The Imprecatory Psalms (3)
Posted by Vincent Cheung on April 24, 2005God’s kingdom cannot come without Satan’s kingdom being destroyed. God’s will cannot be done in earth without the destruction of evil. Evil cannot be destroyed without the destruction of men who are permanently identified with it. Instead of being influenced by the sickly sentimentalism of the present day, Christian people should realize that the glory of God demands the destruction of evil. Instead of being insistent upon the assumed, but really non-existent, rights of men, they should focus their attention upon the rights of God. Instead of being ashamed of the Imprecatory Psalms, and attempting to apologize for them and explain them away, Christian people should glory in them and not hesitate to use them in the public and private exercises of the worship of God.
Johannes G. Vos,
"The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms"
Westminster Theological Journal
cited by James E. Adams in War Psalms of the Prince of Peace
(Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1991), p. 50.
Although the the imprecatory psalms applied to their own historical contexts, their real and highest function are messianic — they are the very words of Christ, and some of which are exactly repeated by him in the Gospels. Let no one say, then, that David somehow did not have a full revelation, or that those psalms had unique applications that are no longer relevant today. These are just poor excuses for being ashamed of the very words of God; they expose a person’s ignorance of Scripture and weakness in character. As Jesus says, "If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels" (Mark 8:38). If you are ashamed of the imprecatory psalms, then Christ is ashamed of you, and so am I.
Or, perhaps you have just never imagined that there could be legitimate uses for the imprecatory psalms. But this is also your fault. You need to stop thinking as the unbelievers think, and stop imagining from your unrenewed mind what Scripture ought to say. Instead, make the effort to find out what the Scripture really teaches about the imprecatory psalms, and their proper uses.
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