They’ve pulled deep heaven down on their heads
When people throw all decency and humanity aside and subject helpless victims to cruel, egotistical whims, we may identify with this shockingly honest call for judgment.
A David psalm.
1 You’re the God I praise—
don’t stay mute on me, unresponsive.
2 Wicked and deceitful mouths denounce me
their lying tongues malign me.
3 They engulf me with hateful words
vilifying me for no reason.
4 In return for my love and kindness
they accuse me
despite all my prayers.
5 They repay my good with evil
my love with hatred.
6 Put a scoundrel on their case
accusing them
framing charges that upend their life.
7 Let them be found guilty
and all their prayers fall flat.
8 Cut their life short
and have someone else take their position.
9 Make their children orphans
their wife a widow.
10 Make their children wander and beg
driven from their ravaged homes.
11 May creditors seize all they have
strangers plunder all they’ve worked for.
12 Let no one be kind to them
or care for their orphaned kids.
13 May their descendants be eliminated
their family name blotted out
within a single generation.
14 Don’t overlook any of their fathers’ crimes
or forget any of their mother’s sins, YHWH.
15 Remember all their wrongs
till you’ve blotted all memory of them
from the earth, YHWH.
16 For being kind never crossed their mind
as they hounded the weak and poor
driving the heartsick to their graves.
17 Since they loved cursing so much
may nothing but curses come to them.
Since they wanted no part in blessing
make sure no blessing comes their way.
18 Because they put on cursing like a garment
let curses rain down on them
like water that soaks them to the core
and seeps into their bones like oil.
19 Make curses envelop them like a cloak
with a belt tied up so tight they can’t undo it.
20 May this be how YHWH repays my accusers
who blacken my name.
21 But you, Sovereign YHWH
defend me for the honor of your name.
Rescue me out of the goodness
of your unfailing love.
22 Because I’m poor and needy
and my heart is pierced within me.
23 I fade away like a shadow at dusk
I’m shaken off like a grasshopper.
24 I’ve fasted so long I’m weak-kneed
my body skin and bones.
25 I’ve become the butt of my accusers’ jokes.
They shake their heads on seeing me.
26 Help me, YHWH, my God!
Save me in keeping with your unfailing love.
27 Save me so decisively
that they all know you’ve done it—
you and you alone, YHWH.
28 Let them go on cursing
so long as you bless.
May they be disgraced
while your servant goes on rejoicing.
29 Let my accusers be dressed in shame
wrapped up in the cloak of their own disgrace.
30 I’ll thank YHWH fervently
praising him when God’s people assemble
31 because he stands up to defend the afflicted
from all who condemn them.
This psalm is David’s response to false accusations and other attacks meant to destroy him. The Psalms anthologist doubtless placed it here in Book V because Jerusalem’s post-exilic Jews dealt with similar evil threats (for example, see Neh. 6:5-7).
While the harshness of this imprecatory psalm shocks us, its theological basis should be familiar: God unequivocally takes the side of victims of abuse and oppression. His unfailing love makes him so opposed to injustice that he’s determined to rid the world of it. That’s what we’re asking for when we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”
When God’s love fills us, such abuse angers us just as it angers him, whether we or others are the victims. One way to respond to such abuse may be by praying this psalm, which can be seen as an act of non-violence, of David’s not taking vengeance himself, but rather turning it over to God.
As I write this, Russia is raining down terror and destruction on the innocent citizens of Mariupol, with President Putin justifying his violence by falsely calling the Ukrainian government Nazis. This makes Putin and his military thugs appropriate targets of the psalm. The New Testament similarly applies the psalm’s imprecation to Judas, who died unforgiven (Acts 1:20; Matt. 26:24).
We’re shocked to learn of the cruelty of David’s enemies only through his requests that the same be done to them. His love repaid with hatred, he’s viciously accused, hounded, threatened. He asks only that his attackers’ punishment fit their crimes. They curse others—never blessing. They destroy entire lives, wiping out whole families. So he asks God to do the same to them.
Even so, David’s prayer strikes us as over-the-top, but that’s okay: God knows what David is thinking—so, there’s nothing wrong with his saying it to God. Such honesty frees David to take refuge in God, whose blessing alone nullifies all his enemies’ curses.
Lord, thank you that, being a God of justice, you’ll bring all thuggery to a swift and sudden end, that you want me to take such evil seriously and address it honestly. Release its victims from terror, make its perpetrators reap the whirlwind they’ve sown, and make me more like you, I pray. Amen.
During your free moments today, meditate on these words:
I’ll thank YHWH fervently
praising him when God’s people assemble
because he stands up to defend the afflicted
from all who condemn them.
