Dear God, Please Kill Babies. Amen.: Justice Is At The Core
This series so far:
Dear God, Please Kill Babies. Amen. (or, my thoughts on the Imprecatory Psalms)
The first factor that I think we need to keep in mind as we read these psalms of cursing and anger is that, at their core, these psalms are pleas for justice to be done and righteousness to be triumphant. There is absolutely nothing inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus in that desire.
Jesus, in Luke 18:1-8, told the following story:
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’ “
And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
Notice the number of times the Lord mentioned justice. The core point of this parable was that we should be persistent in prayer. However, I think it is more than a coincidence that the subject of the prayers used in the illustration was justice. Perhaps that is because justice is a legitimate concern of God’s and a legitimate topic for prayer. Jesus’ reassurance that God is concerned about justice for his people (vv. 7-8) confirms this.
Also, Revelation 6 paints a picture of Christian martyrs crying out to God for justice and, yes, vengeance.
They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (v. 10)
Additional passages could be listed, but the point stands – the desire for justice and even vengeance are not inconsistent with the spirit and teachings of Jesus, and this is the fundamental desire behind the cries in the imprecatory psalms.
I realize that this point alone still does nothing to address the specific things that are said in the imprecatory prayers that are so shocking and offensive. While I can understand the godliness of desiring justice being godly, I still can’t understand how praying for our enemies to suffer a slow, torturous death while watching their children do the same is in any way consistent with the teachings of Jesus on how we are to think about our enemies. These psalms seem to go beyond the fundamental desire for justice into other, darker, territory.
So while this consideration alone still leaves the greatest questions unanswered, we can’t move on in our consideration of these difficult portions of scripture until we understand it.
Once again: At their core, these psalms are about a desire for justice and the triumph of righteousness, which is a godly desire.
I will continue with another consideration tomorrow (hopefully).
