You don’t have to read far in Psalms before encountering, some troubling passages – such as vengeful outbursts of fury tucked away in the midst of elegant pastoral poetry. Some seem on the level of “I hope you get hit by a truck!” schoolyard epithets. “Imprecatory psalms,” these are called, or sometimes, “vindictive psalms,” or, more bluntly, “cursing psalms,” because of the curses they rain down on opponents.
What are such outbursts doing in the midst of sacred Scripture? Readers have proposed various explanations.
1. THE CURSING PSALMS EXPRESS AN APPROPRIATE “RIGHTEOUS ANGER” OVER EVIL.
Prof. Allan Bloom in “The Closing of the American Mind” tells about asking his undergraduate class at the University of Chicago to identify an evil person. Not one student could do so. “Evil” simply did not exist as a category in their minds. Our inability to recognize and identify evil, says Bloom, is a sign of grave danger in our society.
I have received great help on this issue from my wife, who works near an inner-city housing project. She sees pervasive evil every day: the gangs who snipe at sidewalk pedestrians with automatic rifles, the policemen who rough up innocent people because of skin color, the thieves who knock down senior citizens outside the currency exchange where they cash their social security checks.
A few months ago my wife came home boiling with anger. A janitor was tyrannizing the residents of one senior citizens’ building. He would use his master key to enter widows’ apartments, then beat them up and steal their money. Everyone knew the culprit, but because he wore a mask and could not be positively identified, the city housing authority was stalling on his transfer or dismissal.
If Allan Bloom had asked my wife to describe an evil person that day, he would have gotten a vivid description with no hesitation. And precisely that kind of structural evil – corrupt judges, slave owners, robbers, oppressors of the poor, racists, terrorists – was what the psalmists were responding to.
The “righteous anger” explanation may illuminate the motives behind the cursing psalms, but it does not remove all the problems they present. Although furious, Janet did not stalk around the house muttering threats like, “May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes” (Ps. 109:10), or, “Happy is he … who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” (Ps. 137:8-9).
2. THE CURSING PSALMS EXPRESS A SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY CORRECTED BY THE NEW TESTAMENT.
C. S. Lewis, who seemed almost embarrassed by the cursing psalms, discussed this approach in his book “Reflections on the Psalms.” He contrasted the psalmists’ spirit of vengefulness with another spirit (“Love your enemies,” “Forgive them for they know not what they do”) exemplified in the New Testament. “The reaction of the Psalmists to injury, though profoundly natural, is profoundly wrong,” Lewis said.
Having observed nothing comparable to the psalmists’ vengeful spirit in pagan literature, Lewis developed a rather complicated argument related to the election of the Jews. “Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst,” he said. The Jews’ “higher calling” had led to a snobbery and self-righteousness that came out in such inappropriate ways as the cursing psalms. These arguments did not endear Lewis to the Jewish community; a few years ago, the Christian Century published an article by a rabbi taking offense at Lewis’s remarks.
Certainly Jesus introduced a new spirit (“You have heard it said … but I say unto you…”). But as Lewis himself notes, the Bible does not present such a clear-cut progression from the Old Testament to the New. Commands to love your enemies appear in the Old Testament as well. To complicate matters even further, New Testament authors quote approvingly some of the most problematic of the cursing psalms. Psalm 69, for example, is cited repeatedly. Peter applied one of its curses directly to Judas (Acts 1:20); Paul applied another (“May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever,” Rom. 11:9-10) to unbelieving Israel. Cursing psalms are not so easily dismissed.
3. THE CURSING PSALMS ARE BEST UNDERSTOOD AS PRAYERS.
The cursing psalms appear in a considerably different light when we remember their literary context: We readers are -overhearing” prayers addressed to God. Seen in this way, the cursing psalms are what I have called “spiritual therapy” taken to its limits.
If a person wrongs me unjustly, I have several options. I can try to wrong him or her back, a response condemned by the Bible. I can deny or suppress my feelings of hurt and anger. Or, I can take those feelings to God, entrusting him with the task of “retributive justice.” The cursing psalms are detailed examples of that last option.
Instinctively, we want to “clean up” our feelings in our prayers, but perhaps we have it all backwards. Perhaps we should strive to take all our worst feelings to God. After all, what would be gossip when addressed to anyone else is petition when addressed to God. What is a vengeful curse when spoken about someone (“Damn those people!”) is a plea of helpless dependence when spoken to God (“It’s up to you to damn those people; only you are a just judge”).
One reason I lean toward this way of understanding the cursing psalms is that I have read the end of the story in the Book of Revelation. In that book we see a preview of a time when the very worst of the cursing psalms will come true. Even the most notorious, Psalm 137, finds fulfillment: “With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again” (Rev. 18:21). Justice will reign absolutely someday, and accomplishing that will require a time of cataclysmic violence against evil.
I see the cursing psalms as an important model for how to deal with evil and injustice. I should not try to suppress my reaction of horror and outrage at evil. Nor should I, Rambo-like, take justice in my own hands. Rather, I should take those feelings, undisguised, to God. As the books of Job, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk clearly show, God has a high threshold of tolerance for what is appropriate to say in a prayer. He can “handle” my unsuppressed rage. I may well find that my vindictive feelings need his correction – but only by taking those feelings to him will I have that chance for correction and healing.