This week's Theme: Do Not Fret
Day 1: Look up!
Lately, the topic of evil has come up in a variety of settings— discussions about evil times, evil events, evildoers. Several times I’ve encountered questions about how to pray.
In trying to process some of my own thoughts and questions, I have returned time and again to the wisdom and guidance of Scripture, with its record of those who too, have wrestled with similar concerns. The Psalms, in particular, are a canvas spattered with raw emotion—hurt, pain, frustration, heartbreak, distress, anger…
David and other psalmists have not held back the intensity of their feelings—their desire to see evil punished, justice done, wrong avenged. Some of their prayers can seem startlingly, brutally, forcefully unrestrained—teeming with raw emotion and fiery passion.
Take David’s prayer in Psalm 58, for instance,
Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth… Break the teeth in their mouths, O God; Lord, tear out the fangs of those lions! Let them vanish like water that flows away; when they draw the bow, let their arrows fall short. May they be like a slug that melts away as it moves along, like a stillborn child that never sees the sun (Psalm 58:6-8).
Psalm 58 is what’s known as an imprecatory prayer—a prayer that calls out for God’s justice against evil. The precise meaning of imprecate, according to dictionary.com is to invoke or call down (evil or curses), as upon a person. But close examination of the imprecatory psalms shows that though honest in their emotional outpouring, they ultimately yield to God’s justice.
We can perhaps better understand the emotional content of these psalms when we think of their context, or when we think of contexts in our day that might prompt such a raw outpouring to God; a father sobbing as he holds the shattered body of a child killed in a bomb blast; a prisoner mercilessly tortured in a political prison…
We do not know the exact context for Psalm 58, but David cries out to God for justice against the ruthless, tyrannous acts of wicked, violent, unjust rulers, who seem to have been wickedly bent from birth, and who have become masterful in the art of deceit, and of venomous action. David’s anger, frustration, distress, and sense of helplessness are poured into all the “remedies” and “punishments” he imagines, but in the end, he knows that “surely there is a God who judges the earth” (Psalm 58:11).
Imprecatory psalms show us that God listens even as we process our raw, unfiltered emotions. But in prayer, we learn, as David did, that ultimately, God is the judge, and that He, in His perfect wisdom and perfect knowledge, will act in perfect justice—no suggestions needed from us, thank you very much.
It is important to note that we should pray against evil, and against injustice. In fact, we should pray that God would foil the plans of evil. Matthew Henry comments on Psalm 58 that David prayed that the enemies of God’s church and people might be disabled to do further mischief. Think of the power of an army of praying people who call out to heaven with such a request.
And we are called to stand against evil and injustice, so that we do not suffer the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings (Psalm 49:13). But tempting as it may seem, God does not instruct us to call down curses on them. Quite the contrary.
Consider for a moment that if we succumb to vengeance, vindictiveness, bitterness, and hate, we will be serving the same forces of evil that we decry. The only way we can truly stand against evil is to choose the side of good—the only Good there is—the One who showed us a more excellent, albeit more difficult way.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous..." (Matthew 5:43-45).
“But I tell You…”. A directive from the mouth of the God who made it possible for us to love our enemies when He loved us in our enmity, and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Loving our enemies does not mean we roll over and die. The apostle Paul pursued the course of justice all the way to death. So did Dr. Martin Luther King, who chose the more excellent way, against every human inclination.
Loving our enemies means that we pray for them, while calling out and resisting evil—like John the Baptist, like Elijah, like Daniel. It means fighting with the weapons of courage and integrity, refusing to bow to Baal, or to any other god or human, but only to the living, triune God.
And sometimes, it means, that like Stephen, we look up to heaven, following the example of the Lord Jesus, and pray, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). For even to the very end we may remain confident in the knowledge that “Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth” (Psalm 58:11).
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