What About the “Mean” Psalms?

The most common question I’m asked about putting all 150 Psalms to music (besides what translation I use) is “How are you going to pull off Psalm 119?”

Honestly, I’m far more troubled by the prospect of making a song out of Psalm 109. Why Psalm 109? You’ll understand once you read verses 6-15:

6 Appoint a wicked man over him,
And let an accuser stand at his right hand.
7 When he is judged, let him come forth guilty,
And let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few;
Let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless
And his wife a widow.
10 Let his children wander about and beg;
And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.
11 Let the creditor seize all that he has,
And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him,
Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off;
In a following generation let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord,
And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the Lord continually,
That He may cut off their memory from the earth. (Psalm 109:6-15)

What to make of passages like this? Is this God-breathed Scripture (2 Timothy 3:15-16)? Should it be taken out of the Bible? Culturally updated to fit the New Testament?

Whatever your answer is to those questions, I’m guessing Psalm 109 isn’t high on your list of favorite Psalms.

Scholars call these the “imprecatory Psalms.” The word “imprecatory” derives from the Latin verb “precatus”, which literally means “to pray.” The prefix “im” adds the sense of “praying into.”

Over the years, however, “imprecate” has come to mean invoking curses upon someone else - or, in Biblical terms, praying for God’s just punishment to come upon someone.

Many Psalms contain imprecatory passages, and though they trouble many Christians, they are seldom discussed, let alone taught from the pulpit.

So what to make of passages like Psalm 109:6-15?

Here are some thoughts that will help put these passages into a proper perspective.

1.) The imprecatory Psalms are prayers for justice - something that everyone believes in.

The psalmists are not praying from petty or selfish motives. They pray for just things to happen to people who are doing horrific things.

There’s a very universal sense of justice here: God, don’t let them get away with what they’ve done. May they experience just punishment for their crimes. 

This concept of justice derives directly from God’s Law. If someone breaks the Law, it is fair, just, and even wise for them to be punished for that wrongdoing.

Though almost everyone would acknowledge that lawbreaking should be punished, some Christians are still troubled by the imprecatory Psalms because they seem inconsistent with Jesus’ teaching in The Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,’ but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn them the other cheek as well.” (Matthew 5:38-39).

This passage, Matthew 5:38-39, is often misunderstood as a call to pacifism. Looking at the context of these verses, and of the testimony of Scripture as a whole, it is obvious that Jesus is speaking against petty retaliation, about desire for personal vengeance.

Petty retaliation is not justice, but foolishness that brings no closure to the offense.

Jesus’ point is that the “eye for an eye” law was not to be used as justification for petty personal retaliation.

The “slap” to which Jesus refers in this passage is actually a cultural insult, not a violent attack. Jesus is rejecting a common abuse of God’s Law, not abolishing God’s Law, as He made clear a few verses earlier: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law.”

Let’s take the literal “no resistance” interpretation to its logical conclusion: Is Jesus really telling us not to defend a wife and children against violent attackers? To not rescue sex trafficking victims if force is necessary to do so? To not prosecute nor imprison a murderer, but continue to let him roam the streets? Is that what Jesus means by not “resisting” evil? What exactly would be “loving” or Biblical about that?

Was Jesus throwing away the concept of justice entirely? Of course not. To suggest so makes nonsense of Scripture, and of Jesus himself, a Jew who quoted the Old Testament and the Law as God-breathed Scripture.

It is fascinating how people will bemoan the wishing of any kind of harm upon anyone for any reason, yet quickly turn around and wish harm upon someone who does something they find particularly evil (we all have our things that make our blood boil, am I right?).

Talk to anyone who’s been wronged in a truly evil and devastating way. Their desire to see justice done to the offending party is overwhelming. When justice does come, it is cathartic and comforting, especially if it involves punishment. It also blesses the society by providing stability and respect for righteous laws.

Justice is perfectly natural to our moral sensibility. Nobody, when pressed, has a problem with justice. The question is, whose justice? Who defines justice? Man or God? For the Psalmists, it was Yahweh, the one true God, the “I AM” who appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai. The result can be quite shocking to our modern ears.

One more point that you may not have previously considered: the Psalmists were not in a situation where they could simply “call the police” or appeal to the courts if bloodthirsty murderers were hunting them down, raping women, and enslaving children without restraint.

He and the Psalmists had no other recourse (and no better recourse) but to call on God for supernatural aid in bringing these criminals to justice.

Thinking of the imprecatory Psalms in terms of praying for criminals to be brought to justice rather than prayers for petty revenge often helps many people see the imprecatory Psalms with proper context and perspective.

With this perspective, one can see that there is no contradiction between praying for our enemies’ good and praying for them to be brought to justice: for their good, for the safety of others, and for God’s glory.

2.) The Psalms express prayers.

One very important principle in Scriptural interpretation is that the occurrence of something does not necessarily mean it’s being condoned. When Solomon takes hundreds of concubines and Jephthah makes a rash vow, the author is not saying those things are great. They just are.

In all types of literature, stories and poems invite readers to draw conclusions about the actions presented. So when the Psalmist says something like, “Please cause so-and-so to die,” they’re not necessarily declaring they know the perfect mind of God regarding the situation – it’s just what they believe would be good and righteous, based on their Scripturally-informed sense of justice. They are laying bare their desire before God.

Did some of the psalmists go too far with their prayers against their enemies? I truly don’t think so, since they seem to be quite well-aligned with Biblical standards of justice. But even if they did go too far with this prayer or that, or if God did not answer it, such desires for justice would not compromise the integrity of the Scriptures. 

3.) There are instances of praying for the good of enemies in the Psalms. 

The Psalmists also pray for the conversion of their enemies in a Christlike way, even in the imprecatory Psalms!

In Psalm 109, the most imprecatory of the imprecatory Psalms, David says that his enemies accuse and hate him “in return for my love” (Psalm 109:4, 5).

In Psalm 35, another imprecatory Psalm, David says he prayed and fasted for his enemies when they were sick, grieving for them as he would his brother, his friend, and even his mother (Psalm 35:13-14)!

These instances would indicate that their prayers for their enemies run deeper than the desire to see them justly punished. After praying divine judgment upon his enemies for most of Psalm 83, the psalmist (here indicated as Asaph) writes, “Fill their faces with dishonor, that they may seek Your name” (Psalm 83:16).

Here is not simply punishment for the sake of justice, but punishment for the sake of beneficial correction. That’s an ethic far above most people’s fleshly desire for petty retaliation.

4.) The Psalmists didn’t take vengeance into their own hands, but placed vengeance in God’s hands.

This point cannot be overstated, since it is an ethic far above that of carnal men who scorn at the imprecatory Psalms.

We always see the Psalmists calling upon God for justice, and waiting on Him, since His justice alone is perfect. Never do we see them taking vengeance themselves in petty, personal ways just to “get even.” For the Psalmists, judgment is about God’s glory and the health of His kingdom, not about “getting back” at people who have injured them.

The fact that the psalmists are not taking matters into their own hands may not be readily apparent to our modern ears while reading the Psalms (it’s so hard for many of us to even conceive of such an ethic, considering our vindictive nature, self-centeredness, and inability to wait on the Lord), but it is certainly so.

This practice of leaving vengeance to the Lord is certainly consistent with the entirety of Scripture - even the New Testament (Deuteronomy 32:35, Romans 12:19).

So we see in fact that the “mean” Psalms were not really “mean” at all, any more than any desire for justice is “mean.” 

No, desiring biblical justice is a sign of maturity and right understanding of God’s holiness, something our modern culture sorely lacks.

Justice glorifies God, even if (and sometimes especially if) it involves just punishment for sin, as long as that judgment is carried out according to God’s perfect justice.

5.) Jesus and the apostles quoted the imprecatory Psalms as Scripture.

Jesus quoted extensively from the Psalms, even the imprecatory Psalms (see John 15:25 for one example, where Jesus quotes from Psalm 35), and declared that the Psalms were written by David “in the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 22:43) and that they were about Jesus Himself (Luke 24:44).

Even Psalm 109 is quoted in the New Testament! (see Acts 1:20).

So should we pray the imprecatory Psalms as Christians? Absolutely! We are to pray for God’s perfect justice (which may be administered by God’s hand through the state, natural events, circumstances, supernatural intervention, etc.), and not for our own personal vengeance deeply marred by our fallen humanity.

And ultimately, our prayers for our enemies, while leaving room for the justice of God (Romans 12:19), should point toward their conversion and their good. I believe that the prayers and attitude of the psalmists are perfectly in line with these words of Jesus, with which I’ll close: “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you… for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?… Do not even the Gentiles do that?…Therefore be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).

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