Cursing with God: The Imprecatory Psalms and the Ethics of Christian Prayer

417 Pages·2022·3.608 MB·English

by  Trevor Laurence

Cursing with God

Cursing
God
WITH
The Imprecatory Psalms
and the Ethics of Christian Prayer
Trevor Laurence
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY PRESS
© 2022 by Baylor University Press
Waco, Texas 76798
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission in writing of Baylor University Press.
Cover and book design by Kasey McBeath
Cover image: The Great Day of His Wrath, c. 18. Martin, John (1789– 1854).
Credit: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-u pon-T yne, UKTyne & Wear, Archives
& Museums/Bridgeman Images.
A version of the material in the section “The Imprecator Petitions from Love”
(p. 160) appears in “Violent Prayers of Love: An Ethical (Re)Assessment of
the Imprecatory Psalms,” in Hermeneutics of Violence: Creative Explorations
in the Violent Texts of Scripture, ed. Trevor Laurence and Helen Paynter
(Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, forthcoming). A version of the material
in the sections “The Enemy Is the Serpent Seed” (p. 135) and “The Imprecator
Is the Royal-Priestly Son of God” (p. 171) appears in “Serpent Seed and
Son of God: The Enemy and the Imprecator in the Psalms of Vengeance,”
Criswell Theological Review 17, no. 2 (Spring 2020): 93–1 21.
The Library of Congress has cataloged this book under hardcover ISBN
978- 1- 4813- 1636- 1.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022940709
Web PDF ISBN: 978-1-4813-1649-1
To Sylvia
Perhaps this is what we’re supposed to do

Contents
Foreword ix
Abbreviations xiii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1
Ethics, Biblical Theology, and the Imprecatory Psalms
1 From Israelite Psalms to Christian Prayer 19
Paths Old and New
2 Cursing in the Psalms 117
The Imprecatory Psalms in Redemptive- Historical Perspective
3 Cursing and Christ 197
The Imprecatory Psalms and the New Testament
4 Cursing in Christ 255
Ethically Faithful Christian Performance of the Imprecatory Psalms
Conclusion 327
Cursing with God
Appendix. Cursing in Corporate Worship 335
A Sample Liturgy of Imprecation
Bibliography 349
Index of Modern Authors 379
Index of Scripture 386
vii

Foreword
Trevor Laurence has written the book on imprecatory psalms. Others have
defended the “mean psalms,” but no one has exposed their deep biblical
roots so skillfully or thoroughly. Read, learn, mark, and inwardly digest it.
Imprecations echo Yahweh’s Edenic promise of a deliverer who will
crush the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15). Throughout the Psalter, the Psalmists
plead with God to do what he’s promised. David’s enemies are predatory
beasts (35:17; 58:6), often serpents. The unjust “gods” of Psalm 58 are chil-
dren of vipers who attack “sons of Adam.” Like Eden’s serpent, they’re liars.
David asks Yahweh to break their teeth, so they can’t poison anyone else.
At the end of the psalm, David imagines himself as the promised seed of
the woman, trampling serpents; his heel shatters their heads and he bathes
his feet in their blood. Psalm 83 follows a similar logic. As Laurence puts
it, Asaph “begs that God will crush the heads of the crafty serpent nations
in the same way he shattered serpent skulls in former days.”
Imprecations express fundamental biblical convictions about God and
the world. When we pray for justice, we ask God to be what he truly is—
Judge of all the earth. Yahweh promised to curse those who curse Abra-
ham (Gen 12:3). When David asks God to deflect curses back onto the
cursers, he’s asking him to be faithful to the Abrahamic covenant. Impre-
cations are rooted in Torah’s principle of just retribution, the lex talionis,
“eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” The wicked of Psalm 109 open a “deceit-
ful mouth” to speak with a “lying tongue,” accusing David; David asks
Yahweh to surround them with accusers. David’s enemies refuse mercy, so
ix