STUDIES IN THE PSALMS No. 6

February 8, 2004

Psalm 5

Review

Last time we considered Psalm 4 as another exemplar of the lament or petitionary type of psalm. Remember these psalms have certain standard parts, divisions, or features: 1) direct address to God; 2) an account of the trouble the psalmist is facing; 3) an expression of his confidence in God; 4) the petition itself, and 5) some praise given to God. We have made a point of saying that many of these lament psalms are psalms in which it is the king who is at prayer and that fact explains many of the particular expressions we find in these psalms, such as the prominence of “enemies” and such particular expressions as the “tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side” in Psalm 3:6. Not all the psalms are prayers of the king, to be sure, as we will see later in our series, but many of them are and so contribute their share to that typology of kingship that prepares us for the work and the reign of David’s greatest descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We noted that, like Psalms 1 and 2, Psalms 3 and 4 seem a matched pair, a morning hymn and an evening hymn. Now we take up Psalm 5, one more of these lament or petitionary psalms and, once again, a psalm of the king at prayer. Lest you think that taking these early psalms in order indicates that I intend to move right through the Psalter from 1 to 150, this is the last of the petitionary psalms we will consider in this evening series on the Psalter. I want to take up Psalm 5 for several reasons. First, I want us to get used to thinking about petitionary or lament psalms as a certain type of psalm with certain features. Considering several of them in succession will fix some of these thoughts in our minds. Second, there is a feature of lament psalms that has not been represented in Psalms 3 and 4 but is in Psalm 5. It is an important and controversial feature of the Psalter so I want to be sure to consider it. Third, Psalm 5 is a grand psalm and a powerful one and I did not want us to miss it.

Read Psalm 5

v.3 Once again we find the direct and confident address to God that is characteristic of the lament psalms. David and the Lord are on intimate terms though an intimacy appropriate to reverence and submission. Note the “my King and my God” in v. 2.

You will notice how the expression develops from pure emotion – “sighing” – in v. 1 to presentation of his case to the Lord. Dr. Waltke says that it was this psalm that convinced him to write out his prayers so as to make his case to the Lord as fully and carefully and persuasively as he could.

v.6 Verses 4-6 are the characteristic expression of confidence in God. You will notice that in these three verses there are seven descriptions of evil men: evil, wicked, arrogant, do wrong, tell lies, bloodthirsty, and deceitful.

v.7 Here we have, in contrast to v. 4, David’s confident assertion of his own acceptance with God. God will not dwell with the wicked, but he will dwell with me. I will come into his house. Of course, such a description raises the obvious question, a question forced upon us by our own conscience. David is appealing to the justice of God and of his judgment. But can we stand in such a judgment? We too are sinful in all these ways. Sinners that we are, how can we appeal to God’s justice? How can we be so confident that God will not treat us in the same way we expect him to treat the wicked? We do wrong, we tell lies, we are bloodthirsty too in our own ways.

This is a common motif in the Psalter, the protestation of the psalmist’s innocence over against the wickedness of other men. And its basis is definitely not that the psalmist doesn’t recognize that he is also a sinner. Indeed, in Psalm 143:2 David as much as says that if God tried his character instead of his case he would be undone. [Kidner, i, 58]:

“Do not bring your servant into judgment,

            for no one living is righteous before you.”

What David and the other psalm writers are claiming is their covenant relationship to God, their faith by which God’s salvation and his righteousness have been given to them. They are righteous because, as David says later in vv. 7 and 11, they have trusted themselves to God’s mercy and because they have taken refuge in the Lord. What we have in these psalms is precisely what we have in, say, 1 John, where we read in the same letter about our continuing sinfulness as Christians, on the one hand, and about our no longer being sinners, on the other. We do continue to sin, to be sure; but it is also true that our relationship to Christ has transformed our lives and made us righteous in ways the unbeliever is not and cannot be. We have to take the Bible’s language in its context and read it accordingly.

v.8 Here now is the petition itself.

v.9 The particular complaint about David’s enemies, in this case, seems to be their lying propaganda. [Kidner] Their lying speech is mentioned in vv. 6 and 9. We can well imagine the Lord praying this psalm many times during the years of his ministry, given all the untrue and hateful things that were said about him.

By the way, remember that the Apostle Paul universalizes this statement about the throat of the wicked being an open grave in his account of universal human wickedness in Romans 3. It is the truth about the speech of every human being apart from the grace of God.

v.11 Once again, the king identifies himself with his people. Though the prayer began in the cry of an individual for deliverance, his deliverance will be that of his people as well. v.13 Here again, characteristically, we have the concluding praise to God.

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Now, Psalm 5 introduces us to the problem of “imprecations” in the Psalms, that is, curses called down on the enemies of the psalm writer. We will call them imprecations because the psalms that include them have for so long been called the “imprecatory” psalms and we need to know what is meant by that term. Imprecation is simply a fancy word for curse. In this case the curse is not uttered by the psalmist, rather he asks God to visit his enemies with these curses. In other words, they are prayers that God would punish the wicked. We have such curses or imprecations here particularly in v. 10: “declare them guilty…let their intrigues be their downfall…and banish them from their sins…” Sometimes, as you know, the psalmist is much more colorful in his plea that God would destroy his enemies:

“Break the teeth in their mouths, O God…” [58:6]

“Let death take my enemies by surprise…” [55:15]

“Let burning coals fall upon them; may they be thrown into the fire, into miry pits, never to rise.” [140:10]

“May his days be few…. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.” [109:8-12]

“O Daughter of Babylon…happy is he…who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” [137:9]

And for a Christian reader of the Bible the question is a natural and obvious one. How can we square sentiments like these, that seem so vengeful, with the teaching we have been given.

“You have hear 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 sons of your Father in heaven.” [Matt. 5:44]

“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.” [Romans 12:14]

“We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly.” [1 Cor. 4:12-13]

“When they hurled insults as [Christ], he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” [1 Peter 2:23]

Now different solutions to this problem have been proposed.

1. Some take the view that such expressions as we find in the psalms, seeking vengeance upon the enemies of the psalm writer, are simply sinful and the Bible records them for our education and admonishment. In this they are not unlike the bad advice given to Job by his friends and recorded carefully for us in the biblical book of Job. This is the view taken, for example, by C.S. Lewis in his important book, Reflections on the Psalms. They are the life of the soul in all its darkness that is bared before God even in worship.

2. Others maintain that what we have in such prayers that God would curse a man’s enemies is a sub-Christian ethic that was characteristic of the ancient epoch and superseded in the New Testament. Many have understood the imprecations in this way. In the Scofield Reference Bible we are told that such a cry for vengeance is a “cry unsuited to the Church.”

3. Still others say that they are acceptable expressions but only now when applied to Satan – an enemy for whom there is no hope of redemption or conversion.

None of these answers is satisfactory however and for a variety of reasons.

1. It is hard to believe that the expressions are sinful and included for our admonishment when they occur in hymns the church was to sing and when they sit side by side with grand affirmations of faith that we feel absolutely right in using ourselves still today.

2. It is hard to accept them as expressions of personal vengeance, such as the New Testament forbids, when the OT also forbids such a spirit of vengeance and vengeful speech.

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord.” [Lev. 19:18]

“If you come across your enemy’s ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it.” [Ex. 23:4-5] That statement, in the OT’s homely way, is fully as powerful as the Lord’s in the Sermon on the Mount concerning turning the other cheek and blessing in reply to cursing.

“Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the Lord will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him.” [Prov. 24:17-18]

“If you enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.” [25:21-22]

“If a man pays back evil for good, evil will never leave his home.” [17:13]

Revenge and the spirit of revenge was no more acceptable in the ethical system taught by Moses and the other OT writers than in that taught by Jesus and the disciples.

3. In the same way, it is hard to accept that such expressions have been superseded in the New Testament when some of these very psalms and the curses in these psalms are taken over into the NT and applied to real situations.

Concerning Judas, we read Peter say in Acts 1:20:

“For it is written in the Book of Psalms,

‘May his place be deserted; let there be no one to dwell in it,’ and ‘May another take his place of leadership.’

The first is a citation of Ps. 69:25 and the second of Ps. 109:8, texts I cited earlier as representative of these imprecations or curses in the psalms. Clearly Peter did not think that those were expressions a Christian could not use. In fact, the 69th Psalm, one of the psalms most noted for its imprecations, is cited five times in the NT and alluded to on several other occasions. [William Binnie in James Adams, War Psalms of the Prince of Peace, 12-13] In Romans 11:9-10, Paul cites Psalm 69:22-23, another typical imprecation. Speaking of unbelieving Israel, Paul writes:

“And David says: ‘May their table became a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them. May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.’”

As the great 19th century German biblical scholar, E.W. Hengstenberg pointed out, “It is precisely the most severe of these [so-called vindictive psalms] which are applied to Christ and considered as spoken by him, and are therefore pronounced worthy of him.” [In James Adams, 25, cf. 23-34]

4. The position of the New Testament is further demonstrated not to be hostile to these imprecations in the psalms because it contains imprecations of its own.

a. 1 Cor. 16:22: “If anyone does not love the Lord – a curse be on him.”

b. Gal. 1:8-9: “…if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned.”

c. In Rev. 6:9-10 the martyrs in heaven call out to the Lord: “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”

d. 2 Tim. 4:14: “Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.”

A better solution surfaces when we take note of several facts.

1. The people whom the psalmist is asking God to curse are wicked men who are rebels against God. It is very important to see this. You see it here in Psalm 5 in verse 10, where David explicitly says that the rebellion of these wicked men has been against God:

“…for they have rebelled against you….”

And, in other psalms, where this may not be explicitly said, they are still the enemies, not of a private individual, but of David, God’s anointed, his king. Their opposition to David is opposition to the kingdom of God. So we are not talking about private vengeance, which is forbidden in both its spirit and its action, in the OT as well as in the NT. We are talking about the spiritual warfare by which the kingdom of God makes progress in the world and those who are ranged against it. The imprecatory elements of the psalms are an expression of participation in this warfare. As Lloyd Jones put it:

“Look at the psalmist. Look at some of those imprecatory psalms. What are they? There is nothing wrong with them. It’s just the zeal of the psalmist. He’s grieved and troubled because these people are not honoring God as they Should be. That’s his supreme concern.” [In James Adams, 13]

It is important for us to remember, for example, that we cannot pray for the second coming of the Lord, we cannot pray maranatha, without praying for the destruction of the enemies of God because that is what we have been told will happen when Christ comes again. The Lord Christ has adversaries and, like it or not, his enemies are our enemies so far as we are servants and soldiers of the King of Kings.

2. Second, we need to take careful note of the fact that the curses of the Psalter are cast in poetry. Their language would not offend us so much if it were not so vivid and colorful. Part of the reason for that is simply that it is poetry, which is an intensified form of expression. Another part of the reason for these extravagant statements – “Break the teeth in their mouths” for example – is that it is Semitic poetry. The people of that culture are given, even still today, to highly colorful and strong expressions of emotion.

Think for example of the way in which Jeremiah expresses his grief at the difficult circumstances of his life.

“Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, ‘A child is born to you – a son!’ May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon. For he did not kill me in the womb with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever. Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame.” [Jer. 20:14-18]

Clearly we mistake Jeremiah if we take him actually to mean that he wanted his mother to suffer the heartbreak of having a dead body in her womb for the rest of her life, if we take him to mean that he actually wanted the poor man who brought his father the good news that Jeremiah had been born to die horribly as punishment for what he thought was an act of love and kindness. It is an extravagant manner of speaking, a way of expressing emotion by hyperbole, exaggeration for effect, and must be respected for what it is.

It should also be said however, that given the realities of war, there is a realism in these descriptions of punishment: nothing is being asked for against the enemies except what enemies typically did to the conquered in the ANE. If we shudder to hear a psalmist ask that the Babylonian babies be dashed against the rocks, it helps to remember that that form of words, that way of speaking reflects what happened to the peoples who were conquered by the Babylonians and what happened to their babies. There is a brutality in the Bible that reflects and does justice to the brutality of life in this world and in the experience of many of God’s people in the world. It ill becomes American evangelicals, who live in comfort, peace, and security, to lecture folk who have suffered terribly at the hands of wicked men on how they ought to pray to God.

Finally, we should remember that the curses found in these psalms are child’s play compared to the threats of eternal punishment the Lord Jesus himself makes to those who will not repent and trust in him. One great value of the startling language of the imprecatory psalms is that it forces us to reckon with the brutal seriousness of life. Life and death, heaven and hell, divine love and divine wrath are at stake in every human life. We need to be reminded of that often. Otherwise we take life and its issue all too lightly and think of life too sentimentally.

3. Third, we need to take careful note of what is being asked for. What David asks for here in Psalm 5 is for the Lord to vindicate his name and rule, to demonstrate his justice. It is a prayer for God to do what he has repeatedly said he will do: vindicate his people and punish his enemies. All through the psalm David describes the Lord in his righteousness, his hatred of sin, his determination to punish the wicked and to vindicate those who trust in him. That is what God promises to do; David is only asking him, therefore, to do it. If God’s just judgment must await the consummation of history to be fully realized and demonstrated, well, at least give us some of it, a glimpse of it, a foretaste of it in this life and this world. Let the world see and know what is coming and let your children see their vindication ahead of time. And, even more pressing, Psalm 5 in its final verses is a prayer that the church herself, the kingdom of God would be spared the ravages that these enemies intend to visit upon her. Once again, you cannot pray “thy kingdom come” without intending that those who stand against the kingdom would be brought down.

4. Fourth, it is important that we understand that these curses, while stated typically in absolute terms, are always subject to the possibility that repentance and conversion on the part of these enemies will make the curses unnecessary. David, here in Psalm 5, in v. 7, appeals himself to the mercy of God. There is no explicit acknowledgement here in Psalm 5 that David would be glad to see his enemies repent of their rebellion against God and that he would never imagine that God would continue to curse them should they repent, but it is the assumption here. In the Psalms and in the Prophets what is conditional is often stated in absolute terms. The conditional character is understood. Sometimes, however, this point is stated. For example, in Ps. 83:16, in another one of these imprecatory lament psalms, we read:

“Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek your name, O Lord.”

Paul, as we said earlier, cites an imprecatory psalm regarding unbelieving Israel in Romans 11, the actual text, from Psalm 69, even says, “…may their backs be bent forever.” But Paul, in the same passage, lays out the hope of a new day of repentance and faith in Israel in which this judgment will be overcome by a great time of salvation. So, remember, the curse is relevant only insofar as the enemies remain enemies of God and the church. The hatred expressed, the vengefulness vented in these psalms is directed to a person only insofar as he embodies evil, only insofar as he stands against Christ and his kingdom. Were repentance to be forthcoming, this hatred would turn immediately, willingly, and cheerfully into affection and love. The psalmist is always ready to love if only the person takes refuge in the mercy of God as he has done.

5. And, finally, we must remember that these are prayers. The matter is being committed to God for his righteous action. The curses are not actions on the part of the psalmist, they are prayers for God to act. At the end, God will do what is right and the psalm writer knows this and even takes comfort in that knowledge. David is not taking the matter into his own hands, he is asking God to exercise his righteous judgment. That leaves the matter of the enemies in safe hands; they will be treated as they ought to be treated.

The fact is that Jesus Christ has the authority to forgive sins and he has the authority to punish the wicked, to execute judgment on his enemies. He has authority to do both. He does both during the ministry, he will do both through human history, and he will bring both forgiveness and judgment to full consummation when he comes again. There is in Christ at one and the same time an indignation toward sin and sinners and a compassion for sinners. These lament psalms with imprecations in them certainly remind us of his indignation; many of them, at the same time, as here in 5:7 and 12 remind us equally of his mercy. Without the indignation, the holy wrath, the mercy becomes simply leniency. Without the mercy, the wrath becomes unbearable.

The church and all Christians are compelled to show love to all men and to pray and work for their conversion. At the same time, with her eye fixed on the Lord’s second coming, the church prays for and hastens the day of his judgment. God’s kingdom cannot come without Satan’s kingdom being destroyed. Evil cannot be destroyed without the destruction of the men who love evil and do evil. There is none of the modern sentimentality in the Psalter. There is a robust realism that faces squarely the immense issue of human life. Christians who learn to pray and live from the Psalter learn to live seriously and to deal faithfully with what human beings are and do.