Should Christians Pray Imprecatory Psalms?

Jesus says that as Christians we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

Given that, should Christians refrain from praying the imprecatory Psalms in the Old Testament, the ones where we ask God to smite our enemies? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. That's the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram or Twitter account and email us at questionsatcorechristianity.com. Well, we are so excited about today's broadcast because it's the very first day that you can call and interact with Pastor Adriel live on the air. In the past, we have been taking your voicemail calls and messages recorded through our website. But now, every day at 1130 Pacific, 1-30 Central Time, you can call in with your questions live. Again, the phone number is 833-THE-CORE. And as Adriel, as we kick off this brand new season of Core Christianity, can you share a bit about why we started this program in the first place? Yeah, absolutely, Bill.

I would love to. So, Core Christianity started with the vision of wanting to see people understand, Christians understand the core truths of the Christian faith. The reality is a lot of believers, people who claim to be Christians, we just don't really understand those doctrines anymore, doctrine of the Trinity, the redemption that Christ has provided for us. And so our goal has always been to build believers up in the Word of God. That's my passion. It's one of my greatest joys as a pastor. And let me just say, to give you a window into my own heart, I approach this with fear and trembling. I think about what James said in James 3, don't let many of you become teachers, knowing that we'll receive a stricter judgment. So we've been praying and asking the Lord for His mercy, and we would want to invite all of you to pray for us as we begin this new endeavor.

We're so excited. We know that we're talking about matters of eternal significance, and so we don't take that lightly, but we know ultimately that the Word of God is life-giving, and so we want to communicate that to people as clearly as possible. One of the things that we often hear from Christians today is they sometimes don't feel equipped, they don't feel prepared to talk about their faith, especially if they're talking to somebody who's a skeptic or an atheist. That's one of the other goals of this program, is to really strengthen believers so that they have just this confidence when they're talking about their faith with others.

Absolutely. Strengthen believers and strengthen the local church. I'm a pastor of a local church, and so I want to see Christians get plugged into solid Bible-believing churches where they're going to continue to be established and strengthened in their faith so that they can answer the questions of skeptics and engage with their non-Christian friends. Well, let's pray as we start this brand new season of Core Christianity. Could you pray for our team that produces this program and for everyone that's listening today or might listen to this program in the future?

Yeah, I would love to. Father, we come before You today filled with gratitude, thankful for Your grace, Your goodness to Your people, ultimately first and foremost in Your Son, Jesus, God, that You've shown us so clearly that You love us through what Jesus has accomplished for us. And God, we want to communicate that message clearly to those who listen to this program today and into the future, Lord. And so we ask for Your blessing. We pray that You would be with us. We know, God, that more than anything, we are dependent upon Your word and spirit. And so, Lord, we look to You, and we ask that You would open the hearts and the minds of those who listen, that You would encourage Your church, strengthen believers, and even bring those in, Lord, who haven't yet seen the beauty of Jesus in the Scriptures. Lord, be with us, we pray in Christ's name.

Amen. As I mentioned, there's a variety of ways that you can get in touch with us. You can submit your question through Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

You can email us, or you can call us at 833-THE-CORE. Kyle posted this on our Instagram account. He says, Why do Christians need the church when our own bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit? Didn't the tearing of the veil signify that God could not be contained by a building?

Yeah, I love this question because, like I said, as a pastor, I want to encourage people that they need the church, that the church really is integral to the Christian life. It's what God has given for the building up of the believer. And so the first thing I want to say is, Kyle, you mentioned, you know, didn't the tearing of the veil signify that God is not confined to any space?

Well, the primary thing that the tearing of the veil when Jesus was crucified, the primary thing that that signified was the fact that we have direct access to the Lord now through the death of Jesus Christ, you know, back under the Old Covenant. Only the priest could enter into the Holy of Holies once a year, you know, on the Day of Atonement. Now, we, as a priesthood of believers, because of what Jesus has done, we can approach God at any time. The author of the Hebrews makes that absolutely clear. We come to the Lord by faith in Jesus.

We can boldly approach the throne of grace. And so the tearing of the veil, Kyle, doesn't mean that now, you know, God doesn't work in buildings, as it were, you know, or that the church doesn't matter. We are referred to as the temple of the Holy Spirit individually in places like 1 Corinthians chapter 6. There, in particular, the Apostle Paul is talking about sexual immorality and how we should abstain from sexual immorality because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit of God lives in us, but we are individually, not the church. And actually, Peter, the Apostle, says that we're actually living stones in the temple that God himself is building. You see this in 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5. And so you and I are a part of this bigger thing that the Lord is doing, this temple that God is building right now by His Word and Spirit. I think of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22.

Listen to this. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And so, Kyle, you see how in that text, you know, Paul there in Ephesians 2 makes it absolutely clear. As an individual, yeah, in one sense we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, but the temple that God is building right now on earth is His church, and you and I, 1 Peter 2, 5, are living stones in that temple.

Let me just say one more thing. I've always thought this is so beautiful about that passage in 1 Peter 2, 5. You know, if you were going to build a house for God, a temple for the Lord, and you were picking out the stones, I mean, you want to pick some pretty good stones, right? I mean, gold, silver, precious stones. Isn't it so marvelous that God is building His temple, and He's using living stones, and those living stones are you and me.

I mean, I don't know about you, Bill, how you feel, but I don't feel like the prettiest stone out there. And yet God in His kindness, He's building His church, His temple with living stones by His grace, and so we need the body of Christ. That's where the word of God is preached, and where we continue to grow in our faith.

Kyle, thanks for that question. This is CORE Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you'd like to call, the number is 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Steve from Orange County, California, welcome to CORE Christianity. Thank you, guys.

What a fun thing to be on the air with you. Thanks for taking my question. I have a question about Matthew 27. That wasn't that many years ago. I found this and thought, I've never heard about all the people who were resurrected when Jesus died. Do we know how many there were and how long they were alive or who they were? What do we know more than just that passage about the resurrection of these saints?

Yeah, Steve, a really good question, and there really isn't a lot that we're told here. One thing is that this is the only Gospel account that records this event, Matthew 27. I'm going to begin in verse 51, and I'm going to read the verses here. Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, we were just talking about that with the previous question, from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. Coming out of the tombs after his resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.

A lot of people read that text and they think, wait a minute, I don't remember that part of the story. As I said, this is the only Gospel account that records this. And there are some people who have tried to sort of spiritualize this. Maybe they went up to heaven or they were raised spiritually or something like that, but the trouble with that is, if you spiritualize this, maybe then you're going to spiritualize the actual resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The best way to take this is that this wasn't just symbolic, you know, the cross destroyed the grave, that kind of a thing. One of the things that Matthew is highlighting for us here, and I think this is the big takeaway with this passage, Steve, is that the resurrection of Jesus wasn't just about his resurrection. That there is a tie between the resurrection of Christ and that of his followers.

And isn't this precisely what the Apostle Paul says in places like 1 Corinthians chapter 15? You know, he talks about Christ being the first fruits of the resurrection, and because Jesus was raised from the dead, guess what, brothers and sisters? You and I, we too, are going to be raised from the dead. We have this sure hope because of Jesus' resurrection. And so I think Matthew is recording something that actually happened, and what it shows us is that the resurrection of Jesus relates directly to his people.

And so there are other questions that this text might pose, you know, that we might have after that, but the passage really doesn't tell us more than that, and so I want to be careful not to speak where scripture doesn't speak. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Teresa is on the line from Nebraska. Hi Teresa, how are you?

Hi, I'm fine, thank you. I was raised in a church where we didn't have any women pastors, and there's been a shortage of pastors the last few years, and we have a woman pastor. And I've been advised to change churches, and which I have already done, but I just, I wanted to know the biblical truth.

Yeah, thank you for that question, Teresa. I appreciate your call, and of course, you know, there are some denominations that do allow for women pastors, and they'll make sort of, you know, a case for that. My position as a pastor is that the office of pastor, teacher in the church, in the context of the local church is reserved primarily and specifically for men. You think about what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus chapter 1, referring to the qualifications of a pastor. And then there are other passages in scripture, I think of 1 Timothy chapter 2, for example, 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 12, where it talks about that position of authority being reserved for men specifically. Now, I don't think that this is, you know, one of those issues that strikes at the core of our eternal salvation or that kind of a thing, but I think that it's an important issue because the scripture speaks to it. And so ordinarily, I would say, in the life of the church, according to what the scriptures teach, men should be called, qualified men should be the pastors of local churches. Now, that doesn't mean that women in the church don't play a very important role, and I think that sometimes in the life of the church that can be minimized. And so we don't want to minimize the fact that women as a part of the body of Christ play a very important role, but we have these distinct roles and callings that God has given to us in the life of the church, different gifts.

And it's as we come together with those gifts that the body of Christ is built up in love, as Paul says in places like Ephesians chapter 4. And so, Teresa, that would be my answer to you, sister. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

The number to call, if you have a question for us, is 833-THE-CORE. And also we want to mention today we have a very special offer for you. It's a new booklet that Adriel has written. It's called Seeing Jesus. Yeah, Bill, I'm excited about sharing this with people. I wrote Seeing Jesus, really, with the prayerful hope that it would give people an encounter with Christ, with the living God. But I think one of the issues that many people have today is we assume that we have Jesus figured out. And so Seeing Jesus is a booklet, a real devotional booklet, I think, that will take readers through four different accounts of the Gospels, in the Gospels, where we talk about Jesus and what he's accomplished for us, and really give you a glimpse, I think, at a deep dive into those passages of scripture in a way that maybe you haven't seen Jesus before.

And so I think it'll be really encouraging for our listeners. Make sure you get your hands on Seeing Jesus. To receive a copy of Seeing Jesus, just head over to COREChristianity.com forward slash Jesus.

And here's the phone number to call, 833-843-2673 for help getting that offer or any one of our offers, 833-THE-CORE. Now, we should mention today is Martin Luther King Day, and we want to celebrate that great civil rights leader and pastor. I found a couple of quotes from Dr. King that I thought were so apropos, Adriel, given what's happening in our nation right now. I just wanted to share these with you and see what your thoughts are. Two different things that Dr. King said, and he said so many wonderful things during his ministry. But listen to this, the ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. And then he also said, love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. Wow.

Yeah. I mean, powerful, powerful words, and I'm glad that we're celebrating him today. Happy MLK Day.

Let's get to another call. This is Megan from Escondido, California. Megan, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hi, Adriel. Thanks so much for doing this. This is a really great show, and a lot of people have been really blessed by it. My question is that last night while I was reading through Nehemiah 3, it was where it was talking about rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. And just the whole chapter is describing who was building the gates and what the types of gates were and things like that. And there's a lot of passages in the Bible that are about numbers or really specific details that seem when you're reading them really tedious. But I also know that the Holy Spirit included these details for a reason, so I just would like some help on figuring out how to best read these types of passages or the things that I should be taking away from them.

Yeah, Megan, thank you for that question. Sometimes you can read those details and think, okay, is there some sort of deeper spiritual significance to this guy's name or that kind of a thing? I think we have to be careful that we don't read too much. I mean, these are historical records. We're given history here, and that's one of the beautiful things about the Bible. What this highlights for us, one thing at least that it highlights for us, is that these were real people in real places, real events that took place.

And so we can read that and gather the information and then glean things from, I think, the bigger, broader story, Megan. I mean, I think about what Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, where he's talking about the wilderness generation in particular. And he's exhorting the Corinthian church.

He says, you know, don't grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. So what we have in the Old Testament, I mean, it was written for our instruction. Paul says the very same thing in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 16 and following.

I mean, this is God's word inspired, profitable for instruction, for proof, for training in righteousness, all of those things. And so I would say, you know, you read it, you take the history, you see the bigger picture in what's taking place there, you know, the rebuilding of the temple. And it's kind of interesting, you know, at the beginning of the program we were talking about how essentially that's being fulfilled right now through the church, through you and I, living stones. You know, so in one sense I think that these institutions there under the old covenant, they serve as these types and shadows for us to look into the future there, the temple being a type, we might say, of the church of Jesus Christ today. And we can gather those kinds of, or make those kinds of conclusions, but we want to be careful not to read into some of those things too much.

And I think that when we do, that's where we can get into trouble as we're interpreting the Bible. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Matt is calling in from Sacramento, California. Hi, Matt.

Hey guys, how are you doing? Good, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yeah, so my question simply is, or maybe not so simply, is what book of Scripture would you turn to specifically to address division in the church?

Yeah. Well, I would say the book of 1 Corinthians. That would be the first place I would go, partially because, you know, when you read the book of 1 Corinthians you realize very quickly that there were divisions that were happening there in the Corinthian church. I mean, the Apostle Paul talks about it.

Some people were saying, I am of Paul, I am of Apollos. There were these real serious issues taking place. And by the way, I think one of the things that this illustrates for us, Matt, is, you know, we sometimes think the church today is really struggling.

It has all these problems, all these divisions. We've got to get back to the days of the New Testament when the church was pure and pristine. But you look at these churches planted by the apostles themselves, and they had the same struggles that we have today. Again, you read the book of 1 Corinthians and you just think, you know, you sort of scratch your head, Christians are suing each other, there's sexual immorality, there are these real serious divisions. And you know what's interesting to me is how Paul responds to those divisions. What he drives home is the importance of love, Matt.

Now, a lot of people miss this. You know, you think of 1 Corinthians chapter 13, and it's that passage of scripture that's oftentimes read at a wedding, you know, the beautiful and famous description of love. But what people miss is that that was actually written initially as a rebuke to the Corinthian church. Paul is essentially saying, look, this is all the things that love is, and it's all the things that you're not.

And so I think, you know, when there are divisions, and so often those divisions, Matt, are rooted in our own pride. Pride, being unwilling to yield to one another, being unwilling to humble ourselves, it's the opposite of love. Paul said, you know, in 1 Corinthians 13, if I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, and if I have prophetic powers that understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing.

The Corinthians were dividing over spiritual gifts. If I give away all that I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way.

Again, this is so often where divisions come from, right? Insisting on my own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So Matt, one, I don't know if you're experiencing maybe divisions in your own church. It really is a sad thing, a devastating thing, something that we ought to pray about. And I pray for our churches that the Lord would keep us united around the gospel. And so often the antidote to our divisions is a good understanding, a clear understanding of what the word of God teaches, and this love that's given by the Holy Spirit. And so spend some time, Matt, I would say, in 1 Corinthians, looking at what was happening there and how Paul responds to them. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adrian Sanchez.

We have time for one more question, and this is an interesting one. Jesus says that, and this is from an email we received, the person didn't want to say their name, but here's what they asked. Jesus says that as Christians we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Given that, should Christians refrain from praying the imprecatory psalms in the Old Testament, the ones in which we ask God to smite our enemies? Yeah, and I'm glad that you said that there, Bill, because a lot of people, you know, they might hear that phrase, imprecatory psalms, or the psalms of imprecation, and think, what in the world is that? Well, it is those psalms in particular that we read in the Old Testament where the psalmist is saying, God, destroy my enemies. Bring your judgment against my enemies. But, Bill, you quoted from the words of our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 5, verses 44 through 46, he said, we are called to bless and not to curse. But I say to you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven, for he makes his Son rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same? You know, on one occasion, James and John, when the Samaritans had rejected Jesus and his ministry, they asked Jesus, Lord, do you want us to call down fire and brimstone? You know, it was sort of this sort of imprecatory judgment that they wanted to bring against them, and Jesus rebuked them. Now, you see, I think under the Old Covenant, you know, you read some of these psalms, and there the psalmist is responding to the pain, the hurt that they had experienced. I mean, there were points in Israel's history where the nations were trampling on them, killing, murdering, and under the theocracy of Israel in the Old Covenant, you know, it made sense to pray.

I mean, they were at war, essentially. When Jesus came, when he instituted the New Covenant, he calls us, as he did, to love our enemies. And you see this in the New Testament. You think of Stephen, for example, praying for the people who were stoning him to death, saying, Lord, don't count this sin against them. There in Acts chapter 7, we are called, as Jesus has loved us, we are called, brothers and sisters, to love our enemies as well. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar, or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program and be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's word together.