Title: Imprecatory Psalms: Praying Judgment On Our Enemies
Meta: The sentiment in the imprecatory Psalms is not that of an evil personal grudge, but rather of someone desiring judgment out of concern for the glory of God.
Tags: Revelation 6,Psalms,David,Judgment,Imprecatory,prayer

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I've been wrestling with the question since last night,

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I'm still wrestling with it,

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I hope I can ask it reasonably briefly.

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In trying to follow the example of godly people

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in the Scriptures,

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my question concerns what and how we are to pray.

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I've always wrestled with the imprecatory Psalms,

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but I don't just want to leave it in the Old Testament.

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I want to go to the New Testament there as well.

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We have a godly man, a godly psalmist,

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praying judgement upon the enemies of God

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in the Old Testament.

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And in the New Testament, as you talked about,

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we have perfect love in Heaven

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and John has a vision in Revelation 6

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of the martyrs praying to God:

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"When are you going to avenge our blood?"

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Is it a violation of the Law of Christ, or are we

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doing something wrong?

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Yes, we are to pray for our enemies,

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we are to pray for their salvation.

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But at the same time, if they will not be saved,

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are we okay if we pray for judgement to fall upon the

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enemies of God at the same time?

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Okay, does everybody understand the question?

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It relates to the revelation that we have in

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Scripture concerning praying

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for God to send judgement in certain situations.

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And the question is if that's a violation

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of the Law of Love, and the answer is no.

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It's absolutely not.

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And it is right.

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I think when we look at those

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imprecatory Psalms, we need to realize

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that those were not personal grudges.

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But they were things related to the glory of God

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and to righteousness in the Earth.

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And there can be a time to pray that God would

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step in and do something.

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And I'm a little bit afraid of praying for God to kill

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somebody or something like that,

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but we can certainly cry out for Him to intervene

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and uphold righteousness.

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Whatever that is.

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And if He can do it by mercy, that's what we want.

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But there's sometimes that He can't.

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I know of a godly pastor in Canada, whose gone

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to be with the Lord now.

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There was a woman,

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here they were trying to lead the church,

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and a woman came,

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I've forgotten what the situation was,

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but she said, "That's not going to happen in this church.

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It'll happen over my dead body!"

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That's what she said.

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And so they went to prayer,

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they were not praying for God to kill her,

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they were praying, "Oh Lord, do something, because

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this is an unrighteous situation."

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And there was all this opposition.

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They're crying out to God to help

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and in the middle of that prayer meeting the

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phone rings and they say:

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"So and so has just dropped dead."

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So it was over her dead body.

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They didn't want that, they wanted mercy.

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But I think that the sentiment in those Psalms

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is not something evil.

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It's something where there's a concern for the

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righteousness of God.

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So anything of that sort in Scripture:

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we're wanting mercy, we follow the example of Jesus.

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"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

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But there is a right time to pray that He

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would vindicate His name.

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And like you said,

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in Revelation,

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"Oh Lord, how long..."

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Souls of those under the alter, they're crying out,

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"How long before You avenge this?"

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How long before You get this taken care of.

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Their concern is not personal.

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That's the big thing.

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If we can pray sincerely about the

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glory of God in a situation,

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and it's not some personal grudge, then I think we

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can do that fully in the love of Christ.

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Because it comes from love to God,

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that's where it flows from.

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When Jesus cleansed the Temple,

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it says, "Zeal for Thy house will consume me."

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He was upset.

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Get this junk out of here.

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"You've made My Father's house

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a house of merchendaise!"

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He was angry.

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But it was not any anger related to any personal

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offense, it was anger for the glory of God.

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And there is such a thing.

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I think it's more rare than most people think,

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but there is such a thing.