Imprecatory prayers

[Ploutos]

In our family devotions, we are reading through Jeremiah, and the topic of imprecatory prayer came up in chapter 11 recently. My wife referred me to this article (https://frame-poythress.org/more-on-imprecations/) which I found to be a very helpful read on the topic.

I had already laid out the idea that our desire for the glory of God, if consistent, must at some point entail a desire for God's judgment on and victory over the wicked. At the same time, this desire for God's glory help to keep us from too heavy a focus on God's judgment to the neglect of a desire for his saving grace to be extended to all; and such a desire ought to rule out any thought of using such prayers as an expression of personal grievances.

John Frame's article expounds on those points and adds some very helpful practical and pastoral reflections not just on imprecatory prayers but on prayer in general - one notable reflection being the idea that prayer can and even should be aimed at short-term needs in certain situations. I highly recommend the article and would welcome input from others.

One caveat: I do not wish for this to be a thread about the theology of John Frame. I found this particular article to be a very good one, and my intent with this thread is to discuss the topic of imprecatory prayer. Therefore, I would politely request that any comments about the posted link stay generally on topic. Of course, if there is something about Frame's theology that leads to an erroneous statement in the article, then it's worth bringing up in the context of this topic. But that presumes that you've actually read the article I linked and are engaging with the article on this specific topic, which is a very different thing from offhandedly posting critical generalizations about Frame's theology.

 

[John Nyberg]

Really liked how he summed up the article. This quote is very practical:


“We today may be called to cry for divine justice: against abortionists and abortion advocates, against homosexual militants who try to destroy the church’s freedom to proclaim God’s word, against the remaining anti-Christian dictators of the world. We crave great historical signs of God’s displeasure with injustice. That desire is quite legitimate. And if God pleases instead to rebuke these movements by sending revival and converting the hearts of His enemies, our desire for divine judgment will be completely fulfilled. But in our cry for divine justice, the imprecatory Psalms will rightly guide our prayers.”

 

[Ploutos]

That was a good quote. Here is another one: "Jesus did refuse to exercise divine vengeance during his earthly life, because he came not to judge the world, but to save. Thus he rebuked his disciples who wanted to call down fire from heaven upon a city that rejected them (Luke 9:54ff), but he did promise judgment on unbelieving cities in the last day (Matt. 11:20-24). In these passages we learn that Jesus’ first advent was not to bring vengeance, but that ultimate vengeance is postponed until his return (which will be vengeful, II Thess. 1:6-10). But these facts in themselves neither authorize nor forbid the use of imprecatory prayers today."

Not only is that a good comment on imprecatory prayers but it's a useful point that he made about the purpose of Jesus' time on earth.

I also found this to be a helpful guideline for my own prayer life: "But most often, prayer is based on our hopes for the near-term. And biblical prayer follows this pattern: it is often realistically short-term in its expectations. We see a situation before us, and we make a tentative judgment, based on our understanding of God’s usual workings (from Scripture and providence), as to what help we might reasonably expect. When Peter was in prison, the church prayed for his release, not for the conversion of everybody in the correctional system."

In our day and age, we have so much news hitting our minds that it can be easy to take on, in various and subtle ways, the burden of praying for everything that's going on in the world. That quote provides some helpful balance.

 

[Ploutos]

In my own prayer life, I have frequently prayed for God to overthrow the plots of the wicked by either destroying or converting them. That's been my way of balancing out the various aspects involved when it comes to praying about the wicked. But I've never been in the type of Idi Amin situation described in this article. If I was, I think I would readily follow his advice.

 

[MW]

As long as it is conceived covenantally, not personally. By the covenant God's enemies become our enemies. Ps. 139, "Do not I hate those that hate thee." It is not the other way around. I have heard imprecatory prayers where people are praying for vengeance upon wrongs committed against themselves, as if they are the Lord's Messiah. One should be careful not to develop a Messiah-complex. It makes one very, very uneasy to listen to such things. Christ expounded all things in the law, the prophets and the Psalms concerning Himself. We must do the same, and keep Christ at the centre of everything, including imprecatory prayer. We are to pray in His name, not ours.

 

[Ploutos]

As long as it is conceived covenantally, not personally. By the covenant God's enemies become our enemies. Ps. 139, "Do not I hate those that hate thee." It is not the other way around. I have heard imprecatory prayers where people are praying for vengeance upon wrongs committed against themselves, as if they are the Lord's Messiah. One should be careful not to develop a Messiah-complex. It makes one very, very uneasy to listen to such things. Christ expounded all things in the law, the prophets and the Psalms concerning Himself. We must do the same, and keep Christ at the centre of everything, including imprecatory prayer. We are to pray in His name, not ours.

An excellent point. Amen to that.

 

[Brandon M.]

A good friend of mine, Ryan Swale, a URC minister, recently completed his DMin project at RPTS entitled "The Imprecatory Pastor: A Practical Theology of the Imprecatory Psalms." The Reformed Forum interviewed him about it (link). I was one of his readers before he defended it. I pray it gets published and that it's affordable for mere mortals .