What Happens When Imprecatory Prayers Are Off-Limits?

What Are Imprecatory Prayers?

I love the versatility of Psalms. Sometimes you feel ecstatic and filled with praise for God’s goodness. There are psalms of praise and celebration for these moments. At other times you feel darkness and gloom. For these occasions, God has given us the psalms of lament. And there are other times when that darkness morphs into anger and bitterness. For these moments, God has given us imprecatory psalms.

To imprecate someone or something is to invoke evil upon, to utter a curse against someone. So, an imprecatory psalm or prayer is when the person praying asks God to call down a curse upon an enemy.

At first glance, these seem absolutely wrong and against Christian witness. Many will point out that these prayers are not typically vindictive or about personal vengeance. For the most part, these psalms have to do with God’s glory being trampled upon. In some fashion, an imprecatory psalm is really asking God to make things on earth as they are in heaven. They can be cries for justice.

But as we look a little closer, in my opinion, it’s not nearly as black and white as saying that these prayers are about God’s glory and not about personal vengeance. We’re rescuing the psalmists and prophets like Jeremiah far too quickly. Consider a few examples.

What Are a Few Examples of Imprecatory Prayers?

There are fourteen psalms that are typically labeled as imprecatory psalms: Psalms 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 69, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, and 140.

In Psalm 35, David asks God to “contend with those who contend with me” (v1). He asks God to “let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek my life” (v4). According to David, they sought his life without cause (v7), and so, as a result, he asks that “destruction come upon” them. David is a victim, and he is using a psalm of imprecation to pray for justice.

One of the harder psalms of imprecation to swallow is Psalm 137. Here the psalmist is praying against the Edomites. This is the prayer of someone who has witnessed much suffering. They have been carried off into exile, and their neighbors, the Edomites, not only laughed, they cheered on the destruction. To this wickedness, the psalmist concludes: “blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”

What do we do with a verse like this? It feels so contrary to the way of Christ. It seems violent, vindictive, and far from turning the other cheek. Most of the psalms of imprecation are like this. They are vindicative. Not a petty vindictiveness but a type of vindictive where someone is victimized and long to have their life and reputation restored; a vindication that asks God to set things right.

Let’s interact with Jeremiah 18 and consider the role of imprecatory prayers.

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Interacting with Jeremiah 18

In the early chapters of Jeremiah, the prophet is a bit bothered that destruction is coming upon his people. He mediates between them and God. He pleads for them. But eventually, they turn on Jeremiah. This is their response to one of Jeremiah’s more famous sermons on the potter and the clay:

Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words.” (Jeremiah 18:18 ESV)

You might not pick it up, but this is a death threat. They are essentially accusing Jeremiah of being a false prophet who does not understand the ways of God. They are going to silence Jeremiah one way or another. This is why in Jeremiah 18:20, he says they “dug a pit for my life.” He laments to the Lord that he was mediating for them, and begging God to “turn away your wrath from them.” They repaid him with murderous plots. Jeremiah responds with this psalm of imprecation: 

Therefore deliver up their children to famine;
give them over to the power of the sword;
let their wives become childless and widowed.
May their men meet death by pestilence,
their youths be struck down by the sword in battle. 

May a cry be heard from their houses,
when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them!
For they have dug a pit to take me
and laid snares for my feet. (Jeremiah 18:21-22 ESV)

Those are some pretty harsh words. What do we do with them? Should a Christian ever pray this way? 

First, it is helpful to ask whether or not Jeremiah 18 is a Christ-like prayer. If anybody could rightly say what Jeremiah said in 18:20, it would be the Lord Jesus. He aimed to do humanity well, we dug a pit for him instead. But how did he respond? He responded by saying, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Jeremiah is not modeling Christ here. So, does this mean that we should discard this prayer? Is it one that we shouldn’t pray? 

Perhaps. 

But I submit to you the possibility that God reaches us in the place where we are. He gives us words even in the dark, hard, and bitter places of our souls. I believe that these words of Jeremiah are inspired. Just as the other imprecatory psalms are inspired. 

But inspiration does not necessarily equal unqualified approval. Jeremiah was feeling every one of these things in the depth of his soul. This is where he was. And I believe God gives him words to express his angst. It doesn’t mean God necessarily agrees with him or will accomplish this—but he is with Jeremiah as he processes his pain. 

Ultimately, what we see here in Jeremiah 18 is that the prophet is finally coming to a place of agreement with God’s earlier assessment of the wickedness of the people. In actuality, Jeremiah isn’t asking God to do anything that He had not already purposed to do in response to their wickedness. This is vindication. This is justice. 

I’m not suggesting that we should ever strive to be anything but Christ-like. But what do you do in those in-between times? What do you do when you aren’t going to respond to a situation like an unbelieving pagan (taking up the sword of vengeance yourself), but you also cannot yet fully respond as Christ did (Father, forgive them)? 

This is one reason God has given us imprecatory psalms. 

What Happens if Imprecatory Prayers Are Off-Limits?

It’s in these in-between times where so many of the psalmists seem to live. Their words are often not ideal. They are not refined. Sometimes they are. But at times, they are desperate cries of lament. They can even be vindictive pleas for justice. And God gives these to us for the in-between times.

What happens if we make these off-limits, though?

Imagine that you have been wronged. Not like someone cut you off in traffic wronged but deeply wounded. You know that it would be good for you to “turn the other cheek” and to “pray for those who persecute you,” but you just aren’t there yet. You start to feel guilty because you can’t get your spirit into a place that seems to reflect Jesus.

What happens, then, is that you close the door on this situation in your communication with God. You believe Him to be displeased with how you are feeling, so you assume you need to clean yourself up in order to come back to Him. But what happens is that rather than cleaning yourself up, you begin to develop bitterness. And this bitterness slowly morphs into wanting to get vengeance and vindication for yourself.

A better response would be to acknowledge where your heart actually is. And turn to an imprecatory psalm. Pray for justice. Use something like Jeremiah’s prayer as a model. And as you do this, watch how the Lord begins to work in your own heart. Be honest in your prayer. Tell God where you are at in the situation.

Conclusion

As a Christian, it is right to pray for justice. It’s okay to long for God to make things on earth as they are in heaven. This includes wrongs being made right. This includes evil being stopped. Imprecatory psalms can be helpful for this. But they can also be helpful for the times when we are in the in-between.

It is unwise for us to cast these prayers to the curb. Yes, the words of Jesus are true and good, and we should be in a place where our instinct is to pray, “Father, forgive them,” but sometimes we aren’t. And in those instances, God has graciously given us words to express our ache.

Use the imprecatory psalms for God’s glory and your good.

Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/Halfpoint 

This article is part of our Prayer resource meant to inspire and encourage your prayer life when you face uncertain times. Visit our most popular prayers if you are wondering how to pray or what to pray. Remember, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, and God knows your heart even if you can't find the words to pray.

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