be, to the larger construction it must be objected that nowhere in Scripture is it affirmed that the psalmists knew by God’s Spirit who were reprobate in the divine decree
[76]
—but they did know who were the inveterate enemies of God and his people! And neither does Scripture categorically forbid the cry for judgment against such people.
[77]
Zuck rightly admits the presence of unmistakable imprecations in the dispensation of grace (and he cites 1 Cor 16:22; Gal 1:8-9; 5:12; 2 Tim 4:14; Rev 6:9-10), which he explains as voiced against “those who are the avowed adversaries of the Lord,” and “who are inexorably opposed and relentlessly antagonistic to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
[78]
And this, it ought be noted, is the very point of the Old Testament imprecations. They also are voiced against the “inveterate adversaries of the Lord.”
[79]
Furthermore, Christians are never called to make the unerring judgment delineating those who are “permanently identified with the kingdom of evil.”
[80]
But Christ himself has given the guiding principle by which to detect, in a practical man-ner,
[81]
the elect from the reprobate: “By their fruit you shall know them” (Matt 7:16, 20).
[82]
Moreover, whereas Kline seeks to uphold the permanent validity of the moral law of Moses by insisting that “the distinction made is not one of different standards but of the application of a constant standard under significantly different conditions,”
[83]
his assertion is not lived out in practice. Rather, in the development of his thesis, the ethics of common grace are thoroughly pitted against the ethics of the consummation. For example, in his discussion of the ethics of the Conquest, Kline asserts that
. . . if Israel’s conquest of Canaan were to be adjudicated before an assembly of nations acting [solely] according to the provisions of common grace, that conquest would have to be condemned as an unprovoked aggression and, moreover, an aggression carried out in barbarous violation of the requirement to show all possible mercy even in the proper execution of justice. . . . It will only be with the frank acknowledgment that ordinary ethical requirements were suspended and the ethical principles of the last judgment intruded that the divine promises and commands to
However, the primary issue and ethical justification of the conquest of
In like manner to Kline, Peels believes that, although it is incorrect to condemn the Old Testament imprecatory prayer from the perspective of New Testament ethics, “it is also impossible within the New Testament situation to raise the imprecatory prayer in the same manner as was done by the psalmists of the Old Testament.”
[88]
This he bases on the fundamental change that has occurred in the cross. Indeed, the imprecatory prayer “must
necessarily undergo modification because the cross of Christ is the definitive, visible revelation of God’s justice.”
[89]
He advocates that the imprecatory prayer, when properly transformed into a New Testament context, would be characterized by an eschatological and partially spiritualized focus, which “could take the form of a general anathema against all opposing powers”
[90]
—especially the kingdom and power of the Evil One. In this Longman agrees when he insists that, although David appropriately uttered curses against personal enemies, it would be wrong for a New Testament believer to follow suit. Rather, he argues, since the Christian’s warfare is against Satan and the spiritual forces of evil, his curses are to be reserved for them.
[91]
Two objections may be noted, however. While there is indeed more explicit emphasis on the spiritual warfare of New Testament saints and their eschatological hope—as expanded and clarified in the progress of revelation, both elements were central in the experience of Old Testament saints as well. Theirs was the daily awareness of the opposing “gods” of the various surrounding nations,
[92]
and theirs was the hope of the eschaton in its varied facets as iterated repeatedly through the prophets.
[93]
The second issue regards the presence of personalized and extreme maledictions in the New Testament, with no implication of condemnation attached to them. Of particular note are (1) Paul’s vehement “anathema” against the Judaizers who had infiltrated the Galatian churches and proclaimed a “gospel” of legalism: “If anyone preaches a gospel to you other than the one you received, let him be damned!” (Gal 1:9); and (2) Peter’s curse of Simon the Sorcerer, who sought to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit: “May your money perish with you!” (Acts 8:20). In addition, these examples demonstrate the drawing of a marked conclusion as to the eternal status in the decree of God of those imprecated, even though the hope of repentance is ever implicit or is actually offered (e.g., Acts 8:22). Moreover, although the justice of God was definitively revealed in the cross of Christ, this does not relieve the persistent injustices against God’s people nor wholly assuage their justification for calling down God’s justice (e.g., Luke 18:1-8). Neither do the words of Christ from the cross: “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34),
[94]
of necessity
mute their plea. Rather, the New Testament records the utterance of imprecations and petitions for divine vengeance on the lips of earth-bound and heaven-arrived saints alike (notably Rev 6:9-10).
[95]
Songs of Christ
The question is sometimes asked, “Who is the ‘I’ of the Psalms? Who is it who petitions God to destroy his enemies?” Is it the individual believer or the covenant community? Is it David or the Davidic monarch? Or is it Christ himself who prays these prayers, and the Christian through him? Indeed, for Jay Adams, this “is really the critical issue with the imprecatory psalms. If you were to ask God to destroy your personal enemy, that would be in essence cursing that enemy and, therefore, sinful. But if the King of Peace asks God to destroy His enemies, that is another matter!”
[96]
In this, Adams concurs with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German martyr of World War II, who likewise denies that one can simply echo the prayers of David in the Imprecatory Psalms,
[99]
grounding his assertion on the basis that “according to the witness of the Bible, David is, as the anointed king of the chosen people of God, a prototype of Jesus Christ. What happens to him happens to him for the sake of the one who is in him and who is said to proceed from him, namely Jesus Christ. . . . David was a witness to Christ in his office, in his life, and in his words. . . . These same words which David spoke, therefore, the future Messiah spoke through him. The prayers of David were prayed also by Christ. Or better, Christ himself prayed them through his forerunner David.”
[100]
Thus, Bonhoeffer argues, although David did, in fact, utter these prayers of imprecation against his enemies, he did so only as the type of Messiah Jesus who was to arise from his line.
[101]
He further contends that “David could never have prayed for himself against his enemies in order to preserve his own life. We know that David humbly endured all personal abuse. But Christ, and therefore the
Moreover, Bonhoeffer views the Imprecatory Psalms as prayers, not so much for the execution of God’s vengeance on instances of gross injustice, but rather for the execution of God’s judgment on sin in general—a judgment in history fully and solely satisfied in the cross of Christ.
God’s vengeance did not strike the sinners, but the one sinless man who stood in the sinners’ place, namely God’s own Son. Jesus Christ bore the wrath of God, for the execution of which the psalm prays. He stilled God’s wrath toward sin and prayed in the hour of the execution of the divine judgment: ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!’ . . . God hates and redirects his enemies to the only righteous one, and this one asks forgiveness for them. . . . Thus the imprecatory psalm leads to the cross of Jesus and to the love of God which forgives enemies. I cannot forgive the enemies of God out of my own resources. Only the crucified Christ can do that, and I through Him. . . . In this way the crucified Jesus teaches us to pray the imprecatory psalms correctly.
[104]
However, although divine justice toward the redeemed was fully satisfied in the cross, divine justice toward the reprobate is not fully satisfied except in the torments of eternal hell.
[105]
And it is out of the scourges of injustice from such as these that the cry of the righteous arises. In addition, according to the testimony of Scripture, David does indeed function both genetically and typologically as the forerunner of Christ. But this is not meant to disassociate his words and actions from his person in history. Indeed, delaying these Davidic psalms of imprecation until the cross of Christ, and distancing them from their manifestly historical setting and speaker, robs them of both their immediate and archetypical
[106]
significance and power.
Furthermore, this proposed solution does not adequately answer the problem aroused by the presence of imprecations in non-Davidic Imprecatory Psalms, for not all of the Imprecatory Psalms designate David as their author (notably Ps 137).
[107]
And this
objection is not satisfactorily addressed by subsuming all of the Psalms under the aegis of his name.
[108]
Neither does it answer the imprecations or cries for divine vengeance in other parts of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments alike. If imprecations against one’s enemies and the enemies of God are deemed morally legitimate in other parts of Scripture—and these are not rendered legitimate by placing them on the lips of Christ, then this proposal offers no genuine solution to the issue of imprecation in the Psalms, nor to the issue of imprecation in general.
Summary
In recent decades, numerous solutions to the problem of the Imprecatory Psalms and Christian ethics have been proffered. Although they address the issue from vastly differing perspectives, the tendency of these varied proposals is to distance the utterance of imprecations, as embodied in the Imprecatory Psalms, from Christian ethics. Representatives of these principal proposals have been examined and their positions found biblically and theologically unsatisfactory for the reasons enumerated below.
The view of Lewis that the Imprecatory Psalms are to be explained as the expression of evil emotions to be utterly avoided fails to adequately account for the prevailing piety of the psalmists, the elevated ethics promoted in these psalms, the
inspiration of the Imprecatory Psalms, and the presence of the Imprecatory Psalms in the canon—indeed, in its book of worship. The related position of Brueggemann that views such utterances as evil—and yet as an evil to be expressed to God and relinquished there—admirably answers the objection of these psalms in worship. However, it yet fails to fully reckon with the presence of like imprecations in the New Testament, the Old Testament theological foundations upon which they are uttered, and the profusion of such imprecations in the psalms.
The view that understands such imprecations as consistent with Old Covenant morality but inappropriate for the New Era is also expressed in two forms. The stance of Zuck that sees such imprecations as evidence of an inferior morality operative in the Old Testament overly restricts the biblical definition of love and minimizes the fundamental ethical continuity between the testaments in its application of progressive revelation. The explanation of Martin and Althann downplays the inextricable tie in both testaments between the sinner and sin. The related positions of Laney and Gilbert that exonerate the morality of the Imprecatory Psalms and yet consider it inappropriate for the New Testament believer based solely on the difference in dispensations rightly find a covenantal and theological foundation for such imprecations. However, they fail to adequately address the enduring validity of the Abrahamic promise and the implications inherent in the unchanging character of God. The perspective of Kline essentially pits the ethics of the Old Covenant against the New. The approach of Peels and Longman fails to reckon with the eschatological hope and spiritual awareness of the Old Testament believer, along with the presence of personalized imprecations in the New Testament.
The view of Adams and Bonhoeffer which asserts that the Imprecatory Psalms are appropriately prayed solely by Christ and only by his followers through him and his work on the cross overstates David’s typological function, understates his historical situation, and evades the issue of such expressions in non-Davidic Imprecatory Psalms and in the remainder of Scripture.
Given the noted inadequacies of the prevailing proposed solutions to the problem of the Imprecatory Psalms and Christian ethics, the need for a biblically and theologically sound solution remains—a need I will seek to address and to fill.
[1]
The ongoing works of Walter Brueggemann are nearest the exception.
[2]
I.e., in the fulfillment of the demands of divine justice.
[3]
C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1958), 20.
[4]
Ibid., 20-21.
[5]
Ibid., 21-22.
[6]
Ibid., 25.
[7]
C. S. Lewis, Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), 120-21.
[8]
Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 27.
[9]
Ibid., 33.
[10]
Ibid., 22. Kittel echoes the sentiment that these notorious Imprecatory Psalms originated from superficial, mean-spirited persons, found among the pious of all times. “It is not necessary to excuse them; they belong to the past; to palliate them would be quite as foolish as to blame them; to repeat them would be blasphemy, and not to be thought of in these days.” Rudolph Kittel, The Scientific Study of the Old Testament, trans. J. Caleb Hughes (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1910), 142-43.
[11]
For example, after having been hounded relentlessly by the madly jealous King Saul, David finally had the choice opportunity to dispatch him while he was ignobly positioned in the cave in which David and his henchmen were hiding. However, David’s conscience would not allow him to strike down “Yahweh’s anointed.” After Saul had gone back to his troops, David called out to him from the cave, “May Yahweh judge between me and you. And may Yahweh avenge me for what you have done, but my hand will not be against you” (1 Sam 24:13). And Saul’s response is enlightening, “When a man finds his enemy, does he send him on his way unharmed? May Yahweh reward you well for the way you treated me today” (1 Sam 24:20).
[12]
There is a certain level of debate, ambiguity, and uncertainty surrounding the use of the introductory l in the superscriptions of the psalms. Indeed, its fluidity of meaning is patently evidenced by the three-fold use in Ps 18:1: hvAhyla rB,Di rw,xE dvidAl; hvAhy; db,f,l; Hace.nam;la, “for the choir director, of David, the servant of Yahweh, who spoke to Yahweh . . .”. Granting this, however, I adopt the traditional understanding of the lin, e.g., dvidAl; as the lamedh of authorship for the following reasons: (1) The extended superscription found in Ps 18:1 makes the matter of authorship indicated by dvidAl; explicit. Moreover, it is likely that dvidAl; is the abbreviated form of the longer and frequent, e.g., dvidAl; rOmz;mi, “a psalm of David.” That this is so to be construed, rather than as a psalm “for” or “concerning” David is buttressed by the like use in the prophecy of Habakkuk 3:1, where authorship is again explicit: qUq.baHEla hlA.pit;, “a prayer of Habakkuk . . .”. (2) Such an understanding is consonant with David’s reputation as both musician and composer (e.g., 2 Sam 23:1; Amos 6:5; 1 Chr 15–16). (3) Both Christ and the apostles considered David himself to be the author of those psalms which bore the imprint dvidAl; (e.g., Mark 12:35-37; Acts 2:25-35). (4) The Tell Qasile ostraca (c. 8th cent. B.C.) evidence a use similar to that of the psalms: jlml, “Belonging to the king.” John C. L. Gibson, Textbook of Syrian Semitic Inscriptions, vol. 1, Hebrew and Moabite Inscriptions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), 15-17. Moreover, Deutsch and Heltzer have catalogued numerous early Hebrew inscriptions on personal articles, the preponderance of which are likewise introduced by the l of ownership. Cf. R. Deutsch and M. Heltzer, Forty New Ancient West Semitic Inscriptions (Tel Aviv-Jaffa: Archaeological Center Publication, 1994); and ibid., New Epigraphic Evidence from the Biblical Period (Tel Aviv-Jaffa: Archaeological Center Publication, 1995). Furthermore, Gesenius long ago observed that “the introduction of the author, poet, &c., by this Lamed auctoris is the customary idiom also in the other Semitic dialects, especially in Arabic.” GKC, 420.
[13]
This is not to assert that David was in any way a stranger to sin and rebellion. But the governing principle of his life was ds,H,. And it must be remembered that these Imprecatory Psalms of David were incorporated into the Psalter for
[14]
But, it may well be asked, how can divine inspiration be applied to the Psalms, which, by their very nature, are the response of men back to God. How can the words of men to God be the Word of God to men? In what sense, and to what extent, can we admit that they bear the stamp of the Holy Spirit? To these questions it is readily admitted that there is a measure of mystery. But the larger testimony of Scripture as well the history of God’s people (including the process of canonization) witness that the Psalter, in its entirety, is included under the aegis of “God-breathed” (2 Tim 3:16)—by the Holy Spirit through godly men (cf., e.g., Heb 3:7, in which a quotation from Ps 95 is introduced by, “as the Holy Spirit says”).
[15]
Although these words are in specific reference to Psalm 110, the implications are farther reaching.
[16]
Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 19.
[17]
Ibid. Lewis later elaborates: “The total result is not ‘the Word of God’ in the sense that every passage, in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God; and we . . . receive that word from it . . . by steeping ourselves in its tone or temper and so learning its overall message.” Ibid., 112. Zenger likewise compromises the doctrine of the divine inspiration of the Psalms in his defense of their appropriate use in the modern church. He baldly asserts that he is “not interested in a fundamentalist defense of the psalms of enmity and vengeance that are experienced as difficult or genuinely offensive, as if they must necessarily be retained because they are ‘the word of God’ and ‘revelation’.” Erich Zenger, A God of Vengeance? Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath, trans. Linda M. Maloney (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996), 63. Rather, “these psalms confront us with the reality of violence and, especially, with the problem of the perpetrators of this suffering and their condemnation by the judgment of God. In the process, they very often compel us to confess that we ourselves are violent, and belong among the perpetrators of the violence lamented in these psalms. In that way, these psalms are God’s revelation.” Ibid., 85. Barnes, on the other hand, sought to defend the inspiration of the Imprecatory Psalms by insisting that “all that inspiration is responsible for is, the correctness of the record in regard to the existence of these feelings:—that is, the authors of the Psalms actually recorded what was passing in their own minds. They gave vent to their internal emotions. They state real feelings which they themselves had; feelings which, while human nature remains the same, may spring up in the mind of imperfect man, anywhere, and at any time.” Albert Barnes, Notes, Critical, Explanatory, and Practical, on the Book of Psalms, vol. 1 (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1868), xxxviii. However, as Bush notes, the question is not “whether these imprecations are ‘truthful,’ but rather how this truth can be approved by God!” L. Russ Bush, “Does God Inspire Imprecation? Divine Authority and Ethics in the Psalms” (Evangelical Philosophical Society Presidential Address, November 16, 1990), 5.
[18]
George S. Gunn, God in the Psalms (Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1956), 99. Similarly, Martin observes that the psalms included for use in the public worship of God contain an implicit claim that the poet’s expressed feelings are “in some sense true and right, such as others should sympathize with and, it may be, adopt as their own.” Chalmers Martin, “The Imprecations in the Psalms,” PTR 1 (1903): 540.
[19]
As Bush notes, the “prominence of the imprecatory material is an internal evidence that the biblical writers themselves did not see any inconsistency in their devotion to God and their call for judgment upon the wicked.” Bush, “Does God Inspire Imprecation?,” 6.
[20]
Although it may be argued that such expressions were retained to show succeeding generations that all things may be rightly brought to Yahweh in prayer—even our rage and revenge (see below), this would have to be inferred, for such a limit and intent is nowhere explicitly stated. Moreover, it yet leaves open the question: Why are there so many Imprecatory Psalms?
[21]
Gunn, God in the Psalms, 99.
[22]
It is significant to note that the proposed solutions addressed in this chapter (with the exception of Brueggemann and those aligned with his position; cf. below) end up, in the final analysis, in distancing the praying of the Imprecatory Psalms from the present expression of the people of God—a distance which is manifestly foreign to the apparent intent of the psalms as they have been passed down. Indeed, the Psalter in its entirety was incorporated into the Christian Canon, with the tacit affirmation of its continued status as the Book of Worship for God’s people. For example, the characteristic Christian life includes “speaking to one another with ‘psalms’” (Eph 5:19). As Drijvers concludes, the psalms, viewed as a whole and from a redempto-historical standpoint, “are sung by the Church now when she comes to meet him who is both holy and present, now when she experiences the riches of salvation and the neediness of the pilgrim state, now when she looks forward with longing to the full communion with God in heaven, where all the uncertainty of man’s life on earth shall be at an end. The psalms are the Songs of the New Covenant!” Pius Drijvers, The Psalms: Their Structure and Meaning (New York: Herder and Herder, 1967), 214.
[23]
Walter Brueggemann, Praying the Psalms (Winona, MN: Saint Mary’s Press, 1986), 68.
[24]
Ibid.
[25]
Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), 85.
[26]
This conviction is echoed by Craigie, who concurs that although the sentiments expressed in the Imprecatory Psalms “are in themselves evil, they are a part of the life of the soul which is bared before God in worship and prayer.” Peter C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50, WBC, ed. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, vol. 19 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 41. Zenger likewise notes that the Imprecatory Psalms bring us face to face with “the fundamental biblical conviction that in prayer we may say everything, literally everything, if only we say it to GOD.” Zenger, A God of Vengeance?, 79.
[27]
These Old Testament theological foundations and New Testament imprecations will be dealt with in later chapters.
[28]
I.e., hell. Gehenna (gevenna) is a transliteration of the Hebrew Mno.hi [-Nb,] xyge, “Valley of [the Son of] Hinnom.” This was the valley on the south side of Jerusalem where the notorious infant sacrifices to the pagan gods Molech and Baal were carried out, and which received the severest of denunciations from Yahweh (e.g., Jer 32:35). It was also the place for the dumping of refuse. This location of abominable terror and burning served as a vivid picture of eternal damnation, of hell.
[29]
Cf. Luke 12:49, “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (cf. the impassioned “woe” of Christ uttered against Judas in Matt 26:24).
[30]
This passage will be dealt with in more detail in chapter five.
[31]
Cf. discussion above, pp. 26-28.
[32]
Roy Ben Zuck, “The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms” (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1957), 73.
[33]
Zuck, “The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms,” 70. He adds: “The difference in the dispensations of law and grace demands an acceptance of the fact that the moral standards of the Old Testament were not on the high level of that of the New Testament. For example, love for one’s enemies as found in the New Testament is foreign to Old Testament morality.” Ibid., 73 (italics added). However, although it is rightly espoused that the New Testament ethic of enemy-love is made more explicit and given greater emphasis, and the ramifications of that ethic are more widely explored and applied, it is not wholly new. Indeed, the concept of enemy-love is not “foreign” to Old Testament morality; rather it is latent or subdued, finding full flower in Christ. The radical command of Christ to “love your enemies” (Matt 4:43-48) is addressed in chapter five.
[34]
Ibid., 60.
[35]
Ibid.
[36]
Thus, although the term rge speaks generically of a “resident alien,” in this context there is the added nuance of a basic and natural enmity as well. For, although
[37]
This account of kindness—of love—towards one’s enemies, is one of the most dramatic in all of Scripture. When the Israelites were hopelessly caged in the town of
[38]
The Arameans of Elisha’s day were the epitome of the enemy. And Naaman’s unnamed slave girl, acquired by an army raid, surprisingly sought the welfare of her foreign master—the Aramean army commander; and Elisha likewise responds to his need with grace and kindness.
[39]
This example of Yahweh’s “unexpected” compassion toward the Assyrians—his inveterate adversaries and the oppressors of his people—is contrasted with the unbecoming response of Jonah.
[40]
F. G. Hibbard, The Psalms Chronologically Arranged, with Historical Introductions; and a General Introduction to the Whole Book, 5th ed. (New York: Carlton & Porter, 1856), 107.
[41]
Gleason L. Archer Jr., A Survey of Old Testament Introduction, revised and expanded ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 500. Although not technically imprecatory, Rev 22:18-19, the culmination of revelation’s progress, issues grave warnings in a manner reminiscent of certain ancient Near Eastern curses (cf. chapter 3, note 31). This example further illustrates the close relation between actual imprecation and divine threat: that they are not two entirely distinct domains, but rather ones which bear a certain measure of semantic overlap, as evidenced by, e.g., Deut 28, in which the divine threats are defined as “curses” (for further discussion of this relation, cf. Appendix A).
[42]
J. W. Beardslee, “The Imprecatory Element in the Psalms,” Presbyterian and Reformed Review 8 (1897): 496.
[43]
Cf. Gal 5:13-14; 6:2; Rom 13:8-10; 1 John 4:20-21. Thus, Zuck’s contention in “The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms” (56, 58) that “in Old Testament times God did not require as much of those who were not permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit as he does of us today” and “that David lived in a dispensation when the higher moral precepts of the New Testament were not in existence” is largely illegitimate, for the two great commands remain constant through both dispensations. Therefore, it is not a matter of higher versus lower moral precepts—they have ever remained fundamentally constant; rather, it is a matter of differing administrations and the outworking of those precepts in the progress of redemption. As Edwards notes: “Because the same God is the author of both dispensations, what is essentially bad, at one period, must be so at all times.” B. B. Edwards, “The Imprecations in the Scriptures,” BSac 1 (1844): 101.
[44]
And yet even to these, love/kindness was demonstrated in certain discrete instances (cf. examples noted above).
[46]
Martin, “The Imprecations in the Psalms,” 548. He continues: “This impossibility arose out of the fact that the doctrine of Satan, which makes it easy for us to pity the sinner while we hate and condemn the sin, was then very imperfectly revealed. We pity the sinner because we view him as not exercising an unconstrained choice of evil, but as being the victim of a cruel compulsion. . . . They thought of these men as choosing evil simply because they loved it, and therefore as being worthy to be hated by all those who loved and chose the good.” Ibid. This, however, is a misreading of the biblical evidence. Although the doctrine of Satan was in its fledgling stage in the Old Testament, nowhere in the New Testament is it affirmed that as sinners humans are mere victims of Satan’s whim. Rather, the New Testament echoes the sentiment of the Old, that without God people do indeed love and freely choose evil (e.g., Rom 3:10-18 as a collage of quotes from the Psalms and Isaiah).
[47]
Robert Althann, “The Psalms of Vengeance against Their Ancient Near Eastern Background,” JNSL 18 (1992): 10.
[48]
E.g., C. S. Lewis, in reflecting upon the imprecations in the psalms, denies that God looks upon the psalmists’ enemies as they do (i.e., with hatred). While he asserts that God doubtless “has for the sin of those enemies just the implacable hostility which the poets express,” he maintains that such hatred is directed “not to the sinner but to the sin.” Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 32.
[49]
McKenzie rightly observes that “sin as an abstraction has no existence. The sin which we hate has its concrete existence in human wills.” John L. McKenzie, “The Imprecations of the Psalter,” AER 111 (1944), 91. It is for such reason as this, he argues, that law-abiding citizens may consent to the execution of a murderer—not because of the pleasure his killing gives them, but because his death restores the order of justice which his crime has violated. Ibid., 90. Moreover, McKenzie, speaking out of the context of the Second World War, contends that “we would not carry on the war if we did not regard our enemies as evil and desire efficaciously to inflict evil upon them. This is a species of hatred.” Ibid. He then further perceptively muses: “there is a lawful hatred of the sinner; and indeed there must be, since such a hatred is the obverse of the love of God. The love of God hates all that is opposed to God; and sinners—not merely sin—are opposed to God. And if such a sentiment is lawful, its expression is lawful; and one may desire that the evil in another receive its corresponding evil—provided that this hatred is restrained within the limits of that which is lawful. These limits are: 1. Hatred must not be directed at the person of one’s neighbor; he is hated for his evil quality. 2. One may desire that the divine justice be accomplished in the sinner; but it must be a desire for divine justice, not a desire for the personal evil of another out of personal revenge. 3. The infliction of evil may not be desired absolutely, but only under the condition that the sinner remains obdurate and unrepentant. 4. It must be accompanied by that true supernatural charity which efficaciously desires the supreme good—the eternal happiness—of all men in general, not excluding any individual who is capable of attaining it. In a word, the sinner may lawfully be hated only when he is loved.” Ibid., 92-93. In like manner before him, Aquinas had affirmed that “God hates the detractor’s sin, not his nature. So we may hate detractors in the same way without sin.” Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, vol. 35, Consequences of Charity, trans. Thomas R. Heath (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1972), 11. Sutcliffe similarly argues that God’s hatred of sinners—and thus ours as well—“is a hatred of the sinner precisely as a sinner or in other words it is a hatred of his sinful character.” E. F. Sutcliffe, “Hatred at
[50]
Cf., e.g., Isa 66:24; Mark 9:47-48; Rev 14:9-11.
[51]
Although the form of rFem;ya here is jussive rather than imperfect, the sense is evidently to be construed as imperfect, as suggested by the context and so rendered by a consensus of translations (likewise, cf. the LXX’s future e]pibre<cei).
[52]
Reading ymeHEPa, “coals of” (cf. Symmachus’ a@nqrakaj), in lieu of the MT’s MyHiPa, “snares.” The difficulty of the MT as it stands is exacerbated in that it portrays an unparalleled metaphor for judgment, and evidently arose due to an accidental transposition of the yod and mem in a consonantal text. Moreover, the adopted reading yields better line symmetry (5:4) than that of the MT (3:6), which reads instead (supported by the LXX): “He will rain on the wicked snares; fire and sulphur and a scorching wind will be the portion of their cup.”
[53]
John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1991), 66.
[55]
Humans are created in God’s image (and thus are to image Him, Gen 1:26-28); Christians are being renewed in that image (
[56]
In this regard it is instructive to place that “patently offensive outburst” of David, uttered in Ps 139:19, 21-22, in tandem with the description of God’s character and sentiment toward the wicked expressed in Ps 5:5-7. By doing so, it may be seen that David is seeking but to image God’s character and echo his sentiment.
5:5 Surely, you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
evil cannot dwell with you.
6 The boastful cannot stand before your eyes;
you hate all who practice iniquity.
7 You destroy those who tell lies;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men Yahweh abhors (5:5-7).
139:19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O Yahweh,
and loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies (139:19, 21-22).
[57]
Cf., e.g., John 4:4-42 and 8:2-11 with Matt 11:20-24 and 23:1-39 (the relation of woe to imprecation is discussed in Appendix A).
[59]
This creative tension of loving yet hating the hardened sinner is ably represented by Thrupp: “Imprecations of judgment on the wicked on the hypothesis of their continued impenitence are not inconsistent with simultaneous efforts to bring them to repentance; and Christian charity itself can do no more than labour for the sinner’s conversion. The law of holiness requires us to pray for the fires of divine retribution: the law of love to seek meanwhile to rescue the brand from the burning.” Joseph Francis Thrupp, An Introduction to the Study and Use of the Psalms, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Macmillan and Co., 1860), 202.
[60]
Surburg, “The Interpretation of the Imprecatory Psalms,” 100. Indeed, in God’s economy, “the wages of sin is death” for the sinner (Rom 6:23). And for all whose sins are not wiped out in the cross of Christ, they remain under the condemnation of God (John 3:18, 36).
[61]
In many ways, this “hating” is a relational term, realized as a distancing of oneself from the wicked: notice how David prefaces his remark of hatred with, “Away from me!” (Ps 139:19). Additionally, the godly Judean King Jehoshaphat was chided by Jehu the seer, following his return from the ill-fated war alliance with the wicked Israelite King Ahab, for “loving those who hate Yahweh” (2 Chr 19:2; i.e., allying himself with one so opposed to God, passively affirming his wickedness).
[62]
J. Carl Laney, “A Fresh Look at the Imprecatory Psalms,” BSac 138 (1981): 41-42. And upon this basis, “David had a perfect right . . . to pray that God would effect what He had promised.” Ibid., 42.
[63]
Ibid., 44. In like manner, he dismisses the cry for divine vengeance of the martyrs in heaven (Rev 6:10) as “not applicable to the church age.” Ibid.
[64]
Most notable of which are Gal 1:8-9 and Acts 8:20. These passages, among others, will be addressed in chapter five.
[65]
According to the argument of Paul in Gal 3, in which he plays off the ambiguity latent in the collective singular spe<rma/fraz, (Gal 3:16; Gen 12:7; 13:15; 22:18), Messiah Jesus is “the Seed” par excellence, of whom the covenant promise was made—as interpreted through the development of the promise in the Davidic and New Covenants. As Matt 1:1 presents him, he is the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. Both Solomon, the initial fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam 7:12-16), and Isaac, the initial fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen 21:12) are swallowed up in Christ. He is the “yes” of all God’s promises (2 Cor 1:20); thus, all who share in Christ share in the promises. Indeed, Donaldson argues that Paul’s fundamental concern in Gal 3:1—4:7 is “the inclusion of uncircumcised Gentile believers among the true ‘seed’ of Abraham.” T. L. Donaldson, “The ‘Curse of the Law’ and the Inclusion of the Gentiles: Galatians 3.13-14,” NTS 32 (1986): 94. This inclusion of all races and classes into the Abrahamic promise as his “seed” through Christ “the Seed” comes to a focus in Gal 3:26-29, the latter verse of which proclaims: “If you belong to Christ, then you belong to Abraham’s seed, (and are thus) heirs according to the promise.”
[66]
This blessing of the Covenant, which is the focus of Paul’s discussion, is articulated as the blessing of life, of sonship, of the Spirit (Gal 3:14, 26; 4:4-7); and the curse (taken from the Mosaic Covenant) is the curse of death and condemnation (Gal 3:10-13). This “blessing” is drawn specifically from Gen 12:3b, which promises that the Gentiles would be “blessed” through Abraham; and thus, the distilled argument of Paul is that the Gentiles through faith in Christ, the Seed of Abraham, fully partake in the Covenant made to Abraham. This covenant also promised: “I will bless those who bless you; and I will curse him who curses you.” Granted, the blessings of the Covenant explicitly mentioned by Paul, which the Gentiles inherit, are spiritual in nature. However, this is arguably not meant to categorically exclude the more “physical” elements of the Abrahamic Covenant. Rather, it is for the sake of emphasizing the fundamental issues of the promise in the progress of revelation—which issues are most germane to his argument in this epistle.
Indeed, although Paul’s address of the curse in this context is contrary to the sense in Gen 12:3a (for the sake of his emphasis and argument), his earlier example in this very epistle implies that he understood the element of divine cursing, as intended in the Abrahamic promise, to apply in some measure—in extreme instances—to Christian ethics. In Gal 1:8-9, an impassioned Paul called down the divine curse on the grievous enemies of the church. Also, Peter freely applied the imprecations of Pss 69 and 109 to the traitor Judas (Acts 1:15-20). And Jesus instructed his disciples on their first mission that, if they were welcomed into a home, they were to let their peace remain on it (i.e., God, through his disciples, would “bless those who blessed them”); but, if they were refused, they were to shake the dust off their feet as a sign of peace’s antithesis—the curse of coming judgment (i.e., God, through his disciples, would “curse those who cursed them”) (Matt 10:11-15).
The relevance of the Abrahamic curse in the daily life of the New Covenant believer is further intimated by the apostle Paul when he assured his protégé Timothy that a certain Alexander, who “cursed” God’s people by strongly opposing both Paul and the gospel message, would in turn be “cursed” by God with divine retribution (2 Tim 4:14-15). It is of interest to note that significant elements of early Christianity understood Paul’s statement to convey an imprecatory sense. Indeed, although undoubtedly a secondary reading, the Byzantine tradition (along with a portion of the Western) explicitly transmitted this imprecatory intent, as evidenced by the optative a]pod&<h (cf. KJV).
[67]
I.e., “the law of just recompense,” which legislated that the punishment was to fit the crime: “eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life” (Exod 21:23-25; Lev 24:17-20; Deut 19:18-21).
[68]
Bobby J. Gilbert, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 137” (Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1981), 81. Gilbert dismisses the lex talionis as a proper foundation upon which the New Testament believer could utter imprecations. Instead, he argues that “when Paul requests the judicial wrath of God upon those who do not love the Lord (1 Cor. 16:22) or upon those who preach a different gospel (Gal. 1:8, 9), he does so on the basis that it is God’s revealed will that sin be punished (Rom. 6:23) and that it is God’s will that evil men will one day be eternally condemned (Rev. 20:11-15).” Ibid., 82. However, it is difficult to see how this differs materially from the issue in the Old Covenant. Saints in both testaments appeal to the revealed will of God as the basis of their imprecations, and this revealed will of God in both testaments is essentially identical. One may listen, for example, to how the Song of Moses—particularly the refrain, “It is mine to avenge, I will repay” (Deut 32:35), lilts its way through the pages of Scripture: as the basis of many of the imprecations in the Psalms (e.g., “God of vengeance, shine forth!” Ps 94:1), as the foundation of New Testament ethics in Rom 12:19, and as the song of triumph at the close of the canon (Rev 15:3-4; 19:1-2; in response to Rev 6:9-11).
[71]
Indeed, this trans-testamental law in its cousin formulation, “the law of sowing and reaping,” is expressed in such diverse passages as Prov 26:27, Hos 8:7 and 10:12-13, and Gal 6:7-8; and Jesus’ own version of the divine law of retribution is stated in Matt 7:2: “With the measure you use it will be measured to you.” Notice also how the cry of Ps 137:7-9 finds its ultimate realization in Rev 18:5-6, 20-21. Further example of the operation of the lex talionis in the New Testament is seen in the apostle Paul’s confrontation with Elymas the magician in Acts 13:8-11. Indeed, although Allen insists that the “Christian faith teaches a new way, the pursuit of forgiveness and a call to love,” he perceptively asks: “Yet is there forgiveness for a Judas (cf. John 17:12) or for the Antichrist?” Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101–150. WBC, ed. David A. Hubbard and Glenn W. Barker, vol. 21 (Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983), 242. The issue of the lex talionis will be addressed in more detail in chapter four.
[72]
Meredith G. Kline, The Structure of Biblical Authority (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 160. His contention is based in large measure on the deduction that the Israelite theocracy was divinely instituted to typify the perfected
[73]
Ibid., 160.
[74]
Ibid., 161. For Kline, it is only the principle of intrusion that makes the destruction of physical enemies in the Old Covenant, and the cries for such in the Psalms, permissible. For in the consummation, “no longer will there be the possibility that the enemy of the saint is the elect of God.” Ibid., 162.
[75]
Harry Mennega, “The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms” (Th.M. thesis, Westminster Theological Seminary, 1959), 87. Likewise, Vos proffers the same assertion in proscribing Christians from offering petitions to God (like the psalmists’) for the physical death of particular persons, because the Christian “does not know which wicked persons, in the secret counsel of God, are reprobates and which are included in the election of grace.” Vos, “The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms,” 138. Thomas, in seeking to justify the prayer of the martyrs in Rev 6 (which he believes is guaranteed to be free of any selfish motive, since it is uttered in heaven), asserts that they are able to pray this way because they had been given some special revelation which identified the reprobate—a knowledge possessed only in divine perspective. Robert L. Thomas, “The Imprecatory Prayers of the Apocalypse,” BSac 126 (1969): 129-30. This, however, merely evades the issue.
[76]
Divine inspiration of the Psalter, which is explicitly affirmed, does not entail a special knowledge of the human author into God’s secret decree.
[77]
Jesus’ words: “Love your enemies,” along with Paul’s “bless and do not curse,” will be addressed later in chapter five. For Jesus’ address of the lex talionis in personal ethics (Matt 5:38-42), cf. chapter four, note 84.
[78]
Zuck, “The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms,” 64, 66.
[81]
Though this method is by no means foolproof (cf. the example of Saul–Paul), it is, nonetheless, the Christian’s sure and proverbial guide in daily living.
[82]
Cf. Calvin who, in commenting on 2 Tim 4:14, adjures Christians to pronounce sentence “only against reprobates, who, by their impiety, give evidence that such is their true character.” John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, first published 1556, trans. William Pringle (n.p., n.d.; reprint,