Dear God, Please Kill Babies. Amen.:Imagine A Cross-less World

This series so far:

• Dear God, Please Kill Babies. Amen. (or, my thoughts on the Imprecatory Psalms)
• Dear God, Please Kill Babies. Amen.: Justice Is At The Core

As I continue to try to make some sense of the ever-disturbing Imprecatory Psalms and their conflicted relationship to the teachings of Jesus, I come to another point which needs to be made in order to be sure that we have looked at this issue from all angles. However, as with my last post, I don’t think that any of the points that I have made (or will make) completely smooth out the difficult and disturbing aspects of these psalms. Rather than reconciling everything neatly and nicely so that I can tie a nice bow on these parts of scripture and consider myself done with them, the considerations that I am outlining here have enabled the tension and apparent conflict between these psalms and the teachings of Jesus to dwell peacefully in my mind. In other words, these considerations are what keeps these psalms from damaging my faith in spite of the tension that I continue to recognize. After all, we don’t have to have all of our questions settled in order for our faith to be real, and all parts of scripture don’t have to fit neatly together in order for our faith to be informed.

A Christian must keep in mind when reading these psalms that they were written before the cross.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one to dismiss the Old Testament’s relevance for modern Christians. I agree with the following assessment by Al Maxey, found here:

As for the tired argument that the inspired writings of the Old Covenant are not for those living under the New Covenant, that is simply not even consistent with the writings of the NT canon itself, which appeal to the OT documents countless times in order to illustrate and illuminate the principles and precepts of our Lord for His Church. Decades after the day of Pentecost, the apostle Paul informed the evangelist Timothy that the “sacred writings are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). He then immediately states, “ALL Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (vs. 16-17). To the brethren in Rome the apostle Paul wrote, “Whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4).

While I don’t discount the Old Testament’s relevance for today, I do think that the world changed dramatically at the cross. It is difficult for those of us on this side of the cross to remove ourselves from everything we have known and get into the mind of someone that lived long before that wonderful and horrible day. However, in order to make some sense of the imprecatory psalms we must do just that.

Imagine your life without the Gospel. No Jesus; no nativity; no Sermon on the Mount; no cross; no empty tomb; no ascension; no Pentecost (at least of the Acts 2 variety); no New Testament. Imagine having no assurance of a final righting of all wrongs; no expectation of a new heavens and new earth in which the effects of Edenic sin are reversed.

Don’t you think that the absence of these Christian hopes would affect your attitude towards fellow sinners? Don’t you think it would affect your attitude towards your present sufferings and injustice?

Without the clear picture of God’s justice provided in the life and death of Christ and the apostles, I would most certainly feel a greater desire to enforce my own brand of justice. Without the teachings of the New Testament on the blessings that can be associated with suffering, I would be less willing to submit to it. Without a Christ hanging on a Cross, I would be less likely to turn the other cheek.

God spoke of his ultimate justice and grace and the eventual righting of all wrongs in the Old Testament, to be sure. However, what was revealed only in shadows before the Cross is now revealed to us in flesh and blood. Our worldview is, therefore, completely different from that of those before the world was turned upside down by the God-Man and his followers.

As I look at the curses and violence in the Imprecatory Psalms, I remember that they were cries from a man living in a world that had not been given the same picture of hope that ours has. This realization at the very least gives me pause in my judgment of the psalmist.

At least two more considerations yet to come. Stay tuned.

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