This reminds me of Bonhoeffer's way of reading the imprecatory psalms in his Prayerbook of the Bible, which was helpful to me years ago, but your post prompted me return to it. You're pretty much in alignment, though one additional thing he emphasized is the avoidance of personal revenge-seeking: "The enemies referred to here are the enemies of God's cause, who lay hands on us because of God. Therefore it is nowhere a matter of personal conflict. Nowhere do those who pray these psalms want to take revenge into their own hands; they leave vengeance to God alone (cf. Rom. 12:19). Therefore they must abandon all personal thoughts of revenge and must be free from their own thirst for revenge; otherwise vengeance is not seriously left to God."
That is a great point about avoiding personal revenge-seeking. I hope that was implicit in what I wrote, but I agree with you that it would have been good to make that point plainly. Thanks for reading and commenting.
....the Fathers ☦️⛪ often see these ‘infants’ as the distracting thoughts that immediately and persistently crop up when we attempt to stand ♥️ with our mind in our heart before God in Prayer~ DASH Them on the ROCK!
Ceaselessly call upon the Holy Name of Jesus, our οnly True Rock. 🪨🕯️📿
Thanks for reading, Trip. My sense is that Psalms includes “all of the above.” I think some of what the book includes could be described as venting toward God. It of course includes praises, laments, and many other things too. Some passages, though, just taken at face value, do read as curses directed at actual people. I think these can be understood given the culture of the time and the amount of warfare Israel got tangled up in. But as I wrote, Christians are not to simply follow that pattern and go around cursing people. And yes, God can handle and our raw honesty, as you say. He wants us to pray honestly. That comes through all across Psalms.
Wise words! Thank you for sharing this!
This is most excellent!!🤩💖
This reminds me of Bonhoeffer's way of reading the imprecatory psalms in his Prayerbook of the Bible, which was helpful to me years ago, but your post prompted me return to it. You're pretty much in alignment, though one additional thing he emphasized is the avoidance of personal revenge-seeking: "The enemies referred to here are the enemies of God's cause, who lay hands on us because of God. Therefore it is nowhere a matter of personal conflict. Nowhere do those who pray these psalms want to take revenge into their own hands; they leave vengeance to God alone (cf. Rom. 12:19). Therefore they must abandon all personal thoughts of revenge and must be free from their own thirst for revenge; otherwise vengeance is not seriously left to God."
That is a great point about avoiding personal revenge-seeking. I hope that was implicit in what I wrote, but I agree with you that it would have been good to make that point plainly. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Dash the infants against the rocks….
....the Fathers ☦️⛪ often see these ‘infants’ as the distracting thoughts that immediately and persistently crop up when we attempt to stand ♥️ with our mind in our heart before God in Prayer~ DASH Them on the ROCK!
Ceaselessly call upon the Holy Name of Jesus, our οnly True Rock. 🪨🕯️📿
Thanks for reading, Trip. My sense is that Psalms includes “all of the above.” I think some of what the book includes could be described as venting toward God. It of course includes praises, laments, and many other things too. Some passages, though, just taken at face value, do read as curses directed at actual people. I think these can be understood given the culture of the time and the amount of warfare Israel got tangled up in. But as I wrote, Christians are not to simply follow that pattern and go around cursing people. And yes, God can handle and our raw honesty, as you say. He wants us to pray honestly. That comes through all across Psalms.