Are There Hateful, Vindictive Psalms in the Bible?

What nasty person would say such things? Well—a pretty angry psalmist! This portion of Psalm 137 is one of various “imprecatory psalms” (Pss. 7, 12, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 83, 109, 137, 139). “Imprecation” is the calling down of curses or divine judgments on someone. Imprecatory passages have shocked some modern editors into performing “psalmectomies” on psalter hymnals, excising these verses altogether!³ Biblical poetry contains prayers that God break the arm of the wicked (10:15), scatter their bones (53:5), or slay His enemies (139:19). C. S. Lewis calls them “terrible,” “contemptible,” “devilish,” “profoundly wrong,” and “sinful” prayers.⁴ Shouldn’t we love and pray for our enemies (Matt. 5:43–48)? How can we make sense of these harsh-sounding passages? Perhaps the following acrostic (I-M-P-R-E-C-A-T-I-O-N) can offer guidance.

Irate reactions to terrible injustices are understandable. Psalm 137’s setting is Israel’s distressing sixth-century BC exile in Babylon following “unshakable” Jerusalem’s destruction (Ps. 46:5)—a very tough pill to swallow! Their captors taunted them to sing “songs of Zion,” which added insult to injury. Of further insult was the fact that Israel’s brothers, the Edomites (descendants of Esau) also joined in the destructive rampage and pillaging. They even blocked fleeing Israelites from escaping, treacherously handing them over to the Babylonians (Obed. 11–14).⁵ This psalm expresses legitimate moral outrage. Consider how you would react if a neighbor tried to seduce your daughter or give your children drugs. Outrage indicates that we care and take injustice seriously.⁶ These psalmists cry out to God with understandable, honest, hot-off-the-emotional-press responses.

Modern Western standards should not be imposed on an ancient Near East context. C. S. Lewis wrongly assumed that the Hebrews “cursed more bitterly than the Pagans.”⁷ We read of standard curses in other ancient Near East “prayer books.”⁸ In response to devastating injustices of an earlier war, “The (Babylonian) Curse of Akkad” (2400 BC) expresses the wish: “May the cattle slaughterer slaughter his wife” and “May your sheep butcher butcher his child.” An Assyrian text (from 672 BC) wishes leprosy and death followed by the feasting of vultures and jackals on enemies’ corpses.⁹ Harsh-sounding prayers were common back then.

Passionate responses are upset exaggerations, not calm contemplations. The prophet Jeremiah, after being beaten and placed in stocks, curses the day he was born, wishing he had remained in his mother’s womb until he died (Jer. 20:14–18). Jeremiah does not literally mean this; he simply hasn’t yet “cooled off.” He thus gives a white-hot immediate response to the deep humiliation and injustice he suffered; Jeremiah wants us to feel his pain.¹⁰ Old Testament (OT) scholar John Sailhamer observes that Psalm 137’s imagery “is no more intended to be taken literally” than that in psalms that speak of “rivers clapping their hands and mountains singing for joy.”¹¹

Repression of righteous outrage obstructs justice and healing. Naming evils and calling perpetrators to account is the first step toward correcting injustice. Victims of sexual abuse or of a spouse’s adultery often experience healing after they articulate their pain. Consider how Rwanda’s genocide and South Africa’s apartheid have led to commissions in which perpetrators must face surviving victims who name evils, hold their persecutors accountable, and (begin to) heal festering wounds. To love our enemies, we must know who they are and what they’ve done. Hate should be prayed, not stifled. Apathy, not hate, is the opposite of love.¹²

Enemies are not hated personally by the psalmists. Despite the psalmists’ harsh words, they often exhibit graciousness and personal concern toward their enemies (Pss. 35:1, 12–13; 109:4–5). The psalmist David treated Saul, Absalom, and others with kindness despite their mistreating him (2Sam. 1:1–16; 2:5; 16:11–12; 19:12–23).

Concern for God’s purposes is the psalmists’ passion. The indignation of the psalmists was not primarily personal, but God-oriented. Defying God’s redemptive workings through Abraham/Israel to bless the nations meant opposing God’s purposes. Commitment to God’s plan and reputation prompts David’s use of uncomfortable, harsh terms (“hate,” “loathe”) toward God’s opponents (Ps. 139:21–22). He nonetheless immediately asks God to search his heart, saying, “see if there be any hurtful way in me” (vv.23–24). When the psalmists call on God to do to the wicked what He has promised (Ps. 58:9–10), then, personal vengeance isn’t the point. Our relativistic society could learn from the psalmists’ moral outrage and their passion for God’s will.

Anger takes a back seat to mercy. God desires repentance, not judgment (Ezek. 18:23). Needing conversion himself, Jonah evaded Israel’s enemy Nineveh, knowing that God likely would show mercy in response to repentance: “I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God” (Jonah 4:2; cf. Exod. 34:6). The wicked indeed can avert promised calamity by their repentance (Jer. 18:7–8). Evil king Manasseh’s penitence shows that no matter how morally depraved one becomes, God may be moved by humble repentance (2Chron. 33:9, 12–13). This theme of compassion over judgment is well known to the psalmists (see, e.g., Ps. 106).

Triumphalism does not characterize the psalmists. Hardly self-righteous, the psalmists know that Israel, when rebelling, isn’t above God’s righteous judgment. They exhibit no double standard—they know that unfaithful Israel can expect God’s promised wrath: “As I plan to do to [the corrupt Canaanites], so I will do to you” (Num. 33:56; cf. Josh. 23:15; Lamentations). In Psalm 89, God is “full of wrath,” having “cast off and rejected” His “anointed” (v.38). He isn’t playing favorites.

Inspiration for the New Testament’s emphasis on loving and forgiving enemies is rooted in the Old Testament. Reinforcing Jesus’ message to love one’s enemy and pray for one’s persecutors (Matt. 5:43–48), Paul exhorts: “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.… ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink….’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:17–20), citing Proverbs 25:21–22 (“if your enemy is hungry…”) as the ideal. Other OT Scriptures emphasize the same theme (Exod. 23:4–5; Lev. 19:17–18; Prov. 24:17). Believers must move beyond imprecation to the higher ideal of desiring the salvation of their enemies, blessing rather than cursing (Matt. 5:43–48; 1Pet. 2:23; 3:9; Rom. 12:14–21). This is God’s own attitude, whose love is “complete” or “perfect” (Matt. 5:48): He doesn’t just love those who love Him, but also loves His enemies, and sends rain and sunshine on both groups of people (Matt. 5:44–45). This point, here and elsewhere in Scripture, does not negate the New Testament emphasis on God’s judgment against those resisting His rule; it does, however, stress the primacy of God’s love, who reluctantly allow people to go their own way and separate themselves from Him permanently.

Old Testament moral perspectives, however, are sometimes tolerated as less-than-ideal. We can reject the psalmists’ cries for brutal vindication in its most literal sense, and look toward Jesus’ example of blessing instead of cursing—prayer instead of imprecation—in response to personal enemies. We have seen that bashing-babies-against-rocks imprecations are not literal, but remember also that certain ancient Near East practices Israel adopted—slavery, polygamy, tribalism, patriarchalism—are permitted in the Scriptures because they are expressions of humanity’s hardness of heart (cf. Matt. 19:8)—rather than reflections of God’s ideal (Gen. 1:26–28; 2:24), which Christ’s redemption seeks to restore (cf. Gal. 3:28). So, as Christians reflecting on the imprecatory psalms, we should desire God’s ideals—our enemies’ good and their salvation—but we also should desire that God’s justice prevail, like the martyrs did in Revelation 6:9–11. This, however, will mean judgment on the unrepentant. John Stott reminds us that we can’t desire sinners’ salvation “in defiance of their own unwillingness to receive it,” and we should desire their—and our—judgment if we repudiate or ignore God’s grace.¹³

New battle lines have been drawn for God’s people, the church. OT (national) Israel’s enemies were often other nations—with their idolatries and immoralities. The psalmists’ curses on Babylon or Edom flow from this profoundly religious framework.¹⁴ Unlike the church—the new, true interethnic Israel (Rom. 2:28–29), national Israel fought physical battles against enemy nations that opposed God’s purposes. Christians, using imprecatory prayers, fight spiritual battles against the forces Christ came to defeat (Matt. 12:22–29; John 12:31; 16:11; Col. 2:14–15); we must pray that the gospel and its influence may spread (2 Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:19; 1 Pet. 5:8–9).

With certain qualifications, then, we can learn from the imprecatory psalmists by identifying with their outrage and dismay when humans and spiritual powers oppose God’s just and good purposes. Anger is often understandable, but grace-receiving Christians should pray for grace on their enemies—and also for God’s just reign to be established: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).

Paul Copan (Ph.D., Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is Professor and Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University (West Palm Beach, Florida). He is the author and editor of many books on philosophy of religion and apologetics, including When God Goes to Starbucks (Baker, 2008) and Loving Wisdom (Chalice Press, 2007), and a contributor to the Apologetics Study Bible (Holman, 2007).

4 C. S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1958), 20–33.

5 Elizabeth Achtemeier, Preaching Hard Texts of the Old Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1998), 105–10.

8 I draw from William Webb, “Bashing Babies against the Rocks” (paper presented to the Evangelical Theological Society, Atlanta, November 2003).

9 D. J. Wiseman, The Vassal-Treaties of Esarhaddon (London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq, 1958), 60–78.

11 John H. Sailhamer, The NIV Compact Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 346.

14 Leslie C. Allen, Psalms 101–150, Word Biblical Commentary 21 (Waco, TX: Word, 1983), 242–43.

Yes, but David’s faith was accounted to him for righteous (meaning right standing with God). David having faith does not mean that David was born again thru the blood of Jesus.

And, remember this - After Jesus ascended into heaven, on the way there, he stopped in “Paradise” and collected all the Saints waiting there for the Messiah; and then he escorted them (the Old Testament Saints) into Heaven.

John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Abraham knew Jesus spiritually as well! Matthew 22:41While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, 42“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. 43He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, 44“ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”  45If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” 46No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. David calls his coming progeny "MY Lord". He calls him by faith "My Lord"... ergo David knew Jesus as his Lord and Messiah! He also knew that "The Lord said to My Lord(his Lord) sit at his right hand!"

Sure he was...what do you think his faith was accounted for? By what righteousness was his faith justified by?

The spilled blood of Jesus Christ of course.

You are stuck in chronologically temporal thinking....Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection had ripple effects across time and dimension. God exists in the Now and Christ’s grace brings us all into The Father’s Now.

Jacob was asked by the angel of the Lord he wrestled with..”Why do you want to know my name?” Jacob knew very well in the end who he was wrestling with and at the wedding feast of the lamb we will all know who we were ‘wrestling with’!

Okay, I give up .. you seem content to believe that Jesus knew everyone in the Old Testament.

However, I’m curious why you believe the Pharisees were telling the truth when they said, Jesus was the “son of David”. THAT WAS NOT TRUE. JESUS WAS THE SON OF GOD, not David.

Jesus was in David’s lineage, but David was not the father of Jesus. And, I believe it was Mary who was from David’s lineage. We know it couldn’t have been Joseph, because Joseph did not father Jesus.

Of course Abraham rejoiced to see Jesus’ day; because Abraham believed in the Messiah, and Abraham was waiting for Jesus to come through Paradise and take Abraham on into Heaven. Guess who else was with Abraham waiting for Jesus? Joseph. What an exciting day that must have been for Joseph to see Jesus walk into Paradise; Wow what an event that must have been.

My advice - get out of Psalms and study the New Testament.

As Christians, we have a better covenant made with better promises, through Jesus death..

He is also the son of David, the son of Jesse, the star out of Jacob, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The Bible said God knew all of us “FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD”

Christ was involved in the Creation of everything there was!

Christ1:13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by[f] him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

John8:58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

If Jesus existed before Abraham, and all things were created by and thru him, then he knew Abraham and as he said...Abraham “saw his day and was glad”! By faith David also saw Christ calling him “My Lord” making a distinction from “THE LORD” as he does in Psalm 110!

Job too, at the end of his travails, also saw the truth...”I will stand on Earth in the latter day and in my flesh(but not this flesh) will I see God”. Job had grasped the essence of what God was doing and realized that he too would share in a glorious resurrection brought about by Christ.

I understand that in Christ we have a better covenant, but the old testament actually spells out most of the future better covenant that we see explained in in the New Testament! Christ was always zinging the religious experts of his day over how they had missed it using old Testament scriptures to show where they missed it! Paul in explaining the new covenant thru out his letters constantly drew on Old Testament sources. God’s laws were to be written in our hearts with a people created living by the Spirit, not on tablets of stone where they could be frequently misinterpreted. Christ is the alpha and omega...the first and last...he has always been near by!

When one understands that the Old Testament was always about Jesus Christ and that the Hebrew worship practices, laws and customs were simply arch type echos or shadows of the the once, present and future Christ, then the Bible ceases to be simply a book of two parts...one of which we don’t have to think so seriously about and the other we do.

The Bible becomes a whole unified book again with the New Testament that proclaims the triumph of Christ over death and sin , and declares Christ as having fulfilled all the laws aand prophets, while the old Testament provides the truth of what it was and is that Christ actually fulfills.

The death of Jesus Christ was forshadowed by the near sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham. Genesis 22:And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Moriah was a region of hills which constituted present day Jerusalem and it’s highest hill was Golgotha where Jesus was to be crucified. David set up his altar there to offer sacrifice for his sin so that God would halt the plague on the land.

Abraham offering his son Isaac there as sacrifice ties the old Testament with the New testament. God is practically giving away the whole plan right there in Genesis, complete with the “substitute” sacrifice ram tangled in a thicket(Christ with thorns planted on his head). Jehovah Gyreh...God will provide was the new name given the place.
Indeed God did provide a way of escape for all who believe!

Wow, I just love everything you said.

I discovered that Matthew also used Old Testament scriptures when he preached; because the people he was preaching to knew the scriptures; as did John. But similarly, Mark did not, because his ministry was to those who did not know the Old Testament.

Yes, the Bible really is a whole story .. and I can see you’re not a new Christian. However, because a lot of people who come to this site are not Christians, I try to stay in the New Testament; also recommend for new Christians. Later on, you can connect the whole Bible easier, if people have a full understanding of the New Testament.

While I love the Psalms and the Proverbs, I make it clear to new believers, that these people did not have any understanding of Jesus the way we do; they only knew that a Messiah was prophesied.

While in Bible school (3 years), which I loved every minute of, we read a book by James Stalker (who was a pastor in the Free Church in Scotland) called, “The Life of Jesus Christ”. In this book, it tells who the people were during Jesus life (from his infancy) and also what was going on just before Jesus STARTED HIS MINISTRY at thirty. What was stunning to me was the similarity to what is happening around the world today. It made me wonder if this meant that Jesus reappearance was near.

Thanks for your lively discussions.

Indeed, and Amen again to what you've written - very well said too, may I add. The shadow of Yeshua is throughout old Testament scriptures. Another shadow is Passover which is just around the corner.

And while much scripture addresses the first coming, even more scriptures address the second coming. Even old Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar saw this in a dream:

Daniel 2:39 “After you, another kingdom will arise, inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. 40 Finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron—for iron breaks and smashes everything—and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. 41 Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. 42 As the toes were partly iron and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44 “In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. 45 This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.

“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and its interpretation is trustworthy.”

46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. 47 The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”

The Psalms = Reality. Job’s friends are ever-present and forever trying to deny it, but Reality keeps breaking through. The Psalms is one place I can revel in Gods glory, might, steadfast love, wrath and indignation (something He feels “every day”).

This week I was wrongly accused. God is witness. My hostility was real and severe, and no amount of “Christian” gobbledygook was gonna change the fact that I wanted JUSTICE! Yes, I cussed and fumed and shadow boxed. No one needed to tell me I was wrong, the Spirit told me, just as he told the Psalmists. Just like them I was talking to God about it the whole time, asking Him to get me to the place of mercy for my ENEMY (and myself).

The Psalmists are acutely aware of their own sin, but still they let it RIP! That is real and the REAL GOD can handle it! There is something satanic in the fake equanimity some pretend is from the Spirit. Who else but Satan would try to get a person in knots then condemn them for crying out?

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