Learning to Curse

If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. (I Cor. 16:22).

My mother taught me not to say naughty things about other people or to wish them harm. Preachers and Sunday School teachers insisted on the same thing. To my simple brain, the message of the Bible was crystal clear: love your enemies and do good to those who mistreat you (see Ex. 23:4-5; Matt. 5:43-48; Rom. 12:14-21; etc.). So, how are we to understand those prayers in the book of Psalms when God’s people ask him to rain down calamity and judgment on their enemies? The language is harsh, the rage is raw, and the desire for vengeance is palpable. 

• Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! (Ps. 10:15). 

• Humiliate and disgrace those trying to kill me… Make their path dark and slippery… (Ps. 35:4,6).

• May they be like snails that dissolve into slime…. (Ps. 58:8). 

• Pour out your fury on them… Erase their names from the Book of Life…. (Ps. 69:24,28).

• O Babylon… Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks! (Ps. 137:8-9).

• Let my enemies be destroyed…. Let burning coals fall down on their head… (Ps. 140:9-10).

Frankly, my mother would have told these people to wash their mouths out with soap!

Psalms that curse one’s enemy and call for judgment to fall upon them are called “Imprecatory Psalms” (see Psalms 5, 10, 35, 55, 58, 69, 79, 83, 109, 140, etc.). The verb “imprecate” means to call down judgment, to invoke calamity, to wish misfortune upon. We appreciate those psalms that express praise, thanksgiving, worship, confession, and lament. But how should we understand those psalms that pray curses upon one’s enemy? 

Many skip these passages and pretend they aren’t there. Others treat them as obsolete and sub-Christian. Still others claim that such prayers, even when they appear in the Bible, are petty, vindictive, and sinful, and should, therefore, be ignored. Such approaches are unhelpful and fail to take seriously the deeper issues involved. More significantly, they overlook the fact that examples of imprecatory language are found in the New Testament as well (see Ac. 1:20; I Cor. 16:22; Gal. 1:8-9; Rev. 6:10).  

When it comes to interpreting Scripture, long ago I learned a very important principle: it’s the parts of the Bible that I don’t understand that I most need to study! It’s precisely those passages that offend me and contradict my worldview that have the greatest capacity to reveal blind spots, expose spiritual deficiencies, and teach me what I don’t yet know! So, in recent days I’ve been asking the Holy Spirit to help me learn how to curse – God’s way! Who knows, perhaps one day my heart will be pure enough to pray the entire Psalter, including the imprecatory psalms!   

To find solid ground for better understanding the imprecatory prayers of Scripture, we must remember that these curses are nearly always:

• Spoken to God, not man. The psalmist is not having a temper tantrum or a fit of rage. He is praying! Regardless of how we evaluate his emotional state and harsh language, we must recognize to whom he is talking. Frankly, I can’t think of a better place to express such volatile and explosive emotions than to the Holy One. 

• Focused on nations, not individuals. An imprecatory prayer generally targets a tribe or community that has a long-term track record of defiant rebellion against God. When the psalmist calls these people his enemies, we realize they were God’s enemies first. The only way to properly pray this kind of prayer is when your enemies and God’s enemies are the same people!

• Based in what God has already promised to do, not some personal vendetta. The psalmist is not seeking revenge for some grievance he has experienced. No! He is pleading for God to do what he has always said he would do: establish justice, expose lies, punish the wicked, protect the innocent, and lift up the humble. 

You and I will make progress in our own prayer lives when we learn from these biblical examples of imprecatory praying to practice the following: 

1. Emotional honesty. These prayers are prayed by people who have witnessed horrific atrocities and experienced unspeakable violence. In the presence of God, they find freedom to pour out their unfiltered rage and trauma concerning what has happened. Although they are aware of God’s command to love one’s enemy, for the moment, they need a safe place to scream and to express their desire for retribution. It is worth noting that the absence of such emotional indignation that characterizes so much contemporary prayer may be a greater sin in the eyes of God than its presence!  

2. Self-examination. It is crucial to realize that when the psalmist prays that God’s judgment would fall upon sinners, he does not exclude himself from his prayer! Although he believes himself to be innocent and that his enemies are attacking him “without cause”, he knows how deceitful the human heart can be (see Ps. 35:7,19; 69:4; 109:3; etc.). For example, when David expresses hatred for his enemies and pleads for God to kill them, he immediately prays what is perhaps the most famous prayer of self-examination in history: “Search me, O God, and know my heart… Point out anything in me that offends you…” (Ps. 139:19-24).  

3. The glory of God. When the psalmist prays for the destruction of his enemies, he often adds, “for your Name’s sake” (see Ps. 69:7; 79:9; 109:21). In other words, praying against one’s enemy is not an effort to settle a score or to get even. It is a plea for God to punish wickedness, establish justice, and thus vindicate his glory in the earth.  

4. Whatever it takes. When the psalmist prays for disaster to fall upon his enemies, he is actually expressing love for them, tough love. He is saying, “Lord, do whatever it takes to bring these sinners to repentance.” “Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord” (Ps. 83:16; see Ps. 59:13).  

5. Daily prayer for Christ’s return: “Come, Lord Jesus!” Maranatha. When Jesus taught us The Lord’s Prayer, he was gently coaching us to learn how to pray imprecatory prayers! To earnestly pray “Thy kingdom come” means that we are longing for the day when Christ returns and establishes his kingdom on the earth, making right every wrong, exposing lies, punishing wickedness, and casting all unrepentant sinners into hell! Every time we pray The Lord’s Prayer, we are pleading with God to bring vengeance on his enemies.

Conclusion

C. S. Lewis tells us that the imprecatory psalms “serve as a reminder that there is in the world such a thing as wickedness and that it (if not its perpetrators) is hateful to God.” (Reflections on the Psalms, p. 33). Therefore, when we pray against our enemies, even when we do it poorly, we are, to some degree, reflecting the very image of God. 

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