What do we do with imprecatory psalms like Psalm 58? Usually I just excerpt the happier parts, like “surely there is a reward for the righteous”; but it is clear that the meat of this psalm is a prayer for the destruction of certain people. That’s weird. We don’t like a God of wrath and vengeance. That is an arcane concept responsible for eons of atrocities in the name of religion. God is a god of love and acceptance, right? Surely he shouldn’t answer a prayer like the one David prayed in Psalm 58. Furthermore, how can David actually write a song asking for destruction and declaring that God’s people will “rejoice when they see vengeance” and “bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked”?
Here is my claim: these passages should be embraced, not avoided as embarrassing (“Oops, someone forgot to edit that out”). In fact, I suggest imprecatory prayers like this can be prayed in an attitude of faith in God’s future goodness – which is a very good thing.
Why it is good for God to judge
Vengeance is noble and virtuous when it is the exercise of justice. If you have seen Taken, you know the kind of justified wrath I’m talking about. “I don’t know who you are but if you don’t let my daughter go, I will find you. I will kill you.” Ruthless words, but invigorating! The heart says, “Yes! Go gettum, Liam!” There are some sins for which all-hell-breaks-loose war is the only response for any man of courage.
This justice must come from an agent with legal jurisdiction (possessing both the power and responsibility to administer justice in a given situation). For example, it is wrong of me to punish my brother by hitting him for stealing my toy. My “deed of justice” will just spawn a fight of reciprocal acts of “justice” that end up leaving bruises. However, if my father spanks my brother for stealing my toy, justice has been done, because he has jurisdiction over his sons, to preserve their rights.
God has universal jurisdiction over mankind. He is the creator, and he set all the rules by which the world operates, from gravity to morality. God is presented in the Bible as a judge who has the power, the authority, and the responsibility to pay back evil. If you balk at this statement, consider that many sins by powerful people against subjugated people (rape and genocide, for instance) will not be, in any discernible sense, recompensed on earth. When our hearts go out to the victims, we feel that they ought be recompensed — there are unresolved accounts. God feels this infinitely more. And, he has what we do not have when we feel the need for recompense: the power and authority to be the agent of remedy. In fact he is the sole agent who can avenge many of his offended children. So how can he not? Therefore, since God’s wrath is a manifestation of justice, and since he has entire jurisdiction to administer justice, then we welcome his destruction of wickedness and wicked men.
Why it is good for us to ask God to judge
Many people say that, even if it is not wrong for God to judge or exercise the enforcement of judgment, it is wrong for a human to ask for him to. “Let God be the judge.” However, it is possible to have a prayer for wrath that is justified and that demonstrates genuine faith in God. Such a prayer would be virtuous.
First, there are such things as real injuries and violations of right. There is a victim who is simply desperate, whose rights have been desecrated, and whose appeal must be heard by heaven. Who can command silence to the woman whose child has been murdered in cold blood before her eyes, when she is crying out the the sky for justice with many tears, since she has no way to avenge what has been taken from her? To command her silence, we must (at least tacitly) declare that the murderers have done no wrong. We must admit, “There is no inequity. There is no sense in which this woman has had some real right or property taken from her by those men without her consent.” Dare we? Therefore, there are some cases where the cry for wrath is commensurate with real evil.
Prayers for wrath against real evil can show real faith in God and a rejection of hatred. Here’s how. When I have been wronged, I bear the burden of the need for restitution. If I have the ability to act on this burden, I will do acts of revenge, resulting in cycles of further pain; if I do not have the ability, I will harbor insipid hatred in my heart indefinitely, which is also wrong. The only way out of this is to release the burden of the need for restitution. If I cry out to God, I am saying in essence, “God, this inequity is consuming me, I cannot bear it! I release the justice that must be done in this area to you and trust that you will make it right.” By trusting in the future justice of God, I can leave behind the bonds of the responsibility for vengeance. Praying for vengeance puts vengeance in the hands of a merciful and just God (where it belongs) and keeps it out of the heart, where it would slowly poison.
Therefore, imprecatory prayers can be loving. Loving toward victims because they defend justice. Loving toward perpetrators because they refuse to harbor hatred or do vengeance. Loving toward God because they place hope in him as judge, and thus make him look glorious. Praying for wrath is dumping hatred in the right place, venting to the right ear. By trusting in the power and justice of the God who judges righteously, cries for justice and punishment can be the gateway to forgiveness and freedom.
Ben Taylor 