Difficult Passages

A Pastoral Reference
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14 Old Testament / Theology

The Imprecatory Psalms

Ps 137:9; Ps 109:6–15; Ps 69:22–28; Ps 58:6–8

The Difficulty

Several psalms contain prayers for the destruction of enemies in graphic, sometimes horrifying terms. Psalm 137:9 — “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock” — is perhaps the most disturbing verse in the Bible. Psalm 109 asks God to let the enemy’s children become begging orphans. How can these be prayers? How can they be Scripture? How can they be used in Christian worship? And what do we do with the fact that Jesus and the New Testament authors quote from imprecatory psalms?

Responses

Literal Prayers Against Real Enemies

Tradition: Conservative / Historical Summary: These are genuine cries for divine justice from people experiencing real oppression, and God takes those cries seriously.

Some interpreters (John Day, Tremper Longman) argue that these psalms should be read as honest prayers from people under violent oppression — exiles, victims of conquest, the persecuted. Psalm 137 is the cry of people whose babies were literally dashed against rocks by the Babylonians (cf. 2 Kings 25; Isa 13:16). The prayer asks God to do to Babylon what Babylon did to them — not random violence but measured retribution. The psalms hand vengeance over to God rather than taking it into their own hands (cf. Rom 12:19).

Strengths

  • Takes the historical context seriously
  • The prayers are turning vengeance over to God, not enacting it personally
  • Honest about human rage in the face of atrocity

Weaknesses

  • The language goes beyond “hand it to God” — it seems to relish the violence
  • “Happy shall he be” is blessing the one who does the killing
  • Hard to reconcile with “love your enemies”

Further Reading

  • Tremper Longman III, “Imprecatory Psalms” in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (Baker, 2005)
  • John Day, Psalms (T&T Clark, 1990)
  • Erich Zenger, A God of Vengeance? Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath (Westminster John Knox, 1996) — the best single treatment

Christological / Spiritual Warfare Reading

Tradition: Patristic / Monastic Summary: The enemies in the psalms represent spiritual forces, not human persons; Christians pray these psalms against sin and the devil.

The patristic and monastic tradition (Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Cassiodorus, and the Benedictine Rule) spiritualized the imprecatory psalms: “Babylon” is the world system; the “little ones dashed against the rock” are sinful thoughts destroyed against Christ the Rock before they grow into habits. This reading has a long liturgical pedigree — monastics have prayed these psalms daily for 1,500 years using this framework. The Psalms are the prayers of Christ, who takes upon himself the cry of the oppressed and redirects it.

Strengths

  • Preserves the psalms for worship
  • Has an ancient and robust pedigree
  • Theologically creative — Christ as the one who prays these psalms on behalf of the suffering
  • Works well in lectio divina and spiritual direction

Weaknesses

  • Can sanitize real violence and real human suffering into abstraction
  • Ignores the historical context of actual Babylonian atrocities
  • “The babies are your sinful thoughts” is a hard sell for modern readers

Further Reading

  • Athanasius, Letter to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms — foundational patristic guide to praying the Psalms
  • Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, on Psalm 137
  • Benedictine Rule, ch. 9–18 — the psalms in the monastic office
  • Bonhoeffer, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (Augsburg, 1970) — a brief, powerful treatment

Covenant Lawsuit / Prophetic Function

Tradition: Academic / Reformed Summary: These psalms invoke the covenant curses of Deuteronomy against covenant-breakers; they are theological, not personal.

Scholars like Gerald Wilson and Jamie Grant argue that the imprecatory psalms function as covenant lawsuits. The curses in Psalm 109 echo the covenant curses of Deuteronomy 28. The psalmist is not venting personal rage but invoking the terms of the covenant: those who break the covenant should experience its stated consequences. This is theology, not therapy. The psalmist is calling God to be faithful to his own covenant promises — including the promise of judgment.

Strengths

  • Explains the specific, almost legal language of the curses
  • Connects the psalms to the broader theology of covenant
  • Removes the purely emotional reading

Weaknesses

  • Even if theological, the language is still violent
  • Doesn’t resolve the tension with Jesus’ teaching on enemies
  • Can feel overly academic

Further Reading

  • Gerald Wilson, The Editing of the Hebrew Psalter (Scholars Press, 1985)
  • Jamie Grant, “The Psalms and the King” in Interpreting the Psalms (IVP, 2005)
  • Walter Brueggemann, “The Psalms as Prayer” in The Psalms and the Life of Faith (Fortress, 1995)

Honest Lament / Pastoral Necessity

Tradition: Pastoral / Mainline Summary: These psalms give voice to rage that needs expression; suppressing it doesn’t make it disappear but drives it underground.

C.S. Lewis (in Reflections on the Psalms) was initially horrified by the imprecatory psalms, then came to see them as evidence that the psalmists took their pain to God rather than acting on it. Walter Brueggemann argues that the church needs these psalms precisely because we are trained to be “nice” — but rage at injustice is a legitimate human response, and God can handle it. Suppressing anger doesn’t produce peace; it produces passive aggression, depression, or explosion. The imprecatory psalms are the Bible’s permission slip to bring your ugliest emotions to God.

Strengths

  • Pastorally the most powerful reading
  • Gives theological permission for honest prayer
  • Works in grief counseling, abuse recovery, and trauma ministry
  • Brueggemann’s framing is transformative for congregations

Weaknesses

  • Can be used to justify rather than transform anger
  • Doesn’t resolve the question of whether God actually endorses the violence prayed for
  • Some will still ask, “But should I pray for my enemy’s children to die?”

Further Reading

  • C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms (Harcourt, 1958), ch. 3 — “The Cursings”
  • Walter Brueggemann, The Message of the Psalms (Augsburg, 1984) — the lament/orientation/disorientation framework
  • Ellen Davis, Getting Involved with God: Rediscovering the Old Testament (Cowley, 2001), ch. 2
  • Kathleen Billman and Daniel Migliore, Rachel’s Cry: Prayer of Lament and Rebirth of Hope (Wipf & Stock, 1999)