“O God, break the teeth in their mouths; tear out the fangs of the young lions, O LORD!” (Psalm 58:6)
I can’t tell you how many times I think, “Lord, all I’m asking for is five minutes in the flesh.”
The good news is that He never allows it. The bad news is I do it anyway. Such is the life of the saint undergoing sanctification.
Now, don’t you get all holier-than-thou with me, St. Kiddo. I know you’re human because plants and animals don’t read blogs. And since you’re human, Christian, you’re also prone to acting with, shall I say, less than spectacular piety. We all do.
We know Christians are supposed to strive to achieve the level of godliness exemplified by Jesus. We’ve even been given the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide our minds, shape our will, moderate our emotions, and control our bodies, especially our tongues. But that doesn’t mean we succeed in tempering our tempers.
Sometimes, our frustration and anger seep into our prayers. “Lord, please cause Ms. Gossip to lose her voice,” or “Lord, please do something health-wise that would cause Mr. Ungodly Politician to resign,” or “Lord, may You take the life of (insert the name of an undesirable world leader) right now!” Yes, such prayers make us feel good, but they really aren’t aligned with the character Jesus is trying to forge in us.
However, that doesn’t mean there’s no room in our theological lexicon for such prayers. These kinds of prayers are called imprecatory prayers, and, believe it or not, they’re part of the inspired word of God. Surprise!
What’s an imprecatory prayer? “To imprecate means ‘to invoke evil upon or curse’ one’s enemies” (gotquestions.org). Therefore, an imprecatory prayer is a prayer asking God to vent His anger on an enemy, preferably the pain in the tuchus we’ve been forced to endure. At face value, an imprecatory prayer is directed toward one’s human target. However, “These prayers were written not so much to exact revenge upon one’s enemies, but rather to emphasize God’s abhorrence of evil, His sovereignty over all mankind, and His divine protection of His chosen people” (gotquestions.org).
Okay, that doesn’t seem so bad until we read some of the doozies King David unleashed. In fact, ol’ King David was one of the best imprecatory pray-ers.
“Let death take them by surprise; let them go down to Sheol alive, because evil is in their homes and within them” (Psalm 55:15). In other words, “May my enemy go to hell—alive.”
After comparing his enemies to serpents, David prays, “God, knock the teeth out of their mouths; Lord, tear out the young lions’ fangs. May they vanish like water that flows by; may they aim their blunted arrows. Like a slug that moves along in slime, like a woman’s miscarried child, may they not see the sun” (Psalm 58:6-8). Whoa! Them’s some mighty, powerful words.
And, of course, there’s the lovely and gracious Psalm 109, “Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children wander as beggars, searching for food far from their demolished homes. Let a creditor seize all he has; let strangers plunder what he has worked for. Let no one show him kindness, and let no one be gracious to his fatherless children” (Psalm 109:9-12). Basically, “May the guy die and his children suffer grievously via homelessness and hunger because no one will have mercy on the offending dude’s offspring.”
Nice.
By the way, that last psalm reminds me of how the Jewish community has raised cursing to an art form over centuries. Please don’t think I’m picking on the Jews. I’m actually in awe and envious of their inventive invectives.
In Yiddishkeit (Jewishness and customs), there is “May he have a house with a thousand rooms, and may each room have a thousand beds, and may he go from bed to bed just trying to get a good night’s sleep!” And then there’s this banger, “May he lose every tooth in his mouth except one so he can have a toothache!” But this next one is my absolute favorite because of the visual.
“May his buttocks fall off!”
During one of my sermons some years ago, I used the above “curse” as an example of improper speech (in Hebrew, lashon hara). As soon as I finished this curse, one delightful woman in the congregation yelled out, “Someone, please curse me!” Needless to say, it took quite a while for the entire congregation, myself included, to compose ourselves. It’s become a sermon classic.
David composed eight imprecatory prayers as psalms (Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 109, 139). Asaph, presumably one of King David’s chief musicians (1 Chronicles 16:4-5), wrote two (Psalms 79, 137). There’s an anonymous one composed by an Israelite deportee of the Babylonian Exile (c. 606-537 B.C.). His psalm is a particularly disturbing imprecatory prayer. “Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who pays you back what you have done to us. Happy is he who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks” (Psalm 137:8).
Wow. That’s actually in our Bible, along with the rest of God’s inspired word. Does the Lord really endorse that kind of praying? Are we allowed to pray imprecations against our enemies?
Yes and no.
Jesus is clear. We’re not to hate our enemies but to love them. Why? Because when we were God’s enemies in our pre-salvation sinful state, God still loved us deeply, enough to give His best and perfect gift, His Son, so that we could become His beloved and cherished children once again (John 1:12-13, 3:16-17). Therefore, if we’re to follow Jesus’ example, we must love our enemies, too. That means imprecatory prayers against our human enemies are a no-go.
Spiritual enemies, on the other hand, are fair game. There’s nothing I’ve seen in scripture that says we need to love Satan or his minions. And now I’m laughing hysterically inside. Imagine praying to the Father and asking that the Demon Hoarde’s butts fall off. (Oh man, I’m dyin’ here!)
But seriously, imprecatory prayers against our spiritual enemies achieve the essence of a curse prayer. On the one hand, we’re asking God to destroy the demonic realm and its occupants. We know this is the Lord’s will because, in the end, He’s actually going to do it. Team Satan is going to be wiped out in the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10, 14-15). On the other hand, our anti-evil imprecatory prayer also “emphasize(s) God’s abhorrence of evil, His sovereignty over all mankind, and His divine protection of His chosen people.” Amen.
“But Pastor Jay, what brought up this whole imprecatory prayer thing as a topic?” I’m glad you asked. Recently, a friend shared his insight about a new way to use imprecations not against people but against organizations. I was intrigued. He suggested the following (paraphrased):
“Since Planned Parenthood exists to destroy human life by dismemberment, we should ask the Lord via an imprecatory prayer to treat Planned Parenthood the same way. How about, ‘Lord, as Planned Parenthood has dismembered and destroyed millions of babies, may You remember the organization’s wickedness and dismember and destroy the business. May the business be torn limb from limb (metaphorically speaking) until it is no longer viable (one of PP’s favorite words).”
Now, that’s how an imprecatory prayer can be used without directing it specifically against people. We must pray for the people who operate Planned Parenthood with all the love we have but against the business itself with the fury God has.
We can also pray against those organizations that are wicked and doing horrible things. “Lord, we pray that you direct the full force of your anger against all human trafficking networks to expose their operations just like they sought to expose men, women, and children to predators. As they preyed on their victims without mercy, may those involved turn and prey on one another without mercy. As they stripped their victims and handed them over to be abused and killed, may all of the human trafficking networks’ resources be stripped from them, and may You hand these operations over to authorities who will utterly destroy these operations.
Frankly, using imprecations in this way has added an entirely new dimension to my prayers.
There’s so much more to explore on this topic, but this will suffice. While I disagree with the author’s guidance about permission to pray against human enemies, the article 22 Reasons to Pray the Cursing (Imprecatory) Psalms by Benjamin Kandt of PrayPsalms.org is a good primer (https://praypsalms.org/22-reasons-to-pray-the-cursing-psalms-b4a85ae40aa9). Take time to check it out.
Yes, there are times I would love to see the Lord smite my enemies. But I’ll never be granted the five minutes in the flesh that I want. Not even thirty seconds.
But I’m still tempted to pray that someone’s butt will fall off.
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Sources:
What is imprecatory prayer?, gotquestions.org/imprecatory-prayer.html
22 Reasons to Pray the Cursing (Imprecatory) Psalms, Benjamin Kandt, praypsalms.org/22-reasons-to-pray-the-cursing-psalms-b4a85ae40aa9
Shining the Light of God’s Truth on the Road Ahead
Pastor Jay Christianson
The Truth Barista, Frothy Thoughts