Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; tear out, O Lord, the fangs
of the lions!…The righteous will be glad when they are
avenged. (Ps. 58:6, 10)

If only you would slay the wicked, O God….Do I not hate those
who hate you, O Lord….I have nothing but hatred for them; I
count them my enemies. (Ps. 139:19-21)

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….May no one…take pity on his fatherless
children. (Ps. 109:7-10, 12)

“Here and there in the Psalter, like jagged thorns in a chain
of roses, there occur certain psalms which express vehement anger and
imprecation against enemies and evil-doers. These are known as the
“Imprecatory Psalms”….These [and similar]
passages have been a sore perplexity to many a reader.”[note 1]

The quotations above
from the psalms are examples of imprecation. An imprecation prays
for or invokes a curse or evil on someone. Some entire psalms are
labeled as imprecatory: Psalms 35, 58, 59, 69, 83, 109, 137. Many
other passages have the same nature.[note 2]

Some feel that such
psalms and passages throw doubt on divine inspiration of the Old
Testament. They cannot reconcile imprecation with our Lord’s
injunction to “love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you” (Matt. 5:44). They think that imprecations (a)
violate human compassion, (b) contradict God’s goodness
even to the worst of men, (c) contradict the New Testament teachings
of love and forgiveness, and (d) are even “inconsistent with
the psalmists’ own profession of ardent trust in God.”
Baxter does not share that opinion and concern about biblical
imprecations.

Some of the attempts to
justify such imprecations have been faulty. Consider the examples in
the following table.

Faulty Attempts To Justify Biblical Imprecations
Faulty Explanation	Why It Is Faulty
The imprecations merely declare the future, what will happen.	Many imprecations are not declarative but imperative (“Destroy, O Lord”). This explanation does not account for other factors, such as, wishing evil on the children of the wicked (Ps. 109:10, 12-13; 137:9).
The imprecations belonged only to the old dispensation under the law.	If the attitude is wrong now, it would have been wrong then. Under the law God emphatically required love even for strangers. Furthermore, the same imprecatory attitude is found in the New Testament. The apostle Paul showed it in 2 Tim. 4:14 and Gal. 1:8-9. Martyrs in heaven showed it in Rev. 6:10-11.
The imprecations affect only temporal, not eternal calamities.	Even if that could be proved, the attitude would be the same.

Baxter justifies the
imprecations in the psalms in a different way. He begins by arguing
that three things about them are right:

• Their motive. The imprecations are opposed to the wicked
  only because they are wicked. They are “against ungodly
  wicked-doers as such.” The first imprecation, in Psalm
  5, “gives the key to all those that follow.” Verse 10
  shows that David “has identified himself with God against sin,
  and…hates sin because God hates it.” (See this thought
  expressed clearly in Psalm 139:21-22, in part quoted above.)
  In other words, the psalmist’s motive is not jealousy, spite,
  or ambition—but hatred of evil.

• Their
  standpoint. These imprecations are not personal but
  theocratic—related to God’s kingdom over Israel. This
  ties to the motive. As theocratic king, David “knew that he
  was anointed by God, that he ruled for God, and that he was
  directly responsible to God.” In some ways David’s
  throne was God’s earthly throne. Thus, those opposed to David
  were opposed to God Himself (e.g., Ps. 59:11; 69:6; 40:9-10).
  For the same reason David from his death-bed instructed Solomon to
  punish certain wrong-doers. Even the non-Davidic imprecatory
  passages in the Psalms (83; 137; 79:6,12; 149:7-9) “are
  in each case national and not personal.”
• Their spirit.
  The spirit of these passages is not wrong. In each case the
  psalmist had already shown kindness but had been abused: “They
  repay me evil for good” (see Ps. 35:12; 69:4; 109:5). God’s
  offer to forgive fits the same pattern. He withdraws it from one
  who persists in sin and will not repent (Matt. 6:14-15;
  18:35). Likewise, a Christian must want to forgive wrongdoers but
  cannot truly forgive one who refuses to humble himself.[note 3]
  A corollary is that we can forgive “a wrong act”

  but not condone “a wrong attitude.”

The three facts just
noted about imprecations point to their real justification. They are
right because they reflect God’s own attitude. At one and the
same time He has two attitudes toward sinners and their sin:

• He loves them and works to save them completely.

• If they refuse His
  grace, He “hates” them and plans to destroy them.

God’s two
attitudes toward sinners reflect two aspects of His nature: (a) He
is love and (b) He is holy. To us these seem like opposite “poles,”
but both are true. God’s holiness is emphasized in the first
part of the Bible, under the “old covenant.” His love is
emphasized in the last part of the Bible, under the “new
covenant.”

Consider the fact that
“God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). We have learned this
especially through Jesus, who sacrificed Himself for sinners. The
plan to do so did not originate with Jesus but with His Father (Rom.
8:32). The Father is also patient with sinners, “not wanting
anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter
3:9).

But it is equally true
that God is holy. We learn this especially through the covenant at
Sinai. That covenant, the law, reveals how holy God is and how
heinous and hurtful sin is. Defiant and persistent sin hurts not
only the one who insists on it, but many others. By no means will
God’s love and patience negate His holiness. By no means will
He eternally tolerate continued opposition.[note 4]
He will bring persistent rebellion to an end. He will see
to it that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea” (Is. 11:9). Consider some
indications of His holiness and determination to judge:

• In His covenant with mankind after the flood, He insisted that
  “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be
  shed” (Gen. 9:6).

• He expressed
  hatred for those opposed to His holy (set-apart) nation Israel. He
  loved Israel (Amos 3:2) but hated Edom, the nation descended from
  Esau. “‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord….I
  have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his
  mountains into a wasteland…” (Mal. 1:2-3).
• He commanded
  Israel to exterminate the Canaanites, who would have contaminated
  the entire earth (Deut. 7:1-6). “When the Lord your God
  has delivered them over to you,” He said, “then you must
  destroy them totally” (7:2).
• He required Israel
  to “take vengeance on” the Midianites when they tried to
  corrupt Israel (Num. 31:2). This included killing all the men, also
  the boys and “every woman who [had] slept with a man”

  (31:17).

• He decreed the
  death penalty for various infractions of His law.[note 5]
  A well-known case is when the man defiantly gathered wood on the
  Sabbath day (Num. 15:30-36).

God is continually
angry with wickedness. “God is a righteous judge, a God who
expresses his wrath every day” (Ps. 7:11). Consider His
holiness and love in respect to Nineveh, capital of Assyria. For
centuries Assyria was well-known for “endless cruelty”

(Nahum 3:19). The Book of Nahum expresses God’s anger and
determination to punish it (Nahum 1:2-3), which He eventually
did. But the Book of Jonah dramatizes His patient love and patience
for the same people (Jonah 4:1-2).

In other words, God is
angry with sinners at the same time He loves them. He must judge
their sin even though now He patiently offers them pardon. His holy
nature will not let sin continue until it pollutes His coming eternal
kingdom. When we pray, “Thy kingdom come,” in effect we
ask Him to judge and abolish sin. If evildoers “deliberately
keep on sinning after [receiving] the knowledge of the truth, no
sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of
judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God”

(Heb. 10:26-27).[note 6]

Can we improve on God’s
attitude?![note 7]
Of course not. Thus, even as we preach the good news, His offer of
pardon and life, we should want Him to judge and bring His kingdom.
We will rejoice when He finally fills the world with righteousness
((Rev. 19:1-5). Even now we should rejoice in that
prospect.

We would understand
neither God’s love nor His holiness apart from His revelation.
By nature we are too sinful, selfish, shortsighted, and stupid. But
by listening to His Word and being taught by His Spirit we learn such
things—and develop the same attitudes as God. We learn to
“make a right judgment” (John 7:24), to “contend
for the faith” (Jude 3), to hate “even the clothing
stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 23). Transformed into His
image (2 Cor. 3:18), we come to share not only His love but His
determination to judge. The latter is the spirit of
imprecations.

Note 1 (return to text)J.
Sidlow Baxter, Explore the Book (London: Marshall, Morgan…Scott, LTD, 1951), III, 111. Most of this study is adapted from
III:111-118 of Baxter’s six volume work. Except where
indicated, non-biblical quotations are from the same pages.

Note 2 (return to text)Some
of these shorter imprecatory passages are Psalms 5:10; 6:10; 28:4-5;
31:17-18; 40:14-15; 41:10; 55:9, 15; 70:2-3;
71:13; 79:6, 12; 129:5-8; 139:19-22; 140:9-10;
141:10; 149:7-9. See also Nehemiah 4:4-5.

Note 3 (return to text)
In passages similar to Luke 17:3-4, we should probably assume
the condition clearly stated there: “If your brother sins,
rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins
against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you
and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” It is
important to have a forgiving spirit, but we cannot cleanse those
who do not want to be cleansed.

Note 4 (return to text)“Your
eyes are too pure to look upon evil; You cannot tolerate wrong. Why
then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while
the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?”
(Hab. 1:13)

Note 5 (return to text)With
modern morals declining, we sometimes fail to appreciate the gravity
of some sins. God’s evaluation is far more appropriate than
public opinion.

Note 6 (return to text)“Since
God’s first concern for His universe is its moral health, that
is, its holiness, whatever is contrary to this is necessarily under
His eternal displeasure. To preserve His creation God must destroy
whatever would destroy it. When He arises to put down iniquity and
save the world from irreparable moral collapse, He is is said to be
angry. Every wrathful judgment in the history of the world has been
a holy act of preservation. The holiness of God, the wrath of God,
and the health of the creation are inseparably united. God’s
wrath is His utter intolerance of whatever degrades and destroys.
He hates iniquity as a mother hates the polio that takes the life of
her child.

“God
is holy with an absolute holiness that knows no degrees, and this He
cannot impart to His creatures. But there is a relative and
contingent holiness which He shares with angels and seraphim in
heaven and with redeemed men on earth as their preparation for
heaven. This holiness God can and does impart to His children….He
requires it of them. To Israel first and later to His Church God
spoke, saying, ‘Be ye holy, for I am holy.’…No
honest man can say ‘I am holy,’ but neither is any
honest man willing to ignore the solemn words of the inspired
writer, ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord.’

“Caught
in this dilemma, what are we Christians to do? We must like Moses
cover ourselves with faith and humility while we steal a quick look
at the God whom no man can see and live….We must hide our
unholiness in the wounds of Christ….We must take refuge from
God in God. Above all we must believe that God sees us perfect in
His Son while He disciplines and chastens and purges us that we may
be partakers of His holiness.

“By
faith and obedience, by constant meditation on the holiness of God,
by loving righteousness and hating iniquity, by a growing
acquaintance with the Spirit of holiness, we can…prepare
ourselves for the eternal companionship of God and the saints
above.” (A. W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy, [San
Francisco: Harper, 1961], p. 106).

Note 7 (return to text)If
we do not want Him to judge, is it because we love sinners better
than He does?!!