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PRAYING
FOR JUSTICE
To
those of us involved in ministering to Christians suffering
persecution the imprecatory Psalms are a tremendous source
of comfort. And those of us who are fighting for the right
to life of the preborn, or battling social evils such as
pornography or crime, are beginning to appreciate what an
important weapon God has entrusted to us in the imprecatory
Psalms.
The
Imprecatory Psalms
Early
in my Christian walk I encounter the prayers for judgement
in the Psalms and was quite as loss to know how to respond
to them. Prayers such as:
"Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him
to account for his wickedness..." Psalm 10:15 did not
seem consistent with the gospel of love which I had accepted.
Yet Psalm 10:15 was clearly motivated by love for God ("The
Lord is King forever and ever; the nations will perish from
His land" 10:16, and "Why does the wicked man
revile God? 10:13), and by love for the innocent who suffer
("You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; You
encourage them, and You listen to their cry, defending the
fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is
of the earth, may terrify no more." 10:17-18.)
Nevertheless,
I grew increasingly uncomfortable reading such graphic prayers
for God to judge the wicked as: "Pour out your wrath
on them; let Your fierce anger overtake them" 69:24;
"O Lord, the God who avenges, O God who avenges, shine
forth. Rise up, O Judge of the earth, pay back to the proud
what they deserve." 95:1-2; "Break the teeth in
their mouths, O God;...let them vanish like water...let
their arrows be blunted...The righteous will be glad when
they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood
of the wicked. Then men will say, `Surely the righteous
still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the
earth.'" 58:6-11
Certainly
I wanted God to be honoured and yes I was deeply distressed
by the prevalence of evil - but could I actually pray for
God to "pour out His wrath" on the wicked?
The
Scriptures make it clear that these prayers are not to be
prayed for our own selfish motives, nor against our personal
enemies. Rather they are to be prayed in Christ, for His
glory and against His enemies. The palmist describes the
targets of these imprecations as: those who devise injustice
in their heart and whose hands mete out violence (58:2);
those who "boast of evil" and "are a disgrace
in the eyes of God. Your tongue plots destruction, it is
like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit. You love
evil rather than good, falsehood rather than speaking the
truth." 52:1-3; "They crush your people...They
slay the widow and the alien; they murder the fatherless."
94:5-6; "With cunning they conspire against Your people;
they plot against those You cherish." 83:3; "You
hate all who do wrong. You destroy those who tell lies;
bloodthirsty and deceitful men the Lord abhors." 5:5-6.
To
those unrepentant enemies of God the psalmist declares:
"Surely God will bring you down to everlasting ruin"
52:5; "Surely God will crush the heads of His enemies...of
those who go on in their sins" 68:21.
And
the purpose of these prayers for justice is declared: "Then
it will be know to the ends of the earth that God rules..."
59:13; "to proclaim the power of God" 68:34; "All
kings will bow down to Him and all nations will serve Him"
72:11; "Who knows the power of Your anger? For Your
wrath is as great as the fear that is due You." 90:11
Yet
despite the fact that 90 of the 150 Psalms include imprecations
(prayers invoking God's righteous judgement upon the wicked)
such prayers are rare in the average Western church. However,
amongst the persecuted churches these prayers are much more
common.
Praying
Against the Persecutors
Amidst
the burnt out churches and devastation of marxist Angola
I found the survivors of communist persecution - including
the crippled and maimed, and widows and orphans praying
for God to strike down the wicked and remove the persecutors
of the Church. I was shocked - yet it was Biblical (Even
the martyrs in heaven pray "How long, Sovereign Lord,
holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth
and avenge our blood?" Revelation 6:10).
The
initiator of the communist persecution in Angola was Agestino
Neto. Described as a "drunken, psychotic, marxist poet",
Neto had been installed by Cuban troops as the first dictator
of Angola. He boasted that: "Within 20 years there
won't be a Bible or a church left in Angola. I will have
eradicated Christianity." Yet despite the vicious wave
of church burning and massacres it is not Christianity that
was eradicated in Angola but Agestino Neto. Neto died in
mysterious circumstances on an operating table in Moscow.
In
Romania I learnt of a series of remarkable incidents recorded
of God judging the persecutors of the Church in answer to
prayer:
* A communist official ordered a certain pastor to be arrested.
The next day the official died of a heart attack.
* Another communist party official ordered that all the
Bibles in his district were to be collected and pulped,
to be turned into toilet paper. This blasphemous project
was in fact carried out. But the next day when the official
was medically examined, he was informed that he had terminal
cancer. He died shortly afterwards.
* On another occasion, a communist official who had ordered
a Baptist church to be demolished by bulldozers died in
a car crash the very next day.
* When an order was given to dismantle a place of worship
on the mountainside in a forest, the workmen flatly refused
to carry out the order. At gunpoint a group of conscripted
gypsies also refused to touch the church. In desperation,
the communist police forced prisoners at bayonet-point to
dismantle the structure. Yet the officer in charge pleaded
with the local Christians to pray for him, that God would
not judge him. He emphasised that he had nothing against
Christians and was only obeying strict orders. The building
was in fact reconstructed later, and again used for worship.
"They were all seized and the Name of the Lord Jesus
was held in high honour...in this way the Word of the Lord
spread widely and grew in power." Acts 19:17,20
Nicolae
Ceaucescu the dictator who ordered much of the persecution
in Romania was overthrown by his own army and executed on
Christmas day, 1989, to joyous shouts of "the antiChrist
is dead" in the streets. Many testified that this was
in answer to the fervent prayers on the long suffering people
of Romania.
Another
persecutor of the Church who challenged God was Samora Machel,
the first dictator of Marxist Mozambique. Samora Machel
was a cannibal who ate human flesh in witchcraft ceremonies
in the 1960's. He pledged his soul to Satan and vowed that
he would destroy the Church and turn Mozambique into the
first truly Marxist-Leninist state in Africa. Thousands
of churches in Mozambique were closed, confiscated, "nationalised",
claimed and padlocked, burnt down or boarded up. Missionaries
were expelled, some being imprisoned first. Evangelism was
forbidden. Bibles were ceremonially burnt and tens of thousands
of Christians, including many pastors and elders, were shipped
off to concentration camps - most were never seen again.
A
month before his sudden death Samora Machel cursed God publicly
and challenged Him to prove His existence by striking him
(Machel) dead. On 19 October 1986, while several churches
were specifically praying for God to stop persecution in
Mozambique, Machel's Soviet Tupelov aircraft crashed in
a violent thunderstorm. The plane crashed 200 metres within
South Africa's boundary with Mozambique. Amidst the wreckage
the marxist plans for overthrowing the government of Malawi
were discovered and published. Not only had God judged a
blasphemer and a persecutor, but He had also saved a country
from persecution.
In
the months leading up to the first multi-party elections
in Zambia many churches fasted and prayed for God to remove
the 27 year socialist dictatorship of Kenneth Kaunda. This
was done on 31st October 1991 when Fredrick Chiluba (a man
converted to Christ whilst imprisoned for opposing Kaunda)
was elected president of Zambia and covenanted to make Zambia
a Christian country.
It
is recorded in history that the wicked Mary, Queen of Scots,
declared trembling and in tears: "I am more afraid
of John Knox's prayers than of an army of ten thousand."
On
3 April 1993 the Secretary General of the South African
Communist Party Chris Hani was shot dead. From the unprecedented
international wave of condolences and adulation reported
one could be forgiven for assuming that this man was a saint
and a martyr. Certainly it was not the death and resurrection
of Christ Jesus which dominated the thoughts and headlines
of South Africa that Easter, but the assassination of Chris
Hani.
The
Stunning hypocrisy of the situation in that 20 135 people
were murdered in South Africa in 1992, yet more collective
concern and anguish were reported over the death of the
head of the SA Communist Party than for all the thousands
of other victims. Indeed the SA government, the international
community and the mass media have apparently had greater
sorrow reported over this one death than for all the 50
000 South Africans murdered since 2nd February 1990 when
the ANC, SACP and PAC were unbanned!
Yet
as a member of the ANC Revolutionary Council since 1973,
Deputy Commander of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) - the ANC's "military
wing" - from 1982, and Chief of Staff of MK from 1987,
Chris Hani had approved and ordered bombings and assassinations
of many unarmed civilians. As Jesus warned: "all who
live by the sword will die by the sword" Matt 26:52
After
personally confronting Hani about his terrorist activities
at a press conference in Washington DC (where he publicly
declared his support for Fidel Castro, Col. Gaddafi, Yasser
Arafat and Saddam Hussein and defended the placing of car
bombs and limpet mines in public places during "the
struggle") I told him that I was a Christian and, while
I don't hate him, I did hate communism and I was praying
for him - that God would either bring him to repentance
and salvation in Christ, or that God would remove him. He
responded by swearing and declaring that he was an atheist.
Several
other people also prayed that God would either bring Hani
to repentance or remove him. Similarly several churches
in America have begun to pray the imprecatory Psalms against
unrepentant abortionists. In one town 8 abortionists were
struck down, with attacks, strokes, car accidents and cancer,
within months of these public prayers for God to stop these
killers of pre-born babies.
Some
praised God for His righteous acts of judgement and quoted:
"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous
and terror to evildoers" Proverbs 21:15. Others were
shocked that any Christian could express satisfaction at
the misfortune of any - even of the blatantly wicked. Yet
the Apostles prayed imprecatory prayers (Acts 13:8-12; Galatians
1:8-9; 2 Tim 4:14-15) and so did our Lord (Matt 11:20-24).
What
then should our attitude towards the imprecatory Psalms
be? Should we be praying the Psalms? To tackle these thorny
issues I would like to present a short summary of an excellent
book, "War Psalms of the Prince of Peace - Lessons
From the Imprecatory Psalms" by James E. Adams, (published
by the Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company):
Our
Lord Jesus Christ & His apostles used the Psalms constantly
in teaching men to know God. The New Testament (NT) quotes
the Old Testament (OT) over 283 times 41% of all OT quotes
in the NT are from the Psalms. Christ Himself alluded to
the Psalms over 50 times. The Psalms are the Prayer Book
of the Bible.
1.
Are the imprecatory Psalms the oracles of God?
Some
Christian commentators & theologians reject these Psalms
as "devilish", "diabolical", "unsuited
to the church", and "Not God's pronouncements
of His wrath on the wicked; but the prayers of a man for
vengeance on his enemies, just the opposite of Jesus' teaching
that we should love our enemies."
Yet
2 Tim 3:16-17 declares:
"All
scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking,
correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man
of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."
(see also 2 Peter 3:15-16).
The
fact that something in the Word of God is beyond our comprehension
is not grounds for denying or even questioning its inspiration.
To make ourselves the judge of what is good or evil is to
impudently take the place of God.
Do
we imagine ourselves to be holier than God? Wrong ideas
of God have led many to become "evangelical plastic
surgeons" who have made it their job to "clean
up" God's Word according to their own ideas of what
is proper. They have forgotten that it is God alone who
must determine what Christianity is and what s suitable
for His Church. The essence of what many have done is to
question the authority of God's Word (like Eve's original
sin of listening to Satan's question "Yea, hath God
said...?").
The
Psalms are part of God's revelation of Himself and His attributes,
and they are reaffirmed by the NT as the authoritative Word
of God. Those imprecatory Psalms which evangelical plastic
surgeons reject as "unsuited" and "unworthy"
for the Church are the very Psalms Christ used to testify
about Himself (eg: Mark 12:36; Matt 22:43-44) and which
the apostles used as authoritative Scripture (eg: Acts 1:16-20;
Acts 4:25; Heb 4:7). See also 2 Samuel 23:1-2.
CH
Spurgeon said concerning the imprecatory Psalms, (especially
Ps 109):
"Truly this is one of the hard places of Scripture,
a passage which the soul trembles to read, yet it is not
ours to sit in Judgement upon it, but to bow our ear to
what the Lord would speak to us therein."
The
rejection of any part of God's Word is a rejection of the
giver of that Word, God Himself.
2.
Who is praying these Psalms?
Christ
quoted the Psalms not merely as prophesy; He actually spoke
the Psalms as His own words. The Psalms occupied an enormous
place in the life of our Lord. He used it as His prayer
book and song book - from the Synagogue to the festivals
and at the Last Supper.
On
the cross Christ quoted from the Psalms - not as some ancient
authority that He adapted for His own use, but as His very
own words - the words of the Lord's Anointed which as David's
Son He truly was.
"Father,
into your hands I commit my Spirit" Ps 31:5
"My
God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" Ps 22:1
In
His ministry Christ foretells what He will say as the Judge
on the day of judgement, and He quotes the Psalms in doing
so!
Matt 7:23 "Then I will tell them plainly, `I never
knew you. Away from me, you evil doers'." Ps 6:8
In
Heb 10:5 the apostle attributes Ps 40:6-8 directly to Christ
although nowhere in the Gospels is Christ recorded as having
said these words. Similarly Hebrews 2:11-12 attributes Ps
22:22 directly to Christ despite there being no record of
His having spoken these words while on earth. Clearly the
apostles believed Christ is speaking in the Psalms.
Christ
came to establish His kingdom and to extend His mercy in
all the earth. But let us never forget that Jesus will come
again to execute Judgement on the wicked.
David
as the anointed king of the chosen people of God was a prototype
of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:30:
"being therefore a prophet,...he foresaw and spoke
of the resurrection of Christ."
David was a witness to Christ in his office, in his life,
and in his words. The same words which David spoke, the
future Messiah spoke through him. The prayers of David were
prayed also by Christ. Or better Christ Himself prayed these
Psalms through His forerunner David.
The
imprecatory Psalms are expressions of the infinite justice
of God, of His indignation against wrong doing, and His
compassion for the wronged.
3.
But what about the Psalms of repentance?
Christ
is also the Lamb of God, the substitutionary sacrifice for
our sins. Christ in the day of His crucifixion was charged
with the sin of His people. He appropriated to Himself those
debts for which He had made Himself responsible. Our Lord
was the substitution for the sinner. He took the sinners
place (Isaiah 53).
"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that
in Him we might become the righteousness of God." 2
Cor 5:21
In
history the Psalms, especially the imprecatory Psalms have
been understood to have been the prayers of Christ by: St
Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, Tertullian, Luther and many
others. All the Psalms are the voice of Christ. Christ is
praying these prayers of vengeance. It is only right for
the righteous King of Peace to ask God to destroy His enemies.
These
prayers signal an alarm to all who are still enemies of
King Jesus. His prayers will be answered! God's Word is
revealed upon all who oppose Christ. Anyone who rejects
God's way of forgiveness in the cross of Christ will bear
the dreadful curses of God.
He
who prays Psalm 69:23-28 will one day make this prayer a
reality when he declares to those on His left:
"Depart from me you who are cursed into the eternal
fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt 25:41
All
the enemies of the Lord need to hear these Psalms. God's
Kingdom is at War. The powers of evil will fall and God
alone will reign forever!
"With justice He judges and makes war...out of His
mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the
nations. `He will rule them with an iron sceptre; He treads
the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty...King
of Kings and Lord of Lords." Rev 19:11-15
4.
Are Jesus' prayers contradictory?
What
about Jesus' command to love our enemies and to bless those
who curse us (Matt 5:44)?
Christ
is of course the loving and merciful Saviour who forgives
sin; but He is also the awesome Judge who is coming in Judgement
on those who disobey His Gospel.
"God
is just. He will pay back trouble to those who troubles
you and give relief to you who are troubled... This will
happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing
fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who
do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished
with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence
of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day
He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marvelled
at among all those who have believed." 2 Thess 1:6-10
Jesus
has power on earth to forgive sins, and He has power on
earth to execute judgement upon His enemies. In the Psalms
we see both the vengeance and the love of God.
Even
in the N.T. & in the Gospels we see imprecations.
"Woe to you,... hypocrites... blind guides... blind
fools.. .full of greed and self indulgence...whitewashed
tombs...you snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape
being condemned to Hell?" Matt 23
In
Matt 26:23-24 Christ quotes from Ps 69 and 109 to refer
to His betrayal by Judas.
We
also need to acknowledge that Christ's prayers of blessing
are not for all. In John 17:6-9 it is clear that Christ
is only praying for the elect of God - those who have: "obeyed
your Word"... "accepted" God's Word...and
have "believed". (see Luke 10:8-16 - Those who
reject the message of God's kingdom will be judged.)
5.
May we pray the imprecatory Psalms?
Martin
Luther pointed out that when one prays: "Hallowed be
Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done" then
"he must put all the opposition to this in one pile
and say: Curses, maledictions and disgrace upon every other
name and every other kingdom. May they be ruined and torn
apart and may all their schemes and wisdom and plans run
aground'."
To
pray for the extension of God's kingdom is to solicit the
destruction of all other kingdoms, eg: Dan 2:44: "The
God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed...It
will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end,
but it will itself endure forever."
Advance
and victory for the Church means defeat and retreat for
the kingdom of darkness.
There
is a life & death struggle between two kingdoms. The
Church cannot exclude hatred for satan's kingdom from its
love for God's kingdom. God's kingdom cannot come without
satan's kingdom being destroyed. God's will cannot be done
on earth without the destruction of evil. The glory of God
demands the destruction of evil. Instead of being influenced
by a sickly sentimentalism which insists upon the assumed,
but really non-existent, rights of man - we should focus
instead upon the rights of God.
Note
Psalm 83 where the Psalmist prays against those who "plot
together" against God and His people:
"Cover their faces with shame so that men will seek
your Name O Lord...Do to them as You did to Median, as you
did to Sisera and Jabin at the river Kishon, who perished
at Endor and became like refuse on the ground."
The
story of Sisera in the book of Judges (Chapter 4 and 5)
provides a vivid example of God's judgement on the wicked.
Sisera "cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty
years" and they "cried to the Lord for help"
Judges 4:3. In response to those prayers: "The Lord
routed Sisera and all his chariots and army by the sword,
and Sisera abandoned his chariot and fled on foot...All
the troops of Sisera fell by the sword; not a man was left."
Judges 4:15-16
The
account then goes on to describe how Sisera escaped to the
tent of Jael she lulled him into a false sense of safety
and then drove a tent peg through his temple with a hammer.
The song of victory by Deborah and Barak celebrated the
crushing of the head of Sisera in graphic detail (Judges
5:25-27). And it is this that Psalm 83 implores God to again
do to His enemies..."As you did to Sisera..."
6.
The blessings of obedience and the curse of disobedience
The
imprecatory Psalms are fully consistent with the law of
God:
"If you do not carefully follow all the words of this
Law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this
glorious and awesome Name - the Lord your God - the Lord
will send fearful plagues on you and your decedents. He
will bring upon you all the deceases of Egypt that you dreaded,
and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on
you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in
this Book of the Law until you are destroyed...because you
did not obey the Lord your God...so it will please Him to
ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land
you are entering to possess." Deuteronomy 28:58-63
The
covenant God made with His people included curses for disobedience
as well as blessings for obedience. Deuteronomy 27 records
the formal giving and receiving of the covenant terms in
an awesome account:
"The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel
in a loud voice:
"Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an
idol - a thing detestable to the Lord, the word of the craftsman's
hands - and sets it up in secret."
Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
"Cursed is the man who dishonours his father or his
mother...
"Cursed is the man who moves his neighbour's boundary
stone...
"Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the
roads...
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien,
the fatherless or the widow...
"Cursed is the man who kills his neighbour secretly...
"Cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent
person.
"Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of
this Law by carrying them out.
Then all the people shall say, "Amen" " Deut
27:14-26
The
New Testament confirms that the inevitable consequences
of rejecting Christ is the curse. "If anyone does not
love the Lord - a curse be on him." 1 Corinthians 16:22
(See
also: Romans 12:19-21; Hebrews 1:1-3; 3:7-12; 3:15-19; 10:26-31;
12:14-29.)
7.
How can we preach these prayers?
The
Church of Jesus Christ is an army under orders.
Scripture
constitutes the official dispatch from the Commander-in-Chief.
But we have a problem: those who are called to pass on those
orders are refusing to do so. How then can we expect to
be a united, effective army? Is it any wonder that the troops
have lost sight of their commission to demolish the strongholds
of the kingdom of darkness? If the Church does not hear
the battle cries of her Captain, how will she follow Him
onto the battlefield?
Pastors
are commissioned to pass on the orders of the Church's Commander,
never withholding or changing His words. One whose job is
to carry dispatches to troops in wartime would face certain
and severe punishment if he dared to amend the general's
orders. The pastor's charge is of greater importance than
that of a courier in any earthly army. There's no place
for the dispatcher to decide he doesn't agree with his Commander's
strategy.
When
Jesus Christ sent seventy-two disciples on a preaching mission,
He told them to proclaim the coming of God's Kingdom (Luke
10:9) - that is, to announce that people must submit to
God's rule in their lives. Jesus instructed them to pray
for peace on any house they approach, assuring them that
if anyone rejected it, the peace would return on the disciples
(verse 5). But we must consider what He said they should
do if their message were rejected - that is, if the hearers
persisted in rebellion against God's rule - "But when
you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets
and say, `Even the dust of your town that sticks to our
feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom
of God is near'" Luke 10:11.
What
would be the result of that denunciation? I tell you, it
will be more bearable on that day for Sodom [on which God
sent fire from heaven in judgement for its wickedness] than
for that town (verse 12). Immediately Jesus added curses
on Korazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for their rejection
of His message (verse 13:15). he then explained to the disciples
the great authority He had given them: "He who listens
to you listens to Me; he who rejects you rejects Me; but
he who rejects Me rejects him who sent Me" (verse 16).
This is the fundamental basis for calling down God's curses
on anyone: his persistent rebellion against God's authority
expressed in His Law and the ministry of His servants.
We
need to clearly and forcefully proclaim the war cries of
the Prince of Peace. Only then will the Church awake from
its lethargy and once again enter the battle. If we fail
to pass on the battle cry then a lack of urgency and confusion
in the ranks will be inevitable.
Like
Psalm 1 our preaching needs to clearly show the blessings
of obedience and the curse of disobedience. The eternal
truth is that God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows
- that shall he reap (Galatians 6:7). The curses pronounced
on disobedience in Deut 28:47-53 were fulfilled in detail
in Samaria (2 Kings 6:28-29) and in Judea (AD 70). The wrath
of God upon covenant breakers is real.
The
"I" of the Psalms is Jesus Christ. The "we"
of the Psalms includes those of us in the Lord Jesus. The
enemies are not our own, individually, but those of the
Lord and of His Church. The Psalms are of Christ as Prophet,
Priest, and King. They record Christ's march in victory
against the kingdom of darkness. As Christ is the author
of the Psalms, so, too, is He the final fulfilment of the
covenant on which they are based. God will answer the psalmist's
prayers completely in Jesus Christ on the final day of judgement.
While on earth Jesus foretold the day when He will say:
"But those enemies of Mine who did not want Me to be
King over them - bring them here and kill them in front
of Me" Luke 19:27.
A
fatal end awaits everyone who refuses to acknowledge and
to obey Jesus ad King and Lord. Hearing expositions of these
war psalms of the Prince of Peace will remind His people
that God's Kingdom is at war! The Kingdom of darkness is
being overcome by the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, a war in
which each local congregation of believers plays a vital
part. You must rally your battalion to put on the whole
armour of God, including "the sword of the spirit,
which is the Word of God" Eph 6:17. That battle-readiness
also involves "pray(ing) in the Spirit on all occasions
with all kinds of prayers and requests" Eph 6:18.
Christ
teaches His army to pray for the utter destruction of the
enemies of God as the psalmist did: "Pour our Your
wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, on the
kingdoms that do not call on Your Name" Ps 79:6.
To
deal with the very real hurts and injustices in this world
it is necessary for us to pray for God's justice. Those
who are persecuted need the comfort of these prayers.
"Let
the saints rejoice in His honour and sing for joy...May
the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged
sword in their hands. to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with
fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out
the sentences written against them. This is the glory of
all His saints. Praise the Lord." Ps 149:5-9
Prayer
is, in fact, spiritual warfare. One weapon is prayer for
conversion of spiritual enemies; another is prayer for judgement
on those who finally refuse to be converted. We handicap
the army of God when we refuse to use both of these great
weapons that He has given us. It is at all times a part
of the task of the people of God to destroy evil.
If
you have been guilty of dulling your sword, by neglecting
or undermining these psalms, repent of that sin, sharpen
your sword anew, and go forth to do battle in the Name and
for the Glory of Jesus - until "the knowledge of the
Lord will cover the earth as the water cover the sea"
Hab 2:14
Dr.
Peter Hammond
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