If you’re anything like me you have wondered about how we are to interpret Psalms that call for curses and disaster upon the wicked and upon the Psalmist’s enemies.

This last week Justin Taylor at Between Two Worlds posted several resources to help us think through these types of Psalms. Some of the resources he links to are quite lengthy but there may be some helpful stuff in there (the links are at the bottom under the quotes).

Here are some highlights-

“We should pray that our enemies be converted and become our friends and, if not, that their doing and designing be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather than the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ.”

Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, vol. 21: The Sermon on the Mount and the Magnificat, ed. J. Pelikan, A. T. W. Steinhaeuser (St. Louis: Concordia, 1956), p. 1100.

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.

John L. McKenzie, “The Imprecations of the Psalter.” American Ecclesiastical Review 111 (1944): 91. Cited in John N. Day, Crying for Justice: What the Psalms Teach Us About Mercy and Vengeance in an Age of Terrorism.

Love the Sinner/Hate the Sin- Love the Sinner/Hate the Sinner

Explaining the Imprecatory Psalms to a Child

Luther on Imprecation

Imprecatory Psalms and Christian Ethics

Crying for Justice

This entry was posted by Tim Pickard on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 4:56 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.