Before looking at Psalm 5, here is a short introduction to the imprecatory Psalms, with the help of some notes from Dr. Phil Long, former Covenant Seminary Professor.
Imprecate: To invoke evil upon; curse.
Psalm 5 is the first of what may be categorized as the imprecatory Psalms, or, as the use of imprecations in the Psalms. These may make us, as 21st century, tolerant Americans, very uncomfortable. While some have tried to explain these as ‘the language of the heart’ and others have said that our ethical standards have evolved and improved since this Psalm was written, neither of these are helpful or logical when applied to the Bible.
We must consider the Psalms as a genre. This literature is middle eastern rhetoric - poetry, not prose. They are emotive expressions of poetry from the fervid, impassioned and demonstrative eastern peoples. We need to be careful of adopting a wooden interpretation of the imprecations. Horror is piled upon horror more to express the speaker’s outrage in this context than to sentence the enemy to something specific. For example, in Jeremiah 20:14, Jeremiah says, ‘cursed be the day I was born’... 20:15, ‘cursed be the man who brought the news to my father...‘ Certainly Jeremiah doesn’t want to literally kill the messenger in this situation. This is simply the rhetoric expressing the depth of his despair.
Long concludes from his study of the imprecations in the Psalms that there are several common themes to these Psalms, including this very important one: The curses are pronounced against those who are against God. They’re not just aimed at those who are personally against the Psalmist. Jesus says if someone strikes you on the cheek, give them the other also. But here, it’s not just the author that is being harmed. The rebels are against the theocratic King, and therefore are rebelling against God himself.
(See Psalm 5:10)
Long also makes the observation that these imprecations were the expressions of the longing of an Old Testament saint for the defense or vindication of God’s righteousness. In David’s case, they were utterances of zeal for God’s kingdom. These saints did not have the clearer picture of heaven and the final judgment that we New Testament saints have. They longed for wrongs to be righted and the evil men to be judged. They hated sin and may have had a harder time separating the ‘sin’ and the ‘sinner’ as we do today. These are prophetic teachings, says Long, as to the attitude of God towards sin and impenitent and persistent sinners.
So who are the enemies of Christians today? Old Testament scholar, Tremper Longman, says the enemies against whom we New Testament believers war are different. We struggle against principalities and powers - spiritual forces of darkness. And how are we to fight? First, by praying for conversions, yes. However, Long warns against spiritualizing this entirely. Judgement day is coming. The weeds and the wheat, which are still currently growing together, will be divided. From our perspective, which is which, who is who, will not be known until the end.
Sorry, something is funny on my Blogger page and I can't figure out how to make the type bigger. I am NOT TECH SAVVY!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hash (/have you hash :) )that last paragraph out a little more. I think there are enemies of Christ - and therefore enemies of Christians - today. There are somethings going on in our world that are so antiChrist. The Bible comes down really hard, really black and white, on some morality issues that were present then, and we see those issues in our culture and age now, too. Do you think we don't take a stance on them, or sit back and wait to see how they play out, just in case they turn out to be wheat and not weeds? Is that what you are saying?
ReplyDeleteAlso, you said we fight by praying for conversions. I think we pray for protection and perseverence as well. It's only by the grace of God that we are still walking with him. Are there other ways that we fight, too? (You have a "first;" does that mean there's a second and third, etc?"
Just some initial thoughts. Sorry I missed the last couple weeks, too. We were out of state and off-screen for a couple weeks.
Rachel - thanks for writing. Absolutely not. I don't think we sit back and just wait. We work against the fall, against the curse, in any way that we can. We fight for justice for the oppressed. We work against human trafficking. We protect the unborn. And on and on. Absolutely, yes. And yes, there are other ways that we fight. We pray for all kinds of things - protection, endurance, wisdom... I was trying to make the point of the contrast of then (when the Psalm was written) and now. While there used to exist a theocracy, where the king was put in place by God, and the king therefore directly represented God, leading us to physically fight anyone who came against the king, with spears and bows and all of that, we no longer have whole physical nations as enemies. We are not the chosen nation, (us being the United States) fighting against the Babylonians. The lines are not that clear politically anymore. And so in THAT sense, we fight against the principalities, etc., as Paul describes. I absolutely agree that the Bible comes down hard on certain morality issues - yes and Amen, sister! Is that helpful? More?
ReplyDeleteAfter hearing the message last night and talking with Sean and processing myself, I felt more and more motivated and challenged to be involved on those issues that are on God's heart, to defend the defenseless. I want the things that are on God's heart to be on my heart too. Then this morning as I was thinking and praying, I've been thinking about how some things do get me really riled up, because of my experiences and what God has put on my heart. And I feel a peace about taking issue with those injustices and letting other parts of the Body take issue with other issues, based on what God has laid on their hearts. I would be overwhelmed to the point of inaction if I tried to take on the world and all the injustices that occur. Praise God for his Body!
ReplyDeleteHere's another question for you. In the psalm, David talks about how God hates, abhors, even, the sinner. But you wrote and Michael talked more about how God hates the sin. So do we not take the Bible literally in this situation because of cultural differences, writing style, lack of a theocratic king? Maybe this is what you were getting at before, but thoughts on that?
I'm enjoying this discussion, and picking your brain, and trying to pick a fight ;) if for nothing else besides to get the 2 of us thinking!