Psalm 109 is one of the more extreme imprecatory psalms. Rather than commenting on the words of the psalm itself, this article will deal with the reasons such psalms are included in our Bibles. We will then leave it to the reader to determine how the interpretive principles stated here apply to Psalm 109.
Christians struggle to understand psalms that call down curses on evil doers. Since Jesus taught us to love our enemies, it seems these prayers are no longer proper for believers. Since even the Old Testament discouraged personal vengeance (Lev 19:18; Dt 32:35; Pr 25:21-22), it may seem questionable if these statements were ever acceptable to God.
There is not a single approach that is adequate for all this material.
We should, of course, remember that the Bible uses the common figures of speech. Figures of speech, including hyperbole, are especially common in the Psalms. For this reason, we should never base a major doctrinal or ethical decision on the Psalms alone. We should also be aware of the possibility that what sounds so hateful to us may have had a different connotation in a different culture.
That is a helpful thought, but it does not take us far.
We should also remember that the Bible sometimes records what was said without indicating that it should have been said. Satan’s words to Eve, or to Jesus, would be clear examples. The arguments in Job are another example. Men are arguing there. They could all be wrong, but they cannot all be right in everything that they said.
There may be places where this applies to the Psalms, but those cases are rare. These songs were preserved as the songbook of the second Temple and were used as the songbook of the church through much of its history. Is it safe for us to begin picking and choosing in the psalms? We need a clear reason from scripture before engaging in such selectivity.
We must consider the concept of progressive revelation, as well. It is true that some things were accepted at times that are not accepted under other circumstances. It is true that as truth was more clearly revealed wrong becomes increasingly wrong. That is taught in several places (2 Chron 30:17-20; Matthew 19:7-8; Acts 17:30-31). This helps us to understand why certain statements may have been acceptable or at least excusable at an earlier stage of revelation. But it still leaves us the difficulty of deciding which attitudes are acceptable for us to imitate.
We may sometimes be mistaking a call for divine justice with a desire for personal vengeance. This is sometimes linked to a claim that David wrote the imprecatory psalms as king, not in his personal capacity. Part of this claim is obviously false. Few of the imprecatory psalms are clearly written by David. It is perfectly clear that Psalm 137, a very notable imprecatory psalm, was not authored by David. It is also mistaken to say that the persecution of David was somehow indirectly persecution of the Messiah and therefore justified calling down curses on others.
But while that particular form of the idea is so overextended as to be false, the idea that one may deal impartially with wrong as an attack on God’s kingdom, rather than as an attack on us personally, is quite correct. Even today, we should expect our judges to deal calmly, yet firmly, with wrongdoing directed at society. They are not to take personal vengeance. But they are to punish wrongdoing. When possible, a judge should step aside (“recuse himself”) from any case involving his own interests. But that is not always possible, especially in the church. The fear of appearing personally vindictive must not keep a judge (or a church elder) from protecting the society he is duty bound to defend. Christian leaders frequently face situations where they are personally attacked. Often the personal attack is merely a smoke screen to cover an attack on the church. The fear of appearing personally vindictive must not keep us from protecting the church.
Sometimes the problem has to do with our underdeveloped sense of justice. Whether we like it or not, the Bible teaches that all sin must be punished! (Nahum 1:3) Christians know that God has eternity in which to right all wrongs. Christians know that all human sin was punished by means of the cross (Rom 3:26). But, since the Old Testament writers were imperfectly informed about eternity and the atonement, for them justice seemed to demand that punishment take place in this life.
We need their sense of justice, their horror at the thought that wrongdoing might go unpunished. But we can have that zeal for justice without giving vent to such curses as we sometimes find in the psalms, because we know how the honour of God’s justice has been upheld.