Ah, the imprecatory psalms. Here’s three good resources:

John Piper on Psalm 139, Don’t I hate those who hate you, O Lord?
http://tinyurl.com/6zukwg

Please Zap them, Lord from David Reid
http://www.growingchristians.org/dfgc/zap.htm

Ardel Caneday, The Propriety of Christians Invoking God’s Curse and Wrath on Evildoers
http://tinyurl.com/5bx7nc

I also wonder about people quickly saying that things we read in Psalms are not applicable today, such as David asking God in Psalm 51 “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me” Is this completely unapplicable today, or does it have an application to Christians in the 21st century of our Lord, as well as Jews in 100 BC?

I am attempting to take up Gordon’s challenge, but I’ve only done the first 25 Psalms.  I’ve found 17 of the first 25 Psalms to be invoking SOMETHING upon ones enemies from “let them be disappointed” or “don’t let them beat me” to… more violent requests. 

How to take it?  I’ve always been told that it shows God can handle our anger, and saying “God, please beat up these baddies” is a lot better than beating them up yourself. 

Perhaps some of our road rage is a result of pent up anger towards others that society says we can’t express and doesn’t give us a healthy way to express.  We only pray nice prayers in church “Please heal Aunt Mildred, please bless the Queen, bring about world peace…”, we don’t say “Kill the idiot (would like to type something more violent but wont for fear of it not being printed) who drove while drunk and killed three children, may he rot behind bars and die a painful death”.

Just my $0.02

Having just walked out of the second of “Annual Moore College Lectures” tonight I thought it might be good to mention that two of the attributes that Mike Ovey has described the ‘Unrepentant’ as having is Unforgiving and Begrudging of Mercy to others. He show this particularly in the Pharisee On tuesday night (Lecture 1)

I’m not really sure how that connects to this discussion yet but I feel that it should possibly because of the discomfort raised in Liz’s questions about the appropriateness of us begging curse on wrong doers.

Anyway I’ll continue to reflect as the series goes on, but I have no hesitation in recommending the series so far (which will be availble to purchase from MTC…

It’s taken me a while to get back to this one… But I think that I have a better grip on the uncomfortablity I had with Liz’s question…

As I mentioned in my last post Mark Ovey had discribed the unrepentant as Unforgiving and begrudging mercy to others.

I think I was connecting it to Romans 12:9-21 - Now I am clear that the particular issue on view is persecution…

However I think the Christian way of dealing with evil can be applied fairly broadly and that is not to repay evil with evil - to leave evil for God’s judgment(rom 21:17,19). If we left it here you may be able to justify a calling down of God’s wrath Psalms style, but verse 21 says not just to leave vengeance to God, but to repay evil with good.

I think too, if we remember the context of this Letter to the Romans, that our filth before God and the undeserved mercy shown to us should be in the forefront of our minds.

What better good that to pray that our Father would also have mercy on this drunk driver, (etc.)

We are assured thoughout Romans that God’s wrath will come to all unrighteous, and can take heart that he will ‘kick a few teeth’ to say the least on that day - but let’s not ungraciously forget that for the justification that Christ has given us we would be those very same unrighteous.

I think that the answer to our own rage is to remember our own offence against God, and trust that he will judge justly, I think the answer to us determining a person’s ‘wickedness’ - and “beyond salvationess” is to realise that it is never our part.
We are all ‘wicked’ and without God’s intervention beyond salvation.
So plead he does.