We all know the passage in Matthew 5:44, "But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hat you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."
But my question is what about all the Psalms where David prays for judgment and destruction to come to his enemies. Are those type of prayers applicable for the Christian today? (I know there is a word for these type of prayers, but I can't think of it for the life of me...Help!!)
Consider Psalm 35:
1. Plead my cause O LORD, with them that strive with me; fight against them that fight against me.
3. Draw out also the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me...
4. Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul; let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.
5. Let them be as the chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the LORD chase them.
6. Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.
8. Let destruction come upon him at unawares and let his net that he hath hid catch himself; into that very destruction let him fall.
9. And my soul shall be joyful in the LORD...
Now my question is, are there instances where we could pray a prayer like Psalm 35 and not be guilty of breaking the command to "love our enemies?"
What I'm thinking right now, is that maybe it really IS love to pray for their demise, because that is that only way to save this person from hurting others.
What do you think?
18 comments:
This is a great question. Bear with me, this is not really elloquent.
I'd pray for the Lord to be glorified in the life or death of the person. I'd pray for the Lord's will to be done in his life, whether to be healed or to die. I'd pray that his suffering ceases and would not cause others to suffer. I'd pray that somehow he'd come to know the Lord through this situation and that he'd stop causing the suffering of so many people, because his heart has been changed and he repented. Then, I'd pray that if he did not come to know the Lord and he did not discontinue tormenting people, I'd pray for God to intervene and for his perfect judgement...swiftly. But God's will not mine be done.
I'm with Ms. Polly. I think we can ask for mercy for those under persecution and still ask for God to lift the veil of evil from the eyes of the persecutor but above all ask that each have grace to accept His will.
I don't think we have to pray for judgement. We already know we all will be held responsible for our actions and will be judged accordingly.
To love your enemies means also to have no ill-will against them. We can pray that God will open their eyes and touch their hearts and that they repent.
Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says The Lord.
I think I would rather pray for mercy and grace for them. God's judgement won't be pretty.
God's Grace,
These types of Psalms are called "imprecations" or imprecatory Psalms. And the same God who inspired "Love your enemies" inspired David to pray for God to judge/destroy his enemies. I personally think the distinction is to be made between personal enemies and the enemies of God.
I was going to give my opinion and wrote it al out, ready to publish. Then I re-read it and decided against it. I'll have to do some research.
You all have given some great insight and help with this. Thanks!
green, I'll be waiting for something really profound!!! =)
hi there, kristi.
those words in psalm 35 are words coming from a man who's hurt, expressing his feelings to God. when we talk to God, we are to tell Him everything including how we feel whether we're happy, sad, angry or scared and also what we think. even if we choose not to tell, He knows our hearts. when we express our feelings to Him when we're hurt, we tell Him things like a child would do. it's like saying, "dad, they did this to me and that too. punish them for it. dad, please, listen to me!" but even after expressing those feelings to Him, we should let God's will be done not ours. it is our job now to pray for our "enemies" as we have been commanded.
just a thought. God bless.
I don't think your reasoning is good. If you pray for their demise so as to protect others from being hurt by them, then you are loving the others true, but you are not loving those you pray to be killed.
However, I think you should think of it as loving God the more. That is after all the greatest command.
Therefore, when you pray for the demise of the reprobate, you are asking God to be righteous and judge the one He hates.
But then again it will be faulted me for doing exactly what I faulted you for doing, not loving them.
So, can we say that you love God and love your neighbor by praying that God give your neighbor what he deserves? I dunno...
Pia, thanks for sharing those ideas!
Adam sounds like you're going through the same reasoning circles I was going through.
What if we all got what we deserve?
Why is castro our enemy again? Sure, he polly wants us all to be communist, atheists, but when David or other psalmists prayed for judgement, it was due to their being enemies of god, not political or philosophical enemies. Those for whom judgement was asked were violators of god's law, and not god's people. David always seems to me to be asking god to do what god has said he will do, i.e. protect his name, rescue his people, judge the wicked, etc. I think the question is somewhat unfair. Prayer at its heart is supposed to be us agreeing with god, coming to his understanding of things, being conformed to his thinking; not neccessarily telling god what to do, as in 'god, go judge him'.
'polly' in my first sentence is supposed to read, 'prolly', as in 'probably'. Saving time with abbreviations for the win!
Good thoughts, Brandon. I think that is the distinction I was failing to make--is this an enemy of God or my own personal enemy?
MOM sounds pretty wise!
kc:
Doesn't that ol' persecutor have to lift the veil of evil from his own eyes? I mean...you wouldn't suggest that God would actually lift that veil against the persecutor's free will, would you ? #:~) BTW...thanks for the help on my site.
Kristi:
Just a word on prayer in general that might be a help.
R.A. Torrey was a great man of God who was noted for being a man of diligent prayer. He was often called the "Apostle of Prayer", with an actual book written about him by that title.
When near the end of his life, an interviewer asked him "If you could change anything from your past, what would it be?" Bro. Torrey said, "I would pray less, and read God's Word more". The interviewer was aghast, and asked "Why?". Bro. Torrey told him, "God speaking to me (reading His Word) is more important than my speaking (prayer) to Him!"
This was a wise man! He went on to say that the prayer life of a man will take an amazing turn if He will read before (literally...right before) he prays.
I put this to practice in my life awhile back, and there was quite a change. The change in my prayer life was truly amazing, which only indicted me for the man-centered way I had prayed in the past.
My advice would be to take the 'template' (Matt. 6:9-13) that Jesus gave us on "how to pray", UNDERSTAND each of the sections within that prayer, and then personalize it.
(#1) v.9 - Our acknowledgement of the Father and His NAME. Do a word study on NAME, and this part of the prayer will make more sense than ever before. Look at 2 Chronicles chapter 6!
(#2) v.10 - "Thy kingdom come.....as it is in heaven". We are to be seeking His will to be done on earth just as it is in heaven. in other words, he is sovereign here just as He is there.
(#3) v.11 - "Give us this day...". In short, "sustain me". Not too much lest I not need thee, nor too little lest I steal and shame His NAME. Prov.30:7-9) BTW...if (#3)follows (#2) like it should in this 'template',then Matt. 6:33 (But seek you first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you) makes perfect sense.
(#4) v.12 - "And forgive us.....we forgive our debtors". sounds kind of like "freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8) right? In short, Don't withhold forgiveness, but expect God to forgive you.
(#5) v.13a - "lead us not....us from evil (the evil one)." We know by His own words that God "tempts no man" (James 1:13). Here is meant...guide our paths, so we won't walk in the ways that lead to temptation...thus keeping us from the evil one.
(#6) v.13b -"For thine is...glory,
for ever. Amen." The closing is the same as the opening. In short...Soli Deo Gloria! (God's glory alone).
A personalized prayer done in this order & understanding is very humbling to the human, while it uplifts, and glorifies the NAME and character of Almighty God.
rf2r2,
well said...the "prayer at it's heart" definition.
In A.W. Pinks book "Sovereignty of God" is a chapter on 'sovereignty & prayer' which is really good.
LOL DP. I was owed one from Adam so I'll just say I had that one coming. I'm sorry the info on links hasn't helped but there's more when you're ready to give it a try just let me know. ;-)
Thanks for stopping by and the encouraging words
Great thoughts and comments. I heard that when David was younger he said a lot more of those harsh things than when he was older. Also, I think that although David spoke of, and there were actual physical people involved, it was the spiritual realm that was most significant. In our real lives, we can pray that God would crush the spiritual forces of wickedness that are coming against us, and to protect us in Him. Thus we are not praying against humans. There is that verse in the New Testement that speaks of loving your enemies and in doing good to them you will in effect be like pouring hot coals on their head. I heard this was a blessing to provide them with warmth and people used to carry the coals upon their heads. But I think that when you bless your enemy, he is burned inside because it shows up his faults and leaves him there kind of stuck. Also, in Romans it says that kindness and gentleness leads to repentence. So, when we pray for humans that are our enemies in this world, and are kind towards them, it helps to lead them to repentence. So, in conclusion, I think that we should pray for humans, even our enemies. We should pray God would oppose the spiritual enemies that are against us.
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