Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 137 | Date: February 26, 2023 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Perhaps the best-known example of it, and perhaps the harshest of them all, is Psalm 137. So let’s go—well, you have that on your outline. Psalm 137. It begins with a lament: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres, For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’ How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?”

And then begins the petition. Verse five: “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundation.’ O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks.” You ever pray like that?

The Lament Section

All right, so we have this, first of all, the lament section, and it provides for us the setting of the psalm. We don’t have the psalmist himself identified. We can tell by the time we get to verse four, obviously, this is an exilic setting. So Israel is in exile. Babylon has come, has taken them away, carried them to captivity in Babylon, and now their captors, overlords in Babylon, are having fun with them. “Sing us one of your songs. Sing us one of your happy ones.” And we’ve hung our lyres on the trees. We can’t sing. How can we sing one of the Lord’s songs when we’re here? And so it’s this lament. They’re off in exile. They’ve been defeated, carried away to a foreign land, and now they’re made the object of scorn.

His Petition

And so, verses 5 and following, we have his petition. First of all, there’s kind of an imprecation against himself, which ends up being something like a praise. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy.” You hear praise in that. He’s longing for Jerusalem, the city of God, the place of the temple, the dwelling place of God. He has his heart set to go back. This is not just bare nationalism. He’s looking back to Jerusalem as the place where he worships God in his temple.

But then we have the petition, the imprecation against the Edomites who looked on and cheered. Verse 7: “Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundation.'” So Babylon came, and Israel’s other enemies cheer and say, “Yeah, sock it to them, give it to them again.” And so now he prays against them.

And then finally, verses 8 and 9, he prays against Babylon itself for destroying Zion. Verses eight and nine: “O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rocks.” Now, the way this is worded, this is still part of the petition, but it has the sense of an expression of confidence. Blessed is he who shall come and do these things to you that you have done to us.

The Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms

All right, I think all of that then is enough to bring us to what I have on your outline: the problem of the imprecatory Psalms. Like I said, this may not be a burning issue that you’ve struggled with every day, but I suspect as you’ve read through the Psalms, you’ve wondered, what do we do with these kinds of Psalms? Is this a Christian way to pray? After all, Jesus taught us to love our enemies; Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek. Someone hits you, turn the other cheek, give them another shot. How do you square that with this, or can you? And what about Stephen, for example, who, when he’s being stoned, prayed, “Father, lay not this sin to their charge.” How do you put all of that together in the same Bible, or do they belong together?

And there have been all kinds of approaches to this, and one of the major approaches that has been done is it just ruled out the imprecatory Psalms altogether. They’re not for us today. They might say that it’s simply Old Covenant and dress it up that way, and under New Covenant terms, we don’t pray like that anymore. It might be that it was just plain wrong; we see the dark side of the psalmist in these kinds of psalms. You have a whole range of things. C.S. Lewis had a very negative view of the imprecatory Psalms and said some things about it that I think just don’t reflect a reverence for the text that we should have.

And the problem with rejecting the imprecatory Psalms like that is that these are scripture. And there’s no indication that these Psalms were displeasing to God. There’s no indication that the psalmist was unrighteous in writing this. He seems to be righteous. He’s an inspired psalmist saying this. And in fact, these psalms were given for public worship. It’s interesting that all but two of the imprecatory psalms have the postscript “to the Choirmaster.” The congregation’s going to sing this. So dismissing these imprecatory psalms is just not an option for us.

And in fact, I think we can go a little further with that and say that these imprecatory prayers are not unique to the Psalter. We have them elsewhere in the scripture as well. In Numbers chapter 10, verse 35, Moses prays that God will scatter the enemies. We find various imprecations throughout the prophets, where the prophets prophesy against the nations around Israel. The New Testament writers consistently considered themselves heirs of the Old Testament ethics—strong emphasis on justice, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. We’ll have to say something about that in a little bit.

And in fact, the New Testament writers sometimes express their own wish for cursing or for judgment on the enemies. One famous example of that is 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22, where Paul says, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” Or Galatians chapter one: anyone who brings a different gospel, let him be accursed. Or Acts chapter 13, where we have someone opposing the apostle Paul in his ministry, and Paul makes him blind. And in fact, we have some New Testament prayers for divine judgment. 2 Timothy 4, verse 14, where Paul says, “Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds.” And then if there were any question at all—and I think this is the clincher for it—even the martyred saints in heaven today are praying for punishment on their persecutors. Revelation 6 verses 9 and 10: “O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” So you can’t just dismiss the imprecatory Psalms. It’s just not an option. And yet, and yet, and yet: love your enemies, turn the other cheek. How do you put all that together? It’s a complex question. And I don’t, by any means, intend to give you the final word tonight, but I think I can point us in a direction I hope that will help.

Towards a Christian Understanding

So next on your outline: towards a Christian understanding. Some in the history of the church have, and still today, have approached these imprecatory Psalms as not curses on the psalmist’s enemies, but as prophecies of what God will do to his enemies in the end. Spurgeon tended toward this a lot in his treatment of the Psalms. They are not prayers; they’re prophecies. So it’s not—it should be read not “may God punish them,” but it should be translated “God will punish them.” It’s barely possible with the Hebrew, but it’s convenient and it really works. And I think that’s a very important part of the answer. We’ll talk more about that as we go along.

I think recognizing these as prospective to the end, when God will judge his enemies, is an important part of viewing the Psalms. But to view that as the only answer here, I think, is just not warranted. There is an eschatological aspect to this all through the Psalms. David and the king typify Jesus the king, and David’s victories and the king’s victories foreshadow the king’s victory in the end in which he will come and destroy his enemies. We have Psalms that prophesy that, Psalm 2 for example. He’ll crush his enemies like a piece of pottery, and he’ll crash it and rule with a rod of iron. We have that kind of language in the Psalms of the king—the messianic king coming and destroying his enemies. Not just establishing his kingdom in a positive way, but in establishing his kingdom, destroying all who oppose.

And then with that, the king himself—we’ll see this later as we get into some studies on the Messianic Psalms, how the Psalter regularly (this is not just reading back into the Psalter from the New Testament) the Psalter regularly has hints pointing forward to the point here: it’s not just this Israel’s king here, but it’s pointing forward to Israel’s great king who will come. There are indications of that throughout the Psalter. When you read it in light of the canon, it becomes all the more clear, and I think that’s an important aspect to keep in mind as we read. These are, in a sense, prophecies, but that’s not the whole answer. In fact, here, Psalm 137 verses eight and nine are actually cited in Revelation chapter 18, verse six, in the description of the destruction of Babylon at the return of Jesus. So that’s part of the answer. But the psalmist is not usually looking on the far horizon. He’s looking at his own enemies, and he’s asking God to intervene.

The Old Testament Context

Now, toward an answer to that is this section I have on your handout called the Old Testament context. And what I’m going to do is just give you a few pointers here just to put it in its setting. And again, this doesn’t answer the question entirely. We’ll get to more of that at the end. But it does provide a setting through which we can understand, I think more sympathetically, why the psalmist would pray like he did.

Well, the first is: the psalmist’s enemies are described as extremely violent and wicked people. There’s often military terminology, and the weapons even mentioned, and that is to be understood not just metaphorically, but very often (I don’t know, maybe even most often, I don’t know) very often to be taken literally, not metaphorically. These are foreign enemies that are coming against David. It might even be an attempted coup. It might be Absalom coming against him. Very wicked people coming at him to kill him. They’re described as wild animals; they’re described as bloodthirsty, gnashing with their teeth—that kind of language. So just to emphasize the evil and the extreme wickedness of the enemies that the psalmist has in view. This is not just someone who has a grudge against him.

Also, I mentioned there ancient warfare. In ancient warfare, women and children were not spared. You have to, when you look at the ancient warfare in the setting of the Old Testament, get out of your mind the idea we have today of rules of war and the idea of a tribunal trying people for war crimes. That just didn’t exist. And in that world, women and children were not exempt. They were killed, they were slaughtered, their little ones were dashed on the rocks, and often with great glee and triumph over the enemy. And that’s the reference in Psalm 137 verse 9. And the psalmist is just saying, “Do to them what they have done to us.” Here he is sitting in Babylon in exile. He’s been defeated. The Babylonians have come there. They’ve destroyed them. They’ve dashed their children against the rocks, carried the remainders away to Babylon, and he’s praying for exact revenge on his persecutors.

And in fact, in ancient warfare and the enemies of Israel, the enemies—women and children even—were not considered to be innocent bystanders in the conflict. People were not viewed individually but as a household. In Israel and in their enemies alike, women and children were part and parcel of what the nation was doing. We find some examples of that in Judges chapter 5, for example, of Israel’s enemies: women and children alike hated God. It wasn’t just these soldiers who are out there, but their wives and their mothers and their children back at home hated God the same as they did. They were wicked people. And so again, they were praying, “Just do to them what they have done to us.” Strict justice: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. That ethic was part of the Mosaic Code.

In it all, the psalmist—this is your next point there—the psalmist insists that he’s innocent. He’s undeserving of the hatred. He’s undeserving of the violence. In that world, it was just pure, naked aggression. The psalmist did not deserve it. He had not done anything to provoke it. And as one guy put it in an article that I read, it’s easy for us, he said, in our comfortable affluence to view this negatively. And I think that deserves some sympathetic reading. We sit here in our comfortable affluence and we look at this and think, “How could you talk like that?” But here we have extreme evil, extreme violence, unprovoked, coming against them. And so the imprecatory Psalms are grounded in a recognition of right and wrong, justice. And he’s praying for that.

The King’s Enemies

Now, much more importantly, the next point on your outline: the king’s enemies. The king’s enemies in the Psalms are not just personal enemies. The king’s enemies are God’s enemies. They are hateful of David and they’re hateful of David’s God. And David’s concern in these Psalms and all throughout the Psalter is not just personal. He’s attacked because he’s king over Zion, the city of God. And he’s being attacked, and God then is being attacked. God has promised that David will be king over God’s kingdom. God has promised that this kingdom will thrive and grow. And here these people come with extreme hatred and extreme violence against the king and against the king’s God. And success against the king would be success against God’s promise and God’s kingdom as well.

So again, this is not just mere nationalism and patriotism. It’s zeal for God. It’s zeal for God’s kingdom. It’s zeal for God’s name. If David were to go down, if Israel were to be defeated, God’s name would be brought down because he’s made some promises. And that’s what they’re wrestling with. So for example, if you’d like to look quickly at Psalm 139 verses 19 and following—we always like Psalm 139 because of what it has in the earlier part of the Psalm, extolling the omnis of God and the great attributes of God. And later in the Psalm, we have this imprecatory section.

Verses 19 and following: “O that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! They speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies.” So in here, I think we need to see that David is not viewing this just personally. He’s siding up with God. These people are opposing God and his program, and because of that, they hate God, and because of that, David is saying, “I hate them as well.”

Now, interesting here, I mentioned Spurgeon earlier. He has an interesting comment here on this Psalm. And he connects this Psalm 139 verses 19 and following—he connects that to 1 Corinthians 16 verse 22 that I read to you earlier, which says, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” And then Spurgeon comments, “He was a good hater,” referring here to David. “He was a good hater, for he hated only those who hated good. Of his hatred, he is not ashamed, but he sets it forth as a virtue to which he would have the Lord bear testimony. To love all men with benevolence is our duty, but to love any wicked man with complacency would be a crime. To hate a man for his own sake or for any evil done to us would be wrong, but to hate a man because he is the foe of all goodness and the enemy of all righteousness is nothing more nor less than an obligation. The more we love God, the more indignant shall we grow with those who refuse him their affection. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema. Maranatha.” 1 Corinthians 16. All right, so I think that’s extremely important to recognize that the king’s enemies are not just his enemies. They’re God’s enemies, and David views them as such.

Evangelistic Connotations

Also next on your handout: there are evangelistic connotations sometimes with these imprecatory psalms. And what I mean by that is that the psalmist will pray that by God’s actions against David’s enemies, the world will see that Israel’s God is supreme and that he is just. Destroy them so that they will see that you are God. And in that sense, it has an evangelistic connotation.

So for example, Psalm 83, verses 16 to 18. Phil, why don’t you turn there so you can see it? Psalm 83 verses 16 through 18: “Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever. Let them perish in disgrace, that they may know that you alone, whose name is the Lord, are most high over all the earth.” So there’s this prospect that if God will bring judgment, others will learn from it and repent and follow him.

Prayers of Faith

So these imprecations then, these imprecatory Psalms, in a sense, are prayers of faith. I have that next on your handout. They’re not self-avenging, but they’re asking God to avenge injustice and to promote his name in the earth.

Exceptions Were Always Allowed

The next, almost the next to the last one there, I think is important: exceptions were always allowed. And that is, exception from, or exemption from, judgment was contingent on faith and repentance. So for example, in Deuteronomy chapter seven, Moses commands Israel going into the promised land—scorched earth policy. Wipe it out. You get into Judges chapter two, and you have an exception. Remember who it was? Rahab. Harlot. And then you get to chapter six, and you have Achan, an Israelite, who didn’t carry out the ban, and he’s destroyed. So we have a harlot who’s spared, and we have an Israelite who’s condemned. And I think it points out well a principle that we have running through the Old Testament, and Jeremiah chapter 18 states it very specifically: God pronounces a curse, but if there is repentance, he’ll turn back. So that, I think, has to be factored into it here. It’s not that David doesn’t want them ever to repent, but given that they will not, they must be destroyed.

Distinction Between the Church and the State

Now one more factor, and this brings it closer to us now. And that is we must make a distinction between the church and the state. Ancient Israel was a sacral society. The state is the church, the church is the state. I’m using “church” anachronistically, but they’re one and the same in the Old Testament context. It is not so today.

So for example, the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount: turn the other cheek. That command is not given to the state. He is not saying, “If a man commits murder, give him somebody else. If he robs a bank, point him to the next one.” It’s not given to the state. It’s given to the individual. And it’s given to the individual in the context of living for the kingdom. And the connection seems to be that of persecution for righteousness’ sake. And so, turn the other cheek, love your enemies, those things—these are not given to the state. The state is commanded to enforce justice in the earth. It is given the sword. Paul says “the sword.” That’s not the instrument of spanking. That’s the instrument of death. The state is given the sword to enforce justice in the earth.

The people of Christ themselves, by contrast, are called to take up the cross of Christ and bear it every day. And yet, at the same time, while we are commanded to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, we are also commanded to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth and in heaven.” And all of the connotations of that, including his judgment on the enemies. And we must not forget that when that prayer is finally answered, Revelation chapter 19, God’s people will be cheering. Over the ashes of Babylon, they’ll be rejoicing.

Now, you might wonder how that can happen, by the way. How can you be rejoicing at someone’s destruction? And I think the answer is that in that day, finally, if not before, we will have been brought to see things from God’s perspective and we have so aligned our affections with his and our alliance with him that we will want what brings him glory. I saw a glimpse of this one time with a good friend of mine—he’s a pastor, brought up in an unbelieving home. His dad had a particular vengeance against Christianity. He taught his children—this friend of mine said he taught us just evil things about Jesus. He was a homosexual; he was, you know, this, that, and the other—just a wicked man. And some years ago now, he was telling me that his dad was dying. He was at the hospital with his dad. He was literally on his deathbed. And he tries again to talk to his dad about Christ. And his dad came back—I forget the specifics now—but his dad came back with some more blasphemous thoughts, words about Christ. And my friend said, he said, “I stood there and thought,” he said, “I love my dad. I love him more than I can say. He gave me much and I appreciate him for so much.” But he said, “I had to stand there and think, ‘You know, when you die, you’re going to get just what you deserve.'” And I saw then—just, I say I saw a glimpse of it—here’s a man who loves his dad, but his affections for Christ are stronger. And I suspect we’ll see something like that in the end with ourselves as well.

Can We or Should We Pray for God to Judge Our Enemies?

Now then, the question—let’s bring it to more practical things. Can we or should we pray for God to judge our enemies? Let me answer with a few specifics.

1. Certainly, we can pray God to give them repentance.
2. Certainly, we may pray that God will hasten the kingdom of Christ to come in its full consummation with all that it entails: the destruction of Babylon and all of that.
3. We may certainly pray that God will use the state to maintain justice and order both inside the borders and, if necessary, outside the borders, to punish the wicked, to protect against the enemy.

But here’s the rub, here’s the big question. Can we pray, should we pray, for direct divine intervention for immediate judgment on those who oppose righteousness in our own experience? And I will say yes, but let me give you a couple of—two qualifications. We may pray that God will intervene if:

Number one, it is not merely personal, but a zeal for God in the promotion of his interests. This is not selfish praying. That here’s somebody who’s hindering the advance of God’s work and God’s kingdom, standing in the way of it. I think we can pray for that to be removed.

And then number two, we must recognize that that judgment is not ours to execute. We leave it to God. God does not give us the warrant to take up arms ourselves against. We may pray, “God, intervene; God, take down the wicked,” but I don’t think we can say, “I’ll shoot him for you.”

Let me give you some specific examples of how this might work out. Let’s say a hostile nation wants to overthrow the United States. Say it’s a Muslim nation on a jihad. I think it’s ironic they view us as a Christian nation. That is so far from the truth anymore. But because of that, they want to exterminate us. I think it’s entirely right for us to pray that God would use the state and our leaders to make decisions that would protect us against that, and to intervene and destroy the enemy. I think it’s entirely right. I think that one’s pretty easy.

If a man is to attack me because of my witness for Christ—now that’s another matter. I remember one time when I was—I couldn’t have been more than five, maybe six, but I was a very young boy—my dad had been out and he came home with his face obviously been punched and beat, fat lip. He’d been made a punching bag. And here was some guy who used to be in the church, was mad at dad because of what he was preaching. Happened to bump into him on the street, took it out on him. And it was pretty traumatic, as you can imagine. My dad was a fighter. He fought in Golden Gloves. When he told his brothers about it, they absolutely refused to believe it. They thought he was pulling their leg. The Jim that they knew just would never have—he’d have shredded them. And in fact, if the guy had tried to mug him or—that’d been different. And he’d been glad to shred him. He’d come after his family or something. But this was different. This was for the gospel. And dad stood there with his hands to his side and let him take his shots. I think what was at stake at that point—that’s what was required.

But let’s take that a step further. Let’s say if someone is lying about the church, actively involved in trying to hinder the testimony of the church, hinder the witness of the church. The question comes up: at what point can we pray against him? That’s becoming more and more a possibility in our culture. We can certainly pray, “Save him, give him repentance.” I think we have every warrant at some point to say, “Expose him, expose him for the wicked hypocrite that he is; discredit him, remove him.” I think we have every warrant at some point to pray like that, but check your motives. Make sure the concern here is for the concerns of Christ, his interest, the advance of the kingdom, and not just, “This is my church.” That’s different.

What about leaders of cultural centers in our society promoting and enforcing evil? So, leaders in the education world enforcing evil. Leaders in the entertainment world, political world, increasingly enforcing evil ideals on us. At what point can we pray against them or should we? I’ll give you one example that I’m familiar with. A professor friend of mine at seminary, his brother was outside an abortion clinic, I think holding a sign, as I recall, standing there holding a sign and praying that God would deliver the babies. A man came up and got all in the face of this guy—standing still, deliberately not provoking—got all in his face, caused a ruckus. The guy stood still and he caused a ruckus until finally, you know, hollering and screaming at him until finally the police came over and arrested this guy holding the sign, and he was brought before the judge.

Thankfully, it was caught on video. And so in the courtroom, the video was shown, and you have to recognize this guy was not the one provoking the problem. So the judge dropped the charges, but not in such a way that would exonerate him. He dropped the charges because he had to. But first of all, he gave the man a lecture and told him he’d better never see him in the courtroom again and “you’ve got to stop this kind of provoking.” And he put all the blame on him and made it sound like he was being merciful to him to drop the charges. I have no trouble praying against a judge like that. No trouble at all.

What about when this government begins to oppose the church, impose regulations? This is coming. Gay membership: you can’t exclude him because he’s gay. Gay officers: you can’t exclude him from an office in the church because he’s gay. That’s coming. When public officials are enforcing that kind of thing, what do we do? Well, first of all, first of all, remember that this is nothing new to the church. This is nothing new at all. From the very beginning, the church was required to burn incense to Caesar, give him worship. And now today, we read in the news this week that President Xi of China is starting some effort to demand that the people swear allegiance and worship to him. It’s coming there. That kind of wickedness, that kind of arrogance—I think at some point we have to say, yes, we can pray that God would intervene and not allow this to hinder the work of his kingdom. I think we can pray, “God, if you will not give him repentance, if you will not save him, remove him.” And then at the end, in any case, in any case, use these events to the advance of the gospel. And in the meantime, embolden your people.

That’s not a final answer, it’s not a definitive answer. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer. The general answer is yes, I think there is room for this at some point, but we must be careful to recognize that this is not for personal vengeance or even personal avenging. This is for concerns for the kingdom of God.