Praying against Enemies, what about the book of Psalms?

By Gavin Aleogho

In my article titled, “45 Biblical reasons why you should not pray against human enemies”, I gave 45 biblical reasons why it is scripturally wrong to pray against human enemies. I made it clear there that we are not to perceive anybody as our enemy. From our angle, everyone should be seen as our neighbours, as fellow humans whom Christ died for. I wrote that praying against perceived human enemies to either die or for something evil to happen to them is like telling God that you are more righteous than they. So, they should die so that you can live or they should go down so that you can come up. This is against the love that our Lord Jesus Christ preached.

However, in this article, I want us to look at this topic of praying against enemies from another perspective especially from the point of view of the Psalmist. Because the argument that a lot of people have against my point is that such prayer is in the Bible especially the book of Psalms chapter 5, 10, 17, 35, 58, 59, 70, 79, 83, 109, 129, 137, 140 and many others. Are we to discard that? Is there room for such prayers in Christianity? This and more are what I will be addressing here.

I must start by stating that the book of Psalms is still a part of the whole package of the scripture and no scripture should be looked down on or relegated to the background. Rather, all scriptures should be upheld. What we need, which we sometimes lack is balancing the Old Testament in the light of this dispensation of grace where God’s love is shown to all men and not just to the Israelites.

Concerning the whole Bible, the scripture speaks that: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” 2 Timothy 3:16. That being said, I will also want you to know that there are several personalities who spoke in the scriptures. By this I mean that:

1. Most times God is either speaking directly or indirectly through whatever person/medium; whether Jesus (Hebrews 1:2), the Prophets (Acts 3:21), the Apostles (Acts 1:2), Angels (Hebrews 2:2), or whatever vessel He chooses.
2. Holy men also spoke in the scripture. 1 Corinthians 7:10.
3. Ordinary men also spoke in the scripture. Job 4:1, 8:1, 11:1
4. Wicked men also spoke in the scripture. Exodus 1:8-10.
5. People possessed with demons spoke. Acts 16:16-18.
6. The devil also spoke. Matthew 4:5,6,8,9. Job 1:9-11.
7. Demons also spoke in the Bible (Mark 5:7, 12), and so on.

So, it will be wrong to take every word or dot in the scripture as being said by God Himself. I would not want you to take me to be in heresy. I believe that all the scripture irrespective of who is talking is a whole package given to us by God so that we can be instructed on what is right and wrong. However, we should avoid the error of taking any sentence, phrase or verse from the Bible as an instruction from God that we should act on, rather, some are to be acted upon, some are to teach us what is wrong, while some are to teach us what not to do.

Let’s go back to the imprecatory prayers in the book of Psalms that was written by the Psalmists, chiefly among them is King David. You must understand that at such time, they were still in the Old Testament where the law of Moses was still in effect. So, theyhad not understood the love nature of God for all humans. They held such law as “tooth for a tooth”. They didn’t understand the concept of God’s mercies although they wrote about it.

King David and other Psalmists only made their heart desire known to God about their enemies in this Psalms. However, there is no record that show that God answered these prayers against their enemies. Because God cannot be arm-twisted by anybody.

Besides, we (Gentiles) that are not Israelite by birth were once considered to be enemies of the Israeli and their “God” (Romans 5:10, Colossians 1:21) before Jesus Christ came. So, if God had answered the prayers of the Psalmists then, you can predict what would have become of our ancestors. But thanks be to God through His Son Jesus Christ, that we that were once enemies of God and His people (Hebrews) have been engrafted into God’s family (Galatians 3:14, Romans 11).

Note that even when David was to build the tabernacle, God said that his hands were full of blood, so he did not not have the privilege of building for Him. Was the blood not of David’s enemies? Yes. This shows that God is mindful of even the blood of David’s enemies.

So, why is such imprecatory Psalms still in the Bible? Because God permitted it and it is still “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”.

Am I suggesting that the book of Psalms should not be read or prayed? No. Reading is highly commended. But when it comes to praying the imprecatory Psalms, caution should be taken. We need wisdom in praying this Psalms of judgment. Obviously, complexities may abound in doing such, but that should not stop us in taking advantage of it. However, we must ensure the following;

1. That our motive is right when we pray such Psalms.

2. We should not pray it to arm-twist God against His will.

3. We might decide to pray it while we give room for God’s will to be done.

4. Pray it to have divine justice on an issue.

5. Pray it when led by the Spirit of God.

I believe we should be busy doing what God assigned us to do, while God will take care of the rest for us. Moses and the Israelite didn’t pray that God should take care of the Pharaoh that was chasing after them, but in God’s infinite wisdom and will, He drowned the Egyptians in the sea. Likewise, King Herod who wanted to kill Jesus Christ when He was born died even without Jesus’ parents praying for His death.

We should not be overly concerned about what God will do to our enemies, rather, we should be focused on fulfilling our assignment and God will take care of the rest.