Category Psalms

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The Imprecatory Psalms

Sep 12, 15 3:27 PM

The imprecatory Psalms have often been troubling for Christians. These Psalms which call for the punishment upon one’s enemies are often difficult to harmonize with the teachings of Christ in which we are to love our enemies. First, we get a definition of exactly what the Imprecatory Psalms are from an online encyclopedia of Christianity, Theopedia:

Imprecatory psalms are those those psalms that contain curses or prayers for the punishment of the psalmist’s enemies. To imprecate means to invoke evil upon, or curse. Psalms 7, 35, 55, 58, 59, 69, 79, 109, 137 and 139 all contain prayers for God’s judgment on the psalmist’s enemies.

http://www.theopedia.com/Imprecatory_Psalms

These imprecatory psalms are often the reason that most people believe that an apparent antithesis exists between the Old Testament and the New Testament. The imprecatory prayers and psalms have been severely neglected.

Perhaps one of the strongest psalms in the psalter which most Christians view as troubling is Psalm 109. This psalm is a prayer for the punishment of the wicked. It is the description of a ghastly account of an attempted homosexual rape of a Levite, the brutal rape of his concubine, and the dismembering of her body. The twelve pieces of her body were sent to the twelve tribes of Israel by her husband. In this psalm, the author David calls upon God to destroy his enemies in horrific ways using no less than 30 anathemas. Another which many regard as the most difficult is Psalm 137:8-9 which uses language such as “dash [your infants] against the rocks”.

There are other Psalms which contain similar prayers towards those that do evil. And it’s not just in the book of Psalms, but we find prayers of imprecation for the destruction of those willing to do evil throughout the Word of God. Moses prayed “Rise up, O Lord! And let thine enemies be scattered, and let those who hate Thee flee before Thee” (Num. 10:35). Jeremiah spoke words of imprecation (Jer. 18:19-23). There are also examples in the New Testament from the saints who were slain for their righteousness (Rev. 6:9-10).

In order to harmonize these judgmental attitudes found in the imprecatory psalms with the teachings of Christ, we must realize, as Kaiser shares, the key is in understanding. The psalmist is not praying to God out of malice and vindictiveness, or at the delight of the sufferings of others. These invocations are prayers addressed to God, they are earnest pleadings from the psalmist asking that God step in and correct matters that have been so grossly distorted that, without the divine intervention of God himself, all hope for justice is lost. Kaiser continues to observe:

These hard sayings are legitimate expressions of the longings of Old Testament saints for the vindication that only God’s righteousness can bring. They are not statements of personal vendetta, but utterances of zeal for the kingom of God and His glory.[2]

Walter C. Kaiser Jr. 1984. Hard Sayings of the Bible. Downers Grove, Illinois, IVP Press. Pg. 280

It must also be noted that the imprecations which are repeated in prayer had already been stated elsewhere by God. These prayers would be the fate of those who were consistently impenitent towards God and His Kingdom. Adams writes:

David observed the same principles in his time as Paul did later. The Lord’s anointed of the Old Testament and the apostle of Christ in the New Testament are in complete friendship. The rule for both is stated well by David, the author of the great majority of the psalms of imprecation. First Samuel 24:12 records his words to his deadly enemy Saul who has been hunting David to kill him (see v. 11): “May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.

James E. Adams, 1991. War Psalms of the Prince of Peace. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company. Pg. 46-47.

We must be very careful in our prayers and what we ask for. We see that these prayers are rightly justified. Still one may ask, why is it that we think asking God to bring judgement on the wicked is wrong? Adam’s continues:

Then where do we get the idea that is is wrong to ask God to bring judgement on the wicked? That mentality creeps up on us so subtly that it has become a very common idea in our day. You may even have heard a fellow Christian express such an intense love for friends or relatives that God’s judgement against their evil deeds is rejected. It is possible to perceive such deep feeling of love for another as very “Christian” while failing to realize that what is being expressed actually evidences a lack of love for God. In addition, such ideas demonstrate a woefully inadequate comprehension of the seriousness of man’s sin against a holy God.

James E. Adams, 1991. War Psalms of the Prince of Peace. Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company. Pg. 46-47.

Always lead with a blessing, be willing to imprecate yourself, and understand that these imprecatory prayers are a legitimate means to a legitimate end and that Gods will be done.

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Poetry and Wisdom, Psalms

Oct 8, 13 9:33 PM

Among the books of the OT, there is but one that stands out in the company of them all when it comes to a persons faith in the Lord. The book of Psalms, or as known in the Hebrew title “Book of Praises”. And like the book of Job, this book also has it’s own uniqueness in which God encourages us to use the language of the Psalms in our prayers and worship of Him. The book is a collection of 150 hymns that Israel uses in worship, of prayer, and praise. This number differs between Protestant, Catholic Orthodox, and Hebrew traditions. The book of Psalms mirrors the faith of Israel as God’s revelation to Israel and Israel’s response in faith. When reading the Psalms, we as Christians today are able to see what those of the faith believed more than twenty-five hundred years ago and we can experience how God’s people in the past had related to Him. Many of the Psalms are recorded events, a large part of the Psalms are accounts of Israel’s history. Thirteen of the Psalms are related to David’s life and one of them is related to the dedication of the temple, although the latter may have also been a general use in dedication liturgies.

The Psalms inspire a relationship, a conversation between God and man. Communication through prayer in the book of Psalms usually takes the form of the individual lamenting the adversity, describing the on-going evils in God’s creation, and petitioning God to uphold His promises. The Alexanders describe these expressions of feelings and experiences:

The psalms express the whole range of human feeling and experience, from dark depression to exuberant joy. They are rooted in particular circumstances, yet they are timeless, and so among the best-loved, most-read, parts of the Bible. In our modern age we are stirred by the same emotions, puzzled over the same fundamental problems of life, cry out in need, or worship, to the same God, as the psalmists of old.⁠

Alexander, Pat and David Alexander 1999. Handbook to the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Zondervan. Pg. 359

The wholeness of our being is impacted by each and every Psalm. This is what Calvin called “An anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul”:

For there is not an emotion of which any one can be conscious that is not here represented as in a mirror … the Holy Spirit has here drawn to the life all the griefs and sorrows, fears, doubt, hopes, cares, perplexities, in short, all the distracting emotions with which the minds of men are wont to be agitated. ⁠2

Calvin (1:xxxvii), The Anatomy of all the Parts of the Soul.

The purpose for the book of Psalms has the same purpose as any other book of the Bible. This purpose is found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

The Psalms were initially, separated through time, several collections that were eventually brought together through one book under the direction of the Holy Spirit. Smaller collections such as the Psalms associated with the sons of Korah and with Asaph, the second Davidic psalter, and the Hallelujah psalms were later added with larger collections such as the Psalms associated with David, the Elohistic psalter, the Korahite and the Davidic psalms, the Asaphite psalter, the Songs of Ascent, among others which eventually produced the 150 psalms that we have today. So it would seem that the Psalms ranged from the time of Moses till the return from the Captivity. Manuscripts that have been found at Qumran show that the complete collection as we have it today must have been finalized some time before the Maccabean period, 2nd century B.C. The final editor took the individual poems, collections and edited them into one book.

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Seven Types of Hebrew Poetry

Nov 3, 11 7:34 PM

The seven types of parallelisms found in Hebrew poetry are:

1) Synonymous parallelism – very close similarity between each of two consecutive lines.

2) Synthetic parallelism – the second line takes up and develops further a thought begun in the first line.

3) Emblematic parallelism – one line conveys the main point, the other line illuminates it by an image.

4) Antithetical parallelism – the second line contrasts with the first.

5) Climatic parallelism – the second line repeats the first with the exception of the last term.

6) Formal parallelism – the two lines are joined solely by metric considerations.

7) Inverted or Chiastic parallelism – strictly speaking a form of synonymous parallelism. The main difference is the inversion of terms in the second part of the unit.

Examples of the types of poetry found in Psalms 1 are:

Psalms 1:1, synthetic.
Psalms 1:2, synonymous.
Psalms 1:3, emblematic.
Psalms 1:4, synthetic.
Psalms 1:5, synonymous.
Psalms 1:6, antithetical.

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