INTRODUCTION
While all of Scripture is beneficial and applicable in
some manner, there is no other book like the book of Psalms. The Psalter contains a rich tapestry of
history, full of descriptive poetry and every human emotion. And while most sermons from the Psalter tend
to focus on joy and thanksgiving, there is a wealth of psalms that use the
language of lamentation to speak to the sorrow and suffering of our
hearts. And within these laments, we
find the imprecatory psalms. These oft
overlooked and neglected psalms cry out for justice and divine vengeance, often
using harsh and brutal imagery, and Psalm 69 is no different. Jesus told his disciples that those that
follow him would share in his sufferings, so it is only natural that we should
take this psalm of suffering and ask if the prayers of imprecation still apply
to believers today.
PSALM 69
(1) To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. Of
David. Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. (2) I
sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters,
and the flood sweeps over me. (3) I am weary with my crying out; my throat is
parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God. (4)
More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without
cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. What
I did not steal must I now restore?
(5) O God, you know my folly; the
wrongs I have done are not hidden from you.
(6) Let not those who hope in you
be put to shame through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; let not those who seek you be
brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel. (7)
For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has
covered my face. (8) I have become a stranger to my brothers, an
alien to my mother's sons. (9) For zeal for your house has consumed me, and
the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. (10)
When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my
reproach. (11) When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a
byword to them. (12) I am the talk of those who sit in the gate,
and the drunkards make songs about me.
(13) But as for me, my prayer is
to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your
steadfast love answer me in your saving faithfulness. (14)
Deliver me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies
and from the deep waters. (15) Let not the flood sweep over me, or the deep
swallow me up, or the pit close its mouth over me. (16)
Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your
abundant mercy, turn to me. (17) Hide not your face from your servant; for I am
in distress; make haste to answer me.
(18) Draw near to my soul, redeem
me; ransom me because of my enemies!
(19) You know my reproach, and my
shame and my dishonor; my foes are all known to you. (20) Reproaches
have broken my heart, so that I am in despair. I looked for pity, but there was
none, and for comforters, but I found none.
(21) They gave me poison for
food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. (22)
Let their own table before them become a snare; and when they are at
peace, let it become a trap. (23) Let their eyes be darkened, so that they
cannot see, and make their loins tremble continually. (24)
Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your burning anger overtake
them. (25) May their camp be a desolation; let no one
dwell in their tents. (26) For they persecute him whom you have struck
down, and they recount the pain of those you have wounded. (27)
Add to them punishment upon punishment; may they have no acquittal from
you. (28) Let them be blotted out of the book of the
living; let them not be enrolled among the righteous. (29)
But I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on
high! (30) I will praise the name of God with a song; I
will magnify him with thanksgiving.
(31) This will please the LORD
more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs.
(32) When the humble see it they
will be glad; you who seek God, let your hearts revive. (33)
For the LORD hears the needy and does not despise his own people who are
prisoners. (34) Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and
everything that moves in them. (35) For God will save Zion and build up the
cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; (36)
the offspring of his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his
name shall dwell in it.[1]
As previously mentioned, Psalm 69 is
labeled an imprecatory psalm, under the broader genre of Psalms of Lament. Understanding the genre of lament is
necessary to understanding and applying Psalm 69 not only within its own
context, but within a context for today, as well.[2] In his book Interpreting the Psalms, Mark D. Futato writes, “The journey of
life takes us over some difficult terrain.
Adversity replaces prosperity.
Turmoil swallows up tranquility.
Chaos obliterates order. Doubt
replaces faith. God has given us the
laments for times such as these.”[3] The laments – just like the rest of the
Psalter – are blunt, open, and honest about what the Psalmist is facing; as
readers today, we see that God’s people are allowed to bring the entirety of
their emotions and thoughts before the throne of an all-sovereign Lord.[4] In a culture that emphasizes (and abuses)
political-correctness, Scripture is blatantly non-politically-correct, and
allows believers to not only express joy and gratitude, but also to dump pain,
sorrow, and a desire for just vengeance out of the heart and into the eyes of
God. In fact, the imprecatory psalms not
only cry out for God’s deliverance, but also find solace in nothing else but
the sovereignty of God. Erich Zenger
writes, “the psalms of enmity are the most concentrated form of prayer: They
reach out to God when everything seems to speak against God. Where everything
speaks against God, those who pray them
attribute everything to God.”[5]
The laments and imprecations of
Psalm 69 are listed in the title as לְדָוִֽד , commonly understood as “of David,” and uses imprecation
against an enemy specific to David, as opposed to an enemy of the entire
nation.[6] The title actually begins with לַמְנַצֵּ֬חַ עַֽל־שׁוֹשַׁנִּ֬ים, which is generally translated in some variation of “To the
Choirmaster: According to the Lilies;” however, the LXX vocalized שׁוֹשַׁנִּ֬ים differently. This
vocalization changes the meaning of the word from “lilies” to “those who
change.”[7] From here, David begins by crying out of his
distress: he is sinking in deep mire[8]
and water (בִּיוֵ֣ן and בְמַעֲמַקֵּי־מַ֗֜יִם ,
respectively). In verse 4, David begins
to describe what is causing him to become overwhelmed and sinking; he is under
attack from people who hate him without cause, who would destroy him, and
attack him with lies.[9] The ESV has David asking if he must restore
what he did not steal, but Kidner points out that אָשִֽׁיב “has no interrogatory prefix and makes good
sense as it stands, showing the pressure that David’s enemies can put upon
him.”[10]
David asks that believers of God
would be put to shame because of him, and voices his zeal for God and his
house. David repeats the sinking theme
in verses 14 and 15, reminding the reader (and the original hearers) that his
situation is still that of distress, but begins to appeal to God’s
character. In the midst of his distress,
David remembers God’s steadfast love (חַסְדֶּ֑ךָ ) and abundant mercy (רַ֜חֲמֶ֗יךָ ). Even while he is
suffering, he knows that God is good to his people, in the time that it pleases
God to do so (v 13,עֵ֤ת רָצ֗וֹן ). After this is where David pleads for God to
intervene against his enemies.
Kidner writes,
The
judgment that David calls down on these persecutors (for such as they are, 26;
cf. Zech. 1:15) enumerates, by contrast, the things that normally make life
worth living: at one level, food and fellowship; one’s faculties and strength (eyes…loins); a place to belong to; and
more fundamentally, the goodwill of God (cf. 24), his clearance from guilt
(27), and to be known and accepted by him (28; cf. Exod. 32:32f).[11]
David prays that his enemies would
receive the punishment they deserve: in their time of peace, they would become
ensnared (22); that they would be blinded and their very core would tremble
(23); God’s anger would burn out over them (24); their camp would be desolate
(25)[12];
and their punishments would increase without divine acquittal (27). Perhaps the most shocking is David’s plea
that they would be written out of the book of the living, and not enrolled
among the righteous (28). It would
appear that David is asking that not only would his enemies be punished, but
that his enemies would have no hope for righteousness, thus eternally separated
from God. After David lays these
imprecatory petitions before God, he closes the psalm with a strong emphasis on
praise and thanksgiving, not just from himself, but proclaiming that all of
creation would worship the Lord.
THE CONTEXT
OF CURSING
While the severity of David’s
imprecations sound extremely harsh and abrasive (especially in our
politically-correct culture), we forget that our culture differs greatly from
the culture this psalm was originally composed in. While there is a continuous thread throughout
all of Scripture of the blessing/curse aspect of God’s people, there was also a
surrounding understanding of cursing within the ANE. In the culture of the ANE, blessing and cursing
was a part of everyday life, with curses related to domestic and international
issues, as well as personal and covenantal issues.[13] Day writes, “The mere presence of the kinds
of curses and calls for divine vengeance found in the Psalms would not have aroused
the moral indignation of an ancient Israelite.”[14] Curses were part of the cultural
understanding, with distinctions between what was to be considered legitimate
curses and illegitimate curses.[15] It is the legitimate use of cursing that the
imprecatory psalms (and thus, Psalm 69) appeal to.
Old Testament Cursing
In Genesis 12:3, emphasis is commonly placed on the
blessing that God gives to Abram, but God places a flip side to the
blessing. Not only will those who bless
Abram be blessed themselves, but those who curse him will be cursed by God (אָאֹ֑ר ). God establishes a
protection for his people, and declares that he will personally bless or curse
those who bless or curse his people.
This was an understanding that did not just last for Abraham, but was
promised to all who are children of Abraham.
All those who belong to God share in this aspect of blessing and
cursing.
In Deuteronomy 27:11-26, the Levites declare a series of
curses upon anyone who should break the laws being given, however, this time,
the nation of Israel replies to each curse with אָמֵֽן ,
literally translated to truly/surely, but often understood as amen. The people were agreeing that if any of these
laws should be broken, the proper punishment would be the application of a
curse. And in Deuteronomy 32:35, the
Lord declares לִ֤י נָקָם֙
וְשִׁלֵּ֔ם , literally translated as “to me is vengeance and
recompense.” The Lord is declaring that
to him alone is the ability to justly dole out vengeance. This promise is part of the covenant that God
established with his people, beginning in the Old Testament, and carrying into
the New.
New Testament Cursing
In Galatians 3:29, Paul writes that
those belonging to Christ are Abraham’s offspring, and heirs according to the
promise, part of which includes the blessing/cursing promise of Genesis
12:3. Reed Lessing writes, “As heirs of
Abraham through Christ we are heirs of Yahweh’s promises of blessing and cursing. It should not surprise us, therefore, that
the theology of imprecation appears in many places in the New Testament.”[16] A quick glance of the New Testament shows
that the NT authors believed they, too, could utter imprecations: Acts 8:20; 1
Corinthians 16:22; Galatians 5:12; 2 Timothy 4:14; Revelation 6:9-11; 14:19-20;
18:4-8, 20; 19:1-3, 15. But perhaps one
of the more famous imprecations comes from Paul in Galatians 1:8-9: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to
you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again:
If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let
him be accursed.” The Greek ἀνάθεμα is translated as
“accursed,” which Lessing points out that ἀνάθεμα “is lexically and theologically equivalent to the Hebrew
word חרם which appears in Israel’s holy war
texts and means utter annihilation.”[17] While there are the commands to love thy
neighbor and love thy enemy, it is interesting that nowhere in the Old or New
Testament is there any sense of disapproval from God over the use of these
imprecations.[18]
CAN WE CURSE TODAY?
The real question that applies to today’s believer is: are we
allowed to pray the types of prayers found in Psalm 69? Well, it appears that answer will vary,
depending on who you ask. C.S. Lewis
wrote that psalms such as Psalm 69 were “in the spirit of hatred,”
“terrible,” “contemptible,” and
“devilish,” and that the reader would be well advised to “leave them alone;”
however, if a person were to attempt an understanding of such psalms, they
should be considered as allegory.[19] Dispensationalists would argue that such
imprecations as contained in Psalm 69 were under the dispensation of the law,
and not under the dispensation of grace, which is what applies to believers
today;[20] however, this view not
only operates under a false understanding of God’s covenants, but it makes
Scripture contradict Scripture[21], and it makes the “chief
end of man…the welfare of man.”[22] While avoiding the problems of
dispensationalism, Kidner says that Christ’s atoning work makes these prayers unfit
for today’s believer, arguing, “Between our day and theirs, our calling and
theirs, stands the cross. We are
ministers of reconciliation, and this is a day of good tidings.”[23]
However, in our current age, there are still enemies and
troubles. There is abuse, human
trafficking, persecution, and terrorism.
The imprecatory psalms as a whole give voice to our sorrow and cry out
for God to deliver justice. These psalms
can be therapeutic, guiding the believer to trust that God’s covenant love for
his people will bring healing and justice.[24] Lessing writes, “Pastors who minister to
those facing sustained injustice, hardened enmity and gross oppression must
teach the baptized to pray imprecatory psalms.”[25] He states that this will help the oppressed
believer not only retain their humanity, but approach their strife in a
nonviolent manner.
James Adams ties the importance of praying the imprecatory psalms
directly to Christ, writing, “Seeing the Psalms as prayers of the Lord Jesus
Christ will deepen your understanding of His heart, His sufferings, and His
victory on your behalf.”[26] These psalms are important to God’s people
because they are important to Christ. As
Christ taught his disciples to pray, he taught them to know that God’s will
shall be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Part of God’s will being done on earth means that he shall overthrow the
kingdom of Satan and all those who are against the Lord.[27] Since Christ taught his disciples to pray for
the coming of God’s kingdom and will, a natural extension of that prayer is
that those who defy God, those whom oppress the people of God, shall have
prayers of divine justice prayed against their oppression. It is very important to note that these
prayers are not uttered in the spirit of revenge; quite the contrary, these
prayers are submitting the pain and sorrow of the afflicted into the sovereign
hands of God.
Adams writes,
To pray the imprecations of the Psalms is to surrender all rights
for vengeance to God. It means being
prepared to suffer and to endure without personal revenge or hatred as Christ
did. It involves being gentle and loving
even when I am reviled and persecuted.
It encompasses acknowledging in all my ways that God’s cause is more
important than I am.[28]
To pray the prayers of the imprecatory psalms is not to pray for
revenge, but for God to reign over all, in his own time, in his own way. It is the hope that not only will the Lord
deliver justice to the oppressed, but that his divine judgment would lead his
enemies to repentance. While David prays
in Psalm 69 that his enemies would be blotted out from the book of the living,
it is always the hope of the believer that those who are against God would see
impending judgment as a call to repent and submit. Adams adds as a reminder that the main
purpose of the imprecatory psalms is not for deliverance, healing, or even
justice. While those are all aspects
that may apply, the main purpose of the imprecatory psalm prayer is that God
would be glorified.[29] As David, even while in the midst of his
suffering, closed Psalm 69 by writing, “Let
heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build up the
cities of Judah, and people shall dwell there and possess it; the offspring of
his servants shall inherit it, and those who love his name shall dwell in it”
(Psalm 69:34-36).
PSALM 69 IN A MODERN
SERVICE
There is a remaining, practical question, if one is to accept that
Psalm 69 (et al.) is applicable to believers and congregations today: What
would it look like for the average local church to embrace the use of this
psalm? It would be a considerable change
of pace for just about any church. While
churches are quick to embrace the mercy and grace of God, the need for
repentance, and the promises to his people, sermons based on the divine justice
of God are uncommon, at best, especially considering the brutal honesty of the
imprecatory psalms. There are obviously
going to be cultural barriers to overcome if a pastor is to present his
congregation with an imprecatory psalm, and depending on the congregation,
those barriers could range from regional culture, political-correctness,
maturity of the congregation, to theological understanding. Obviously, each congregation is different,
but if all Scripture is God-breathed and fit for teaching to equip the saints,
then pastors need to include a wide breadth of Scripture; difficult passages as
well as the more comfortable passages.[30]
Welcome and
Announcements
Call to Worship Genesis
12:1-3
Songs of Worship Psalm 130
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
O God, Our Help in Ages Past
Prayer
Offering
Song of Worship Jesus,
I My Cross Have Taken
Dismiss Children
Sermon Submission in Suffering
Psalm 69
Psalm 69
Song of Response
You Never Let Go
Benediction
Homiletical Outline
Proposition:
Because God has established himself as a just king, we must submit to his
sovereign rule.
What
does Psalm 69 teach us about our own suffering?
What does it mean to submit to his sovereign rule?
What does it mean to submit to his sovereign rule?
1)
We
submit to his sovereign rule by being honest (69:1-18)
a)
Honest
with our sorrow (69:1-5)
b)
Honest
with our concern (69:6-13)
c)
Honest
with our need (69:14-18)
2)
We
submit to his sovereign rule by trusting (69:19-29)
a)
Trust
that God understands (69:19-21)
b)
Trust
that God is just (69:22-28)
c)
Trust
that God brings salvation (69:29)
3)
We
submit to his sovereign rule by worshipping (69:30-36)
How does being honest and trusting affect our worship?
How does being honest and trusting affect our worship?
a)
Worship
with all we have (69:30-33)
b)
Worship
with all creation (69:34-36)
CONCLUSION
The Psalms teach us not only about God, but about our own
hearts. When faced with the brutal
honesty and desperate cry for justice in Psalm 69, we see a glimpse of David’s
struggles and sorrow. David admitted his
weakness and his need for deliverance; he poured out his heart before a
sovereign Lord. While feeling
overwhelmed from the unwarranted hatred of his enemies, David trusted his
heart, his life, and his need for vengeance to God. David knew of the covenant promises made to
Abraham and his descendants; promises to bless those who blessed them, and
promises to curse those who cursed them.
It was because of God’s covenant faithfulness that David could surrender
his need for revenge, and trust in divine justice. And so today, for those who are in Christ, we
pray for God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done, and in doing so, we
trust in the same covenant faithfulness.
Just as God watched over Abraham, David, and the nation of Israel, he
will watch over his people today, and we can trust that his justice will come.
[1]
Unless otherwise noted, English translations in this paper come from The ESV
Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).
[2]
Mark D. Futato, Interpreting the Psalms:
And Exegetical Handbook (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2007) 142-145. Futato gives examples of categories (i.e.,
genres) and how they guide our expectations, using “Once upon a time” to
illustrate his point. He then lists five
examples of how understanding categories can provide context for interpreting a
passage: literary context; historical context; ANE context; theological
context; and category context.
[3]
Ibid., 158.
[4]
Ibid., 153.
[5]
Erich Zenger, A God of Vengeance?
Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath (tr. Linda M. Maloney; Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 1994) 88.
Emphasis his.
[6]
John N. Day, Crying For Justice: What the
Psalms Teach Us About Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism (Grand
Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2005) 17.
Day separates the imprecatory psalms into three distinct groups:
Imprecation Against Societal Enemy; Imprecation Against Nation or Community;
and Imprecation Against Personal Enemy.
[7]
Derek Kidner, “Psalms 1-72” in Tyndale
Old Testament Commentaries: Vol 15 (ed. Donald J. Wiseman; Downers Grove:
Inter-Varsity Press, 2008) 57. Kidner
also says that L. Delekat suggests the interpretation to be understood as
“those whose situation changes for the worse,” and that by doing so, Delekat
relates the title to the subject matter.
[8]
F. Delitzsch, “Psalms” in Commentary on
the Old Testament in Ten Volumes: Vol V (tr. James Martin; Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1975) 275. Delitzsch states
that David’s description of sinking into deep mire (יָוֵן) makes Psalm 69 a
“twin-Psalm” to Psalm 40, along with other comparisons between the two psalms.
[9]
Psalm 69, considered as one of the passion Psalms, is used in reference to
Christ and the details of his suffering.
Delitzsch points out that other than Psalm 22, “there is no Psalm
referred to in so many ways as Ps. lxix.” (Ibid., 277) He lists how various verses in Psalm 69 find
their fulfillment in the New Testament, although his verse numbering appears to
use the LXX numbering, as opposed to the numbering of today’s English
translations.
[10]
Kidner, “Psalms,” 264.
[11]
Ibid., 267.
[12]
This verse is applied to Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:20.
[13]
Day, Crying, 36.
[14]
Ibid.
[15]
Ibid., 37. Illegitimate curses were
against an innocent party, or as a personal act of revenge, often using magic,
to paraphrase Day.
[16]
Reed Lessing, “Broken Teeth,
Bloody Baths, and Baby Bashing: Is There Any Place in the Church for
Imprecatory Psalms?” CJ 32 (2006):
369. Emphasis his.
[17]
Ibid.
[18]
Day, Crying, 13.
[19]
C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
(San Diego: Harvest, 1986) 20-25.
[20]
Johannes G. Vos, “The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms” WTJ 04:2 (1942) 124.
[21]
Ibid., 125.
[22]
Ibid., 131. Vos points out that this
problem is at the root “of most, if not all, of the objections to the
Imprecatory Psalms,” and says that this presupposition is a humanist ideal that
places an ideal over God himself.
[23]
Kidner, “Psalms,” 46.
[24]
Dominick D. Hankle, “The Therapeutic Implications of the Imprecatory Psalms in
the Christian Counseling Setting” JPT
38:4 (2010) 275-280.
[25]
Lessing, “Broken Teeth,” 369.
[26]
James E. Adams, War Psalms of the Prince
of Peace: Lessons from the Imprecatory Psalms (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian
and Reformed Publishing Company, 1991) 51.
[27]
Ibid., 52.
[28]
Ibid., 56.
[29]
Ibid., 62.
[30]
Perhaps an effective way to introduce an imprecatory psalm in a worship service
would be to have a sermon series based in the Psalms, where the concept of
Psalm genre and context could be established before-hand.
[31]
This can and will vary greatly from church to church. For the sake of this paper, I am using the
Order of Worship from my own church in Irmo, SC.
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