I got a bit of the usual hateful "Well, then, you aren't a Christian." rhetoric that floats around this forum because I told someone I did not love them. I got to thinking about that, and ran across this:
The imprecatory parts of psalms are virtually always found in laments. Psalm 3, described in detail above, contains in verse 7 an imprecation that, like most others found in the Psalms, is brief and therefore not likely to be highly offensive. But some imprecations are rather lengthy and harsh (see parts of Ps. 12, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 83, 109, 137, 140). Consider, for example, Psalm 137:7–9:
7Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us —
9he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalm 137 is a lament for the suffering endured by the Israelites in the Exile; their capital, Jerusalem, had been destroyed, and their land had been taken from them by the Babylonians, aided and encouraged by the Edomites (cf. the book of Obadiah). Heeding God’s Word, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deut. 32:35; cf. Romans 12:19) the composer of this lament calls for judgment according to the covenant curses (see chap. 10). Included in these curses is provision for the annihilation of the whole wicked society, including family members (Deut. 32:25; cf. Deut. 28: 53–57). Nothing in the Scripture teaches, of course that this temporal judgment should be seen as indicating anything about the eternal destiny of such family members.
What the psalmist has done in Psalm 137 is to tell God about the feelings of the suffering Israelites, using hyperbolic language of the same extreme sort found in the covenant curses themselves. The fact that the psalmist seems to be addressing the Babylonians directly is simply a function of the style of the psalm — he also addresses Jerusalem directly in verse 5. It is God who is the actual hearer of these angry words (v. 7), just as it should be God, and God alone, who hears our angry words. Understood in their context as part of the language of the laments, and used rightly to channel and control our potentially sinful anger, the imprecatory psalms can indeed help keep us from sin. To harbor or display anger against others is something we should all avoid (Matt. 5:22).
The imprecatory psalms do not contradict Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies. We tend wrongly to equate “love” with “having a warm feeling toward.” Jesus’ teaching, however, defines love actively. It is not so much how you feel about a certain person, but what you do for that person that shows love (Luke 10:25–37). The biblical command is to do love, not to feel love. In a related way, the imprecatory psalms help us, when we feel anger, not to do anger. We should honestly express our anger to God, no matter how bitterly and hatefully we feel it, and let God take care of justice against those who misuse us. The foe who continues to do evil in the face of our forbearance is in big trouble indeed (Romans 12:20). The proper function of these psalms, then, is to help us not to be “overcome by evil,” but to help free us from our anger, that we might “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
A final word: The term “hate” in the Psalms has been commonly misunderstood. When the psalmist says, “I have nothing but hatred for them” (Ps. 139:22), he is not expressing sin. Otherwise God’s declaration, “Esau I have hated” (Mal. 1:3; cf. Romans 9:13), would prove him a sinner. The Hebrew word translated “hate” does in some contexts mean “despise.” But it can also mean “be unwilling or unable to put up with” or “reject,” both standard definitions in the Hebrew lexicons for this word. Therefore, on this account as well there should be no presumption that the language of the imprecatory psalms violates the Scriptures’ teaching elsewhere, including Matthew 5:22.
The imprecatory parts of psalms are virtually always found in laments. Psalm 3, described in detail above, contains in verse 7 an imprecation that, like most others found in the Psalms, is brief and therefore not likely to be highly offensive. But some imprecations are rather lengthy and harsh (see parts of Ps. 12, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 83, 109, 137, 140). Consider, for example, Psalm 137:7–9:
7Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did
on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried,
“tear it down to its foundations!”
8O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is he who repays you
for what you have done to us —
9he who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalm 137 is a lament for the suffering endured by the Israelites in the Exile; their capital, Jerusalem, had been destroyed, and their land had been taken from them by the Babylonians, aided and encouraged by the Edomites (cf. the book of Obadiah). Heeding God’s Word, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay” (Deut. 32:35; cf. Romans 12:19) the composer of this lament calls for judgment according to the covenant curses (see chap. 10). Included in these curses is provision for the annihilation of the whole wicked society, including family members (Deut. 32:25; cf. Deut. 28: 53–57). Nothing in the Scripture teaches, of course that this temporal judgment should be seen as indicating anything about the eternal destiny of such family members.
What the psalmist has done in Psalm 137 is to tell God about the feelings of the suffering Israelites, using hyperbolic language of the same extreme sort found in the covenant curses themselves. The fact that the psalmist seems to be addressing the Babylonians directly is simply a function of the style of the psalm — he also addresses Jerusalem directly in verse 5. It is God who is the actual hearer of these angry words (v. 7), just as it should be God, and God alone, who hears our angry words. Understood in their context as part of the language of the laments, and used rightly to channel and control our potentially sinful anger, the imprecatory psalms can indeed help keep us from sin. To harbor or display anger against others is something we should all avoid (Matt. 5:22).
The imprecatory psalms do not contradict Jesus’ teaching to love our enemies. We tend wrongly to equate “love” with “having a warm feeling toward.” Jesus’ teaching, however, defines love actively. It is not so much how you feel about a certain person, but what you do for that person that shows love (Luke 10:25–37). The biblical command is to do love, not to feel love. In a related way, the imprecatory psalms help us, when we feel anger, not to do anger. We should honestly express our anger to God, no matter how bitterly and hatefully we feel it, and let God take care of justice against those who misuse us. The foe who continues to do evil in the face of our forbearance is in big trouble indeed (Romans 12:20). The proper function of these psalms, then, is to help us not to be “overcome by evil,” but to help free us from our anger, that we might “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).
A final word: The term “hate” in the Psalms has been commonly misunderstood. When the psalmist says, “I have nothing but hatred for them” (Ps. 139:22), he is not expressing sin. Otherwise God’s declaration, “Esau I have hated” (Mal. 1:3; cf. Romans 9:13), would prove him a sinner. The Hebrew word translated “hate” does in some contexts mean “despise.” But it can also mean “be unwilling or unable to put up with” or “reject,” both standard definitions in the Hebrew lexicons for this word. Therefore, on this account as well there should be no presumption that the language of the imprecatory psalms violates the Scriptures’ teaching elsewhere, including Matthew 5:22.
