A common response to the argument that the Church is commanded to sing the psalms is the question “what about the imprecatory1 psalms?” And typically, the questioner then points to Jesus’ command, found in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” (Matt 5:43-44). The implication, sometime explicitly stated, is that the imprecatory psalms are inappropriate for use by Christians. How should we answer this question?
First, there is something to be said about the question itself—it is a fairly natural question to ask. When presented with a new idea, we do tend to immediately jump to the extremes of application, to see what the full implications of it are. So the question is a good one from the point that it is seriously thinking through the implications of the argument that singing psalms is commanded. It is for this reason that the question needs a serious response. If we are to sing the psalms, what do we do with the psalms that seem to be inappropriate?
Considering the Assumptions
It will be helpful to note that a number of assumptions are being made by the questioner. In order to make these assumptions explicit, I will state the question in the form of an objection given as a syllogism.
- Unlike OT Israel, the Church is instructed to love our enemies (major premise),
- the imprecatory psalms are not loving towards our enemies (minor premise),
- therefore, the use of the imprecatory psalms is improper for the Christian (conclusion).
Now we can see that the major assumptions typically behind the question are that the ethics of the New Testament Church are different than those of Old Testament Israel and that the imprecatory psalms violate this different ethic, specifically, the command to love our enemies. And there is bound up in the major premise the additional assumption that exemplary imprecations are solely a feature of the Old Testament. I believe that every aspect of the syllogism needs to be challenged.
Rejecting the Major Premise
When we look at Jesus’ commands from the Sermon on the Mount, it is frequently take for granted that the “you have heard it said” portions of his commands are taken from the Old Testament. That is true for many of them2, but you will search in vain to find the Old Testament text that commands Israel (or anyone) to “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matt 5:43). Quite the contrary, the command to love your enemy, though not stated in these words, is part of the Old Covenant law code. Jesus said as much at the beginning of his sermon—”Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!” (Matt 5:17-18). What Jesus commands here is not other than the OT commands; he is correcting the improper interpretation and application of them.
Where do we see the command to love one’s enemies in the OT? Exodus 23:4-5 is one such place. While this passage does not state “love your enemy,” the actions it command are loving actions. Likewise, Prov 25:21 requires further loving actions towards an enemy while Prov 24:17 forbids rejoicing in calamity coming on an enemy. Job labels it a sin to rejoice over an enemy’s calamity and request his death by a curse without cause (Job 31:29-30, cf Job 5:3 & Ps 7:4). Even the biblical definition of love for other humans is founded on the heart of the OT ethic—when asked what the most important command in the law is, Jesus responded by summarizing the first four of the Ten Commandments. He then added that the second greatest command is love of neighbor which summarizes the other six commandments as well as the whole of the OT law (Matt 22:37-40, cf Gal 5:14). Most importantly, Jesus quotes the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” directly from the OT law (Lev 19:18).
And now we see that love of enemies was directly commanded in the OT. Jesus was asked who God intended when he commanded Israel to “love your neighbor as yourself (Lev 19:18). Jesus responded by telling a story of a man who was beaten and left for dead but who was graciously and abundantly cared for by his bitter enemy (Luke 10:25-37). Jesus concluded that this is exactly what the command to “love your neighbor” requires—love and care for our enemy (vv36-37). When Jesus said “but I say unto you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” he was only teaching what the Old Testament already required.
At this point, it becomes apparent that an understanding of the imprecatory psalms as allowed or righteous under the OT but no longer under the NT cannot be correct. But before pursuing that further, I want to also challenge the idea that imprecations are foreign to the NT ethic. An examination of the NT will show that Christ himself and his apostles Peter and Paul made use of imprecations. In both Matthew 23 & 26, Jesus pronounced severe judgment upon his enemies; most of chapter twenty-three of Matthew is filled with designations of woe upon the hypocritical leaders of Israel while in chapter twenty-six Christ declares woe upon Judas for his betrayal (cf Mark 41:21). Matthew eighteen contains similar language in verses two through nine. And Jesus’ curse against the fig tree is cast by Mark as a curse on unrepentant Israel (Mark 11:12-12:12).3 Peter pronounced an imprecation on Simon of Samaria – “May your silver perish with you…” (Acts 8:20).
The preceding instances are somewhat muted in their language in comparison to imprecations found in the Book of Psalms. But Paul twice delivered imprecations of the severest kind imaginable, calling for literal damnation against anyone who preached a different gospel (Gal 1:8-9) and against anyone who “does not love the Lord” (1 Cor 16:22). In both these cases, Paul’s imprecations are quite short compared to, for instance, the well-known imprecation of Psalm 137 but Paul’s request of spiritual damnation is far worse than the mere physical destruction asked for in the psalm. Other instances of imprecation of various severity in the NT include Acts 13:10-11, Gal 5:12, 2 Tim 4:14, and Rev 6:10.
Finally, the possible objection that, as each of the preceding NT instances come from either our Lord or his appointed apostles, they are not exemplary for the average Christian is answered by the command for Christians to pray imprecatory prayers. Christ instructed his followers to
Pray, then, in this way: …
‘Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.’ (Matt 6:9-10)
While this prayer does not directly imprecate against the wicked, it cannot be denied that to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom and for His will to be done on earth is to pray for the realization of judgment (final judgment even) against the wicked. Though not a direct command, a similar prayer is modeled for us in the closing verses of Revelation where John requests the return of Christ: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.” (Rev 22:20). Most (likely all?) Christians would agree that to pray for Christ’s return is not only allowed, but proper. And just as with praying for the realization of God’s kingdom, so praying for Christ’s return is to pray for most severe judgment to be realized against those who reject and hate Christ. While the imprecations of the NT are admittedly infrequent and shorter than some OT instances, the difference between them and those found in the Psalms is at most one of quantity, not quality. There is nothing inherently un-Christian in imprecations.4
Rejecting the Minor Premise
This point has already been essentially made. Since the command to love enemies is not unique to the NT but also was given to OT saints, unless we wish to argue that the imprecatory psalms were sinful even for the OT psalmists5, we have to conclude that they do not contradict the command to love our enemies.
How we explain this non-contradiction will ultimately be specific to each specific imprecation. Context is important. But broadly speaking, we can look beyond this specific question to the greater apologetic question: “how can a loving God condemn anyone to eternal damnation?” To express it differently, we have to realize that love is not inherently contrary to judgment, even judgment that goes beyond restoration to retribution. This does not require us to see the imprecatory psalms as loving in themselves; rather we can simply say that we can both love an enemy while also asking God to act in judgment. Both are possible at the same time.
Rejecting the Conclusion
This finally brings us to the implied conclusion usually behind the question we are considering. That question assumes that the imprecatory psalms are un-Christian expressions and thus asks if the use of them is likewise improper for Christians. At least on the grounds dealt with here, there is no reason to view the imprecatory psalms as un-Christian (again, ignoring the possibility that they are originally expressions of sinful desire) and therefore we have no grounds to reject the use of them.
I should point out that, technically, I have not actually answered the question we began with. Nothing in my previous argument (that singing the Psalms is commanded) nor in this post actually requires the use of the specific psalms in question. In that sense, I have not answered the question “should we sing the imprecatory psalms?” But I have addressed the most common objection to their use and shown that it is based on incorrect assumptions.
A Different Perspective
I want to conclude with a final point: the question of singing the imprecatory psalms, though necessary to grapple with, is out of proportion to the original assertion, namely, that the Church is commanded to sing Psalms. What I mean is that raising the issue of the imprecatory psalms tends to indicate an over-emphasis on a minor feature of the Psalter, as if imprecations are a pervasive feature of psalm singing. In reality, a church could introduce psalm singing and not have to grapple with the question of imprecatory material until several years later.
Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, and 140 are usually categorized as imprecatory and several other psalms contain short portions of imprecation.6 In total, 34 individual psalms are considered to be imprecatory or to contain sections of imprecatory material. But there are 150 psalms and (approximately) 52 Sundays in a year. If a church that has not made a practice of singing the psalms began to introduce one psalm every 4 Sundays (an ambitious but realistic goal7), that church could learn a new psalm for 9 years before it ever needed to use a psalm that contained imprecatory material, much less that was counted as one of the imprecatory psalms. As most churches would find a new song every month for 9 years to be a tiring pace, it would not be at all surprising for a church to take 20 years learning the 116 psalms which do not involve imprecation (this would equate to a sustained pace slightly lower than 1 new Psalm every 2 months or just under 6 per year). Some psalms would likely be broken into multiple songs due to length (especially Psalm 119), increasing the length of time even further. Thus, to worry about the imprecatory psalms before even beginning to sing any psalms seems somewhat premature.
What might happen in your church over the course of 20 years if you did make a habit of singing psalms? What might be the effect on your practical (and perhaps even formal) theology? Singing has a formative power that reading, preaching, and other forms of exhortation only rarely rival. As your congregation is regularly exposed through singing to the theology, the genre, and the form of the biblical songs, it would not be surprising if you came to a better understanding of how to even approach the psalms, including those that contain imprecation. You and your congregation’s appreciation of the nuances of the psalm genre would be sharpened as would your understanding of how best to interpret the Psalter. You may find that the question of the imprecatory psalms solves itself as you gain exposure to God’s inspired songs. But even if not, even if you never come to believe that singing these imprecations is proper, remember that there are 116 psalms which are free of imprecation and sing those psalms. Lift your voice(s) in obedience to Christ’s command and sing the psalms.
Footnotes
- Imprecatory psalms are those psalms “where the Psalmist requests that God bring judgment upon his adversaries” (https://carm.org/about-the-bible/what-are-the-imprecatory-psalms/). In other words, an imprecation is invoking a curse on someone or some group through appeal to God’s justice. ↩︎
- The simple fact that a quotation comes from the Old Testament does not mean Christ is contradicting, correcting, or changing the Old Testament. In those instances, he is giving the proper understanding of those OT commands, as against the incorrect teaching of the religious leaders. ↩︎
- See John N Day, “The Imprecatory Psalms and Christian Ethics,” Bibliotheca Sacra 159 (2002): 183–184. for a defense of this reading. ↩︎
- It must be remembered that imprecations are requests for God to bring judgment; they do not involve personal action against others. Further, while nothing is inherently un-Christian in imprecations, it is equally true that imprecations can be invoked in an un-Christian manner. ↩︎
- I do not believe the imprecatory psalms were sinful for David and others psalmists to express, but I also do not intend to argue that point here; for this post I simply assume it. ↩︎
- One verse in each of Psalm 6, 7, 28, 41, 54, 56, 71, 97, 104, 119, 141, and 143 and two in each of 9, 31, 40, 55, 63, 68 are considered imprecatory. Psalm 139 contains three imprecatory verses while Psalm 94 contains four such verses. Thus, twenty psalms contain imprecatory material without generally being considered wholly imprecatory. ↩︎
- I say this from my own experience introducing new songs (including psalms) at my former church. For 2-3 years, we introduced a new song each month. Towards the end of that time, we began to slow down, skipping a month here or there, because it did begin to feel exhausting. ↩︎