April 27th, 2025
My God, whom I praise,
do not remain silent,
for people who are wicked and deceitful
have opened their mouths against me;
they have spoken against me with lying tongues.
With words of hatred they surround me;
they attack me without cause.
In return for my friendship they accuse me,
but I am a man of prayer.
They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my friendship.
Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
and may his prayers condemn him.
May his days be few;
may another take his place of leadership.
May his children be fatherless
and his wife a widow.
May his children be wandering beggars;
may they be driven from their ruined homes.
We reach our final emotion in the Psalm, and maybe the most controversial: anger. Of the many emotions the Psalmists express throughout their writings, the passages of anger, what we call the imprecatory Psalms, and what to make of them are hotly debated in Christian circles.
An imprecatory Psalm is a psalm where the psalmist invokes a curse or calls for judgment and calamity upon their enemies or those perceived as enemies of God. Often finding themselves within Psalms of lament, these Psalms are full of despair and evident rage, calling for judgment on their enemies. Just read some of the things that the Psalmists ask of God to do to their enemies, and you’ll see why so many Christians are divided in what to make of these scriptures:
Psalm 5:10: “Banish them for their many sins”
Psalm 35:6 “may their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.”
Psalm 137:9: “Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!”
And even in our Psalm today, we see a snippet of the judgement the Psalmist calls God to bring in anger against his enemy, asking God to bring short life and death to their enemy. There are even more curses if you read on in the passage!
Many Christians read these Psalms and immediately feel that they are opposite to the character and commands of Jesus. Isn’t Jesus the one who said to love your enemies and turn the other cheek? As a result of this reflection, some believers will say these kinds of emotions are in scripture to show us what kind of emotions not to display, or that now, with Jesus, we are given a new way to pray through our anger. However, I think this is unlikely. Especially since New Testament writers quote imprecatory Psalms like Psalm 69 in moments of Jesus' ministry where he expresses rage and zeal for God’s house (Psalm 69:9, John 2:17), these Psalms of anger seem to have a place in the believer's life. But then, what are we to make of these Psalms?
First, what we can see and apply to our own lives is that anger is a normal part of the life of a believer. In fact, anger in its proper context is healthy. Godly anger should push us to righteousness. Evils like genocides, sexual abuse, and human mistreatment should make us angry. Anger is okay, but we must be rightly angry. Which leads to the next thing we can see in this Psalm
We must express righteous anger. There is a passage in Ephesians that encourages believers to not sin in their anger (Eph 4:26). We must constantly ask ourselves, am I rightly angry? Are you angered by true evil done to yourself or others, or is the anger resulting from a hurt ego or pride? Many times, our anger is rooted in pride. We’re frustrated, not because we were wronged, but because we didn’t get our way. In these imprecatory Psalms, the Psalmist deals with real injustices. In our devo today, it’s the betrayal of a friend who falsely accuses, does evil and cares nothing about doing good. We must ensure our anger is righteous, angered over true evil and sin, not pride.
Once we’ve established our anger is righteous, we should be unafraid to pray the prayers we see in these Psalms! Some may look at these Psalms and say they are inherently “unloving,” but it’s important to remember that true love for one’s enemies involves confronting evil. Think about it. The God of all love and grace is the same God that punishes those who are unrepentant of their sin with damnation in hell. Why is this? Is it because God is unloving? No! Because he is the true essence of love, his nature demands that he punish evil.
When we are angered by evil, it is good to call for punishment for that evil! We must, however, keep a few things in mind
1. The real enemy is Satan, not others
We do not fight against other people, but ultimately, evil spiritual forces are ruled by Satan (Eph 6:12). The enemy uses his sway and influence to draw humans to evil and sin. We pray in opposition to these forces and their destruction, which will include stopping evil persons.
2. We are also evil
These same evil forces tempt us in our daily lives. Many times, we are swayed by Satan’s tricks to do evil. Never forget that as you pray these prayers, you pray against the evil in yourself, asking God to destroy the evil in you that enrages you and, ultimately, God.
3. Vengeance belongs to the Lord
God does all justice, not us (Rom 12:19). God is the one who repays evil. We should not try to take justice into our own hands and do something outlandish.
Our prayers of anger should be first to draw evil people to repentance. If they refuse to repent, destruction should be done to uphold good and stop suffering. Righteous anger is good and ought to be expressed. So, if evil is making you angry, bring it to the Lord. Call on him to intervene, express your frustrations, and entrust justice into his hands
Challenge For This Week
Think of one evil happening in the world that enrages you. Express that anger to God in prayer, and ask him to bring about justice in his way and timing.
Song for the Day:
Listen to "Though you slay me - Shane & SHane"