What is an imprecatory psalm, you ask? Good question! Imprecatory psalms are psalms in which the author calls for God's wrath to come upon certain people. There are several of these types of psalms in the Old Testament. A couple of examples will help. Psalm 109 (a psalm attributed to David himself) contains the following requests of God regarding an unnamed enemy:
"Let his days be few; let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg; and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has, and let strangers plunder the product of his labor." (Psa 109:8-11)
There's more, but that's enough to get the point across. A second example, from Psalm 137, is even more shocking. Speaking of the Edomites, the psalmist writes:
"O daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us - he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." (Psa 137:8-9)
What are we to make of such sentiments? Are they "God-ordained," an example for us to follow (as the pastor in the above referenced news story would have us believe)? Absolutely not - to view these as examples of "godly" behavior would be to completely misunderstand these Psalms. What we find in the Psalms is humanity in all its glory and its sinfulness - at its best and its worst. In the imprecatory psalms the authors are expressing their anger and frustration to God, but it does not come out in ways that reflect God's will. It does, however, show us that such feelings are at times natural. However, that does not mean they are examples to follow. But it can be a comfort to us to know that we are not the only ones who get angry - and to know that God understands such feelings.
Back to the story. This pastor asked his congregation to pray for the deaths of the two heads of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. The reason? Because he had publicly endorsed, on church letterhead, Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, and urged his church members to do the same, and they reported him to the IRS for doing so. And they were right to report him. Churches can lose their tax-exempt status for endorsing particular candidates, and they should. It is an abuse of power for a Pastor to use his position to influence church members' votes.
The pastor's call for his followers to pray for the deaths of these two men shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the imprecatory psalms. It also runs counter to Jesus' own teachings in the gospels, where he commanded his followers to pray for their enemies (which does not include praying for their death). Additionally, at the most basic level Jesus taught his followers to love other people - the subject of my "Jesus and the Neighbor" series of posts. It is tragic when Christians miss the point of Jesus' teaching so completely that their actions truly become a perversion of the gospel, twisted beyond all recognition.
4 comments:
It seems to me like this falls very much in line with the attitude that has turned many off to the church. While this is a rather extreme example, it has the same feeling as Christians who don't want a certain kind of person around them because they are "sinners"... which usually amounts to people who's specific beliefs and actions don't line up with our ideals... as if we aren't all sinners. I've run into far too many people who have been turned off to hearing about God not by his teachings, but by those who claim to be his followers. This story seems to fit the mold pretty well.
I'm not positive about the connection you're making here (although I wholeheartedly agree that the attitude you're describing is a problem - especially from the perspective of the gospels). But I agree completely that stories like this turn people off to the church. How can we claim to love other people when we pray to God that he would kill them? Just typing that sounds ludicrous . . .
I would also like to point out that there is a psalm that says, "Do not rejoice when your enemy stumbles."
I remembers a certain Bible College professor talking about his imprecatory prayers...
Post a Comment