Should Christians Pray the Imprecatory (Cursing) Psalms Today?

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Should Christians pray the imprecatory Psalms, the Psalms where the Psalmist curses his enemies? It's time for The Line of Fire with your host, biblical scholar and cultural commentator, Dr. Michael Brown. Your voice for moral sanity and spiritual clarity. Call 866-34-TRUTH to get on The Line of Fire.

And now, here's your host, Dr. Michael Brown. We are going to dig in again to yet another controversial scriptural subject, but one that has come up recently in light of the atrocities committed by Hamas, in light of some of the other atrocities committed in war, in light of some of the evil actions of terrorists or the evil actions of human traffickers and others. Should we pray, should Christians pray the imprecatory Psalms today? Should we pray Psalms where we pray down curses on our enemies?

Michael Brown, welcome to The Line of Fire. The phone lines are going to be open, but let me tell you for what subjects. If you have further questions after I've dealt with this and want to ask me about it further, about the imprecatory Psalms, I'll try to take some calls on that. 866-34-TRUTH. 866-348-7884. Okay, that is one thing we'll take calls on. Anything ongoing where you want to challenge me on my views about Israel today, about the war right now, or you need to probe further because you're interacting with people and you need some questions, you need some good truthful ammunition, phone lines will be open for that. And because I've had some interesting interaction with one of the producers, I guess, of the cessationist movie, if you've got a question about the gifts of the Spirit today or tongues or something, I may take some calls on that as well. But we've got a lot of ground to cover, a lot of things I want to talk about.

866-34-TRUTH. Okay, I want to give you the short answer up front and then we'll unpack it. If rightly understood, in certain circumstances, it could be right for Christians to pray imprecatory Psalms today. Let me say it again. If rightly understood, in other words we understand the spirit and purpose of the Psalm, if the circumstances merit it in a certain context, it could be possible for us to pray those Psalms and use them today.

So I want to give you the answer up front, but now I want to present the problem and open it up to you. We're going to start by reading Psalm 109. Psalm 109.

And it says for the director of music, a Psalm of David, a Psalm. My God whom I praise do not remain silent for people who are wicked and deceitful have opened their mouths against me. They have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me. They attack me without cause.

In return for my friendship they accuse me. For I am a man of prayer. In Hebrew literally, I am prayer. My whole life is a prayer.

They repay me evil for good and hatred for my friendship. Now this is a prayer. Now some say that this is what, beginning verse 6, this is what the people are saying about David. We'll just leave the text on the screen for those who are watching. And everyone watching on YouTube, take a second right now.

Take a second. Give us a thumbs up if you appreciate this content and share it. Share it immediately. We want to reach our maximum audience. Same on Facebook. You're watching on Facebook.

Click like and share. Let's reach the maximum number of people. Let's amplify this voice together and equip the body. Alright, so, some scholars believe that beginning verse 6, this is what was being said against David. This was the evil prayer being prayed against David. But most understand, and it's most logical to understand, that this is what David is now praying to happen to his enemies. So he's asking God, beginning verse 6.

This is a classic example of what we call an imprecatory psalm, a psalm of judgment. Appoint someone evil to oppose my enemy. Let an accuser, a satanic, an accuser stand at his right hand. When he has tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. So far, David's praying, okay, someone's trying to destroy me, let him be found guilty and sentenced accordingly in the court, in the court of God or in the court of man. May his days be few.

May another take his place of leadership. So this is some leader opposing David, out to get David. May his children be fatherless. Is this a prayer David's praying? And his wife a widow?

Hmm. May his children be wandering beggars. May they be driven from their ruined homes.

May a creditor sees 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. May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord. May the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

May their sins always remain before the Lord, that he may blot out their name for the earth. For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. He loved to pronounce a curse. May it come back on him.

He found no pleasure in blessing. May it be far from him. He wore a curse against his garment.

It entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. May this be the Lord's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me. But you sovereign Lord, help me for your name's sake, and the goodness of your love, deliver me. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. I fade away like an evening shadow. I am shaken off like a locust. My knees give way from fasting.

My body is thin and gaunt. I have an object of scorn to my accusers. When they see me, they shake their heads. Help me, O Lord God, save me according to your unfailing love. Let them know that it is your hand, that you Lord have done it. While they curse, may you bless. May those who attack me, meaning may you bless me while they're cursing me, may those who attack me be put to shame. But may your servant rejoice. May my accusers be clothed with disgrace and wrapped in shame as in the cloak.

With my mouth I'll greatly extol the Lord in the great throng of worshipers. I'll praise Him for He stands at the right hand of the needy to save their lives from those who would condemn them. So, can a Christian pray that prayer today? Is there a case where there are people doing such evil that we should pray that? Can we pray that over the Hamas terrorists? Could we have prayed that in World War II over the Nazis? Could we pray today over people committing atrocities in the earth?

Kidnapping children and selling them into human trafficking? Horrific evils like that? Can we pray the imprecatory Psalms? Now, let's go to Matthew chapter 5, beginning verse 43, well-known words of Jesus, Yeshua, on the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 43, He said, You've heard it said, Love your neighbor, hate your enemy. That's not explicit in the Old Testament, but there are themes like that that could arise from Old Testament, like Psalm 139, Don't I hate those who hate you with a perfect hatred, etc. And then we know in Qumran, Dead Sea Scrolls, there are sympathies like this, Love your neighbor, hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you will be children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?

And not even the tax collectors doing that, they were corrupt. And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. How does that line up with praying imprecatory Psalms?

Yikes. Okay, one more text. Go to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. And we'll start at verse 9. All right, Romans 12 9.

Love, Paul writes, must be sincere. Hate what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be devoted one to another in love, honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with the Lord's people who are in need.

Practice hospitality. Verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. It would seem that Paul is explicitly saying, don't do this.

And Jesus was explicitly saying, don't pray those imprecatory Psalms anymore. Don't say those words anymore. Withjoy with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

12 17. Do not repay anyone for evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

You say, okay, Dr. Brown, in light of that, how can you even say under certain circumstances it might be right to pray those prayers? Okay, so let me now break this down. If we are talking about personal attitude, we do not have a personal attitude of vindictiveness or vengeance, ever, ever. That is, what does it say? Romans 12, it's mine to avenge, right? It's mine to avenge.

Just read it. It's mine to avenge. Hebrews 10, and vengeance belongs to the Lord.

These are themes quoted from the Old Testament. Vengeance is his. It's him to avenge. We should not have a spirit of personal vindictiveness. You hurt me, I'm going to pray that God hurts you.

Who could think of that? You may be burning with anger, and you're upset, and you think like that, but if you're right with God, you don't think like that. Lord, he stole money from me. I want to steal money from him. Lord, he seduced my wife.

I want to seduce his wife. Let him suffer the same thing. All right, I won't do it, but let it happen to him. He hurt me. Lord, you hurt him. He stole from me. Lord, you bankrupt him. That's personal vindictiveness. That's personal vengeance. That is never, ever the attitude God wants you to have towards those who hurt you, towards your enemies. Ever.

Ever. You say, well, didn't the psalmist have that? Well, C.S.

Lewis believed that he did. C.S. Lewis believes that these psalms – and we talked about the end of Psalm 137 potentially fitting in this category. You know, Babylon, happy is the one that's going to do to you what you did to them. Happy is the one who's going to take your children and bash their heads against a rock. It's actually in the Psalms, the end of Psalm 137.

And C.S. Lewis and others would say that was the psalmist speaking from his flesh, from his human anger, and we put everything through the canon of Christ, and just like Job's words of anger are preserved in the book of Job, there's some psalms, and you evaluate everything by the overall testimony of Scripture and ultimately the canon of Christ. And that those would be – he wasn't claiming God told me to say this.

This is his prayer. It's one thing when God commands Moses to drive out the Canaanites or slaughter the Canaanites, God commands him to do that. We dealt with that last Friday's broadcast. Did God command the Israelites to slaughter the Canaanites? If you missed that, listen to it. If you have the app, AskDr.Brown.org, just scroll down for the recent shows or just scroll down and search the word Canaanites on the website AskDr.Brown.org or the YouTube channel, ASKDR Brown.

If you missed it, I think it's an important show. I really tried to dig in deep in the Scripture and be honest. But C.S. Lewis said, well, these are just human sentiments. They're petty.

It's angry. So if the psalmist was just expressing, ah, man, he hurt me, Lord, hurt him, hurt his kids, hurt his grandkids, hurt everybody. Well, no, that's never our spirit. It is never to be our spirit.

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It's time. All right. So what if, what if David was not praying at a personal anger? He was hurt, but he was praying at a zeal for God's justice. This is the positive interpretation of the Psalms of cursing.

C.S. Lewis and others have the negative evaluation that it's just human emotion and it's recorded because the Psalms are full of human emotion. Some of it is fully in harmony with God's redemptive plan and some of it is subpar, but we learned from it. Others would say, no, no, no, not the Psalms.

It's one thing in Job where you have an argument back and forth and God rebukes Job and rebukes the friends, right? But not the Psalms. I mean, the Psalms are sung.

The Psalms are the hymnbook of ancient Israel and part of the hymnbook of the early church and they're inspired. So where they do express human emotion, it's clear. God, I'm frustrated. I'm hurting. Help me.

Help me. As opposed to here, it seems like this is recorded as a good thing. So if it is positive and it was positive in ancient Israel, then here's how you understand it. David was not praying at a personal anger or vengeance. He was not praying at a personal anger or vengeance.

He was not praying, you hurt me, you hurt them, Lord. Rather, he was saying they are destroying people's lives. They are doing evil. They've tried to destroy me.

God, it's not right. People are being hurt. Being hurt, take them down.

Take them down. And in keeping with ancient Hebrew thought, rather than thinking in abstract terms, it speaks in very concrete terms. Some say this is how many Old Testament scholars believe in the inspiration of Scripture, believe in the inspiration of the Psalms, would say this is what's going on. One, it's not personal vengeance, even though David's been personally hurt. It's about the honor of God. It's about others being hurt. Therefore, God cursed them and destroyed them. They're hurting people.

That's one. Two, he's praying vivid prayers. When I say God judged them, I mean it's going to mean Dad is taken out for his sin and the mom for her sin so the kids are not going to have parents.

Let it be because what they're doing is wicked and evil. So this would then be, here's a thought for you, all right? Do you pray the prayer, the Lord's prayer? Do you pray it weekly in your church?

Right? Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth is this in heaven. Do you pray that prayer? Do you ever pray it privately? Well, what does it mean, your kingdom come?

What is it? Now, that's a massive concept, but it's also an abstract concept. What does it mean, your kingdom come? Doesn't it mean, among other things, judgment on the wicked?

Doesn't it mean, among other things, destruction of the ungodly who don't repent? Do you say maranatha, in Aramaic it's two words, marana, our Lord come? And it comes into as a Greek prayer, maranatha, come Lord, come Lord. Do you ever pray that?

Or from Revelation 22, so one from 1 Corinthians 16, the other from Revelation 22. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Have you ever prayed for the Lord to return?

Well, what happens when He returns? What are you actually praying for? Aren't you praying for 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, that He will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who don't know God, and who don't obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus, and they'll be punished with everlasting destruction for the presence of the Lord, for the glory of His power? So, when you're praying, even so, come Lord Jesus, are you not praying judgment on the wicked who refuse to repent? Are you not praying for His return in fire, His return in fiery flames? When you pray your kingdom come Lord, thy kingdom come, aren't you praying for His kingdom to displace and destroy other kingdoms? So, if you were praying like the psalmist, you would be praying in tremendous detail and fleshing out what you meant by the destruction of the wicked.

So, here's my caveat. If this does not reflect your personal attitude, if it's not wanting personal vengeance, personal vindication, personal repayment, personal retribution, if it's not out of bitterness and personal anger and hurt, we are commanded. Don't curse, bless. We are commanded. Overcome evil with good.

We are commanded. Pray for those who persecute you. Pray for those who despise those who bless them. Don't curse them. 1 Peter 3, the same thing, bless. Don't curse.

We're going to inherit a blessing. That's how we respond. Someone hurts us, we pray, oh God help them.

Oh God, Lord, I'm hurting, I'm angry. But right now I'm praying for them. Save them. Open their hearts.

Open their minds. In fact, a little later in the broadcast, I'll get you into a very interesting Jewish tradition. A fascinating Jewish tradition that actually talks about how God felt when He drowned the Egyptians. It's a fascinating rabbinic interpretation. It's homiletical.

It's not historical. It's homiletical. But we pray, someone hurts us, someone maligns us, Lord, bring them to repentance. Lord, help them not to hurt others. We want to see them saved.

That's our design. We want to see them saved. Not dead, but saved. What if, though, they are doing tremendous damage? What if the way for the hostages in Gaza to be freed is by Hamas terrorists to be taken out in an Israeli raid? Would you not pray if you were praying like David prayed and someone aligned? Lord, give precision to the idea of forces, to their special forces.

Confound the strategies of the terrorists. Lord, may, and you'd even pray, if you were doing this, Lord, may the children of these terrorists be fatherless. What a horrific prayer, but is it the same thing? I couldn't pray those words.

I couldn't personally use those words. But can I say, God, bring them to repentance to surrender the hostages and if not take them out? Isn't it praying the same thing, right? Isn't it praying for the same outcome?

Now, I'm going to come back and hit this from one more angle. When I heard people praying the imprecatory psalms over those who allegedly stole the election from Donald Trump and voter workers who allegedly weren't diligent and participated in stealing the election, I was sickened. I was sickened to my stomach hearing. You're talking about a misapplication of scripture. You're talking about something that was carnal and wrong and fleshly and emotional.

Yikes. Not to mention filled with other judgment. But, you know, if ISIS has surrounded a children's school and they say, we are about to kill every child inside, we have locked and sealed the building and we're going to set on fire and burn everyone alive inside, the teachers, the children. And you say, oh God, stop their devices.

You know, it's your kids in there. God, stop them. God, send judgment. God, send a bolt of lightning.

Send special forces taking them out. Aren't you, in praying that prayer, praying that their children would not have a father? I mean, it's a shocking thing to consider, but that's what Psalm 109 is doing.

Some would argue, and again, you've got to be incredibly careful because we get mixed with our own emotions and wrong attitudes, but some would argue that's how it can be applied today to the Nazis, to Hitler. You add and bring them to repentance so that they surrender. Yeah, they may get the death penalty.

They may get life in prison. Either way, the first prayer is there for their repentance to stop the evil. But if not, God, stop them before they destroy more lives.

Isn't that actually a good prayer, a positive prayer? Let's try to open this up for you. We'll be right back.

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Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Thanks, friends, for joining us on the Line of Fire. Thank you, everyone who prays for me and our ministry, for Nancy and me, for our team.

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So thank you. All right, so again, we have to be super, super careful about praying imprecatory Psalms. Number one, because it's so easy to pray out of a vengeful, angry, hurt heart. Never pray out of bitterness. Pray to God, Lord, I'm angry, Lord.

Talk to him honestly. Yes. Lord, I can't forgive this person. They hurt me so, and I know I'm supposed to, God help me. Be honest.

Yes, yes. Lord, right now, I don't want to bless them. I want to see them suffer.

I'm so mad about what they did. Be honest. Pour your heart out to God.

The whole Bible tells us, be honest with God. Pour your heart out to him. He welcomes that. He welcomes that. You might even be going through such pain. Your attitude is, God, I don't even know if you're real. I've trusted you all my life, but what I'm experiencing now and the way you're acting now seems to be contrary, like happened with Job. I mean, he may end up correcting you, but by all means, be honest.

Open up your heart to him. Absolutely. But don't pray vindictive prayers ever. Don't pray prayers out of bitterness to hurt others. Instead, say, Lord, I want to bless. I want to bless the one that cursed me. I want to want to see them get right with you, but right now, I don't have that sentiment. If I was given the choice that they die and go to hell or that they repent and become my brother and sister, I would rather die and go to hell.

I'm just being honest with you. Okay, be honest, but don't pray vindictive prayers. Don't pray prayers of vengeance. Don't pray prayers of retribution. Don't pray prayers that originate out of a bitter, angry heart. Don't do it. It's destructive.

It's destructive. I have many weaknesses that God helps me deal with and overcome, and I continue to grow after 52 years in the Lord, going one more month, 52 years in the Lord. So I'm a work in progress like everyone else. I have areas of strength, and it's almost always been easy for me to forgive those who hurt me. Sometimes it's gone deep, but normally my first, I don't, God's my witness. He's just given me grace there, and I think it's because he's been so incredibly forgiving to me, and when I first got saved, I, the believers in the church, when I made, you know, just said stupid things and said such stupid things, and early on in the Lord, and they just forgave me and loved me.

They made an impression on me, and I saw it as God's heart, and that was my father's attitude, even as a non-believer, that incredible attitude of forgiveness towards me, and my mom as well. So whatever the reason is, and just spending a lot of time with the Lord, it's easy for me to forgive, and I really pray for God's best. I'm telling you before the Lord, if you're some person that I would class as a critic or a hyper critic, right, and I think the work you're doing is destructive, and that you're hurting the body and bringing division, and sowing discord, and attacking me personally, and you think you're doing the right thing.

In other words, in your heart, you're doing this for the Lord, you're doing this for the gospel, you're doing this for the body. I think you're doing a lot of harm, and you've attacked me personally. When I get on my knees to pray, I'm not mad at you, and I don't pray a superior prayer.

Again, I've got plenty of weaknesses. This is an area of strength, by God's grace. The prayers that I would pray for you, sir or ma'am, that I put in the critic or hyper critic, destructive critic or hyper critic category, are the same prayers I pray for me. I'll get down on my knees, and I'll say, Lord, and I'll mention you by name, and I'll say, Lord, you know them, you know the work they're doing, bring them into the fullness of your love, the fullness of your truth, the fullness of your grace. I pray the same for me, Lord. And then I pray, Lord, to the extent they're doing your will and helping others confirm it, bless it, to the extent they're hurting others, I'm asking you to stop it from hurting more, and Lord, I pray the same thing for myself, and I pray the same thing for myself.

I echo the same prayer for myself, so there's no praying from a self-righteous or superior moral position. I mean, I may interact a little bit, and going back and forth honestly, but my attitude before the Lord is such that if you hurt me deeply, and you came the next day, and it's happened to me over the decades, people come back in tears, and forgive me, man, Mike, I thought I was doing the right thing, but I really misrepresented you. I thought you were dangerous and this bad guy, and forgive me, please, like, I love you, man. We're going to be closer because of this. I generally feel like that. We're going to be closer because of this. I mean, it's happened to me over the years, literally, and it's made us closer. And so, I'm encouraging you to ask the Lord for that attitude. Like I said, I wish I was strong in other areas. Some areas, like you, are rock solid, and I have to really work to get to a certain point, but it's very freeing, it's very beautiful, and it reflects the degree of mercy God had on us.

You say, what about the ones who don't ask for forgiveness? And okay, it's one thing when someone maligns you on social media, puts out a YouTube video about it, but that monster kidnapped and raped and killed my child, okay, I can't imagine that I've never been within a million miles of that in terms of something I went through personally. Whatever I've gone through has never been, it's not in the same universe. So, I'm not telling you how I would act at a time like that. I'm not saying, oh, I would just say, well, Lord, he was weak. No, I've never been there.

I've never been there. That doctor, we told him he's right, and he ended up doing something. It cost my wife her life. She died because of that. Now the guy's in jail for malpractice.

How should I feel towards him? Again, I've never been there. I've never had that situation.

I've never had to relate to something of that magnitude. I'm only saying that even then, you don't pray prayers out of an angry or hurt heart. Lord, get them, hurt them, destroy them.

You don't do it. But what if your prayer is a bigger prayer for justice, for intervention? Are there not times in the Bible, are there not times in the Bible where God's people rejoice when judgment comes? Let me throw some verses out to you, all right? Proverbs, Psalm 96, Psalm 96, 13. And you can read this article on the stream, stream.org, when God rebuked the angels for rejoicing over the destruction of the enemies of Israel. Stream.org, you'll find the beginning of it on our website or app, all right?

AskDrBrown.org or AskDrBrownMinistries app. When God rebuked the angels for rejoicing over the destruction of the enemies of Israel. Psalm 96, 13. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge yours. All creation rejoices. Judgment on the wicked is salvation for the righteous.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness, so everyone should rejoice. Proverbs 11, 10. When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Revelation 18, 19 and 20. Woe, woe to you great city, Babylon, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth.

In one hour she has been brought to her. Rejoice over her, you heavens. Rejoice, you people of God. Rejoice, apostles and prophets, for God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you. Same with Revelation 19, that God's people say hallelujah, amen, when judgment comes to the one who persecuted them and destroyed them and hurt so many lives.

So here, picture it like this. You hear this report. A bunch of pro-life teenagers were flying to D.C. to speak against the evil of abortion and to encourage their local senators to bring about pro-life laws. And they were on their way flying into D.C. with some Christians who had joined them who had been praying and fasting. And there's a horrific plane crash. They charter a plane.

It's just them. And the plane crashes. Everyone on the plane, Christian, you'd be, what? That makes no sense. For pro-life Christians, like, how'd that happen? That made no sense. But then you hear, oh, no, that was the wrong report. That was the wrong report. The flight that went down was filled with pro-Hamas sympathizers who were going to D.C. for a secret meeting to plot how to kill Jews in America and how to do to Jewish American children and babies what was going on in the United States. Children and babies what was done by the Hamas terrorists in Israel. It was the airplane that crashed.

What would you say? Praise God. Oh, they're all lost. That's a terrible shame, but I don't even know if someone would think that. Praise God. Praise God. That's good news. They were stopped from doing evil.

You know, Joseph Stalin infamously had this plot to kill these Jewish doctors, then he just died suddenly. And he believed it was divine intervention taking place at the time of Purim, which is, you know, when Haman gets thwarted by God's providential action through Mordecai. Nonetheless, nonetheless, there's still sadness in God's heart in a certain way, because that's his creation. So we're going to come back to that on the other side of the break.

And yeah, I'm going to see if I can get to a call or two. Let me just say this though. Last point. If your prayer is a prayer for God to bring judgment on those doing evil, to stop them from hurting more people, and so that God would not seem to be silent, my prayer would be, God, bring them to repentance. Stop them from what they're doing. May they step back and turn themselves in and let them suffer the due process under law, but have mercy on them. Save them. Forgive them. Stop them. If they will not repent, then Lord, do what must be done through human or supernatural means to stop them from hurting others. What's wrong with praying for that? Let God determine how to do it.

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1-800-771-5584 or online at TriVita.com. It's the Line of Fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get on the Line of Fire by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. All right, welcome back to the broadcast.

By the way, tomorrow's broadcast is going to be one of those that really grabs hold of you and I think shakes you in a positive way. We are in a war. Oh, are we in a war?

I'm not talking about physical. I'm talking about spiritual. I think it's going to stir you. Thursday, God willing, we're going to ask the question, have Gentile Christians replaced the Jewish people in God's plan of redemption? We're going to dig heavily in the Word. And then Friday, God willing, I'm going to start with a brief teaching, just changing a little bit our, you've got questions, we've got answers. I want to make sure that I'm pouring in key content at this critical time.

And then from there, we are going to take your calls the rest of the show. By the way, New York Times issued an apology saying, you know, we believed Hamas too much. We believed the report about Israel bombing a hospital and hundreds and hundreds of casualties. It wasn't Israel that bombed. There were no Israeli planes in the air over there at that time. There's clear forensic evidence on the ground. There's clear satellite evidence from the air. There's clear audio evidence from Hamas terrorists talking that it was a rocket, misfired rocket from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

It was friendly fire. And it didn't land on the hospital, but in the parking lot, it didn't kill hundreds, but probably scores. Terrible, terrible, horrific thing that happened. I mean, you're trying to shelter in the hospital and they're actively working on people. And then next thing, the bomb drops and walls collapsing and people die.

It's terrible. But who sends the report? It's Hamas. It's the media agency of Hamas sending that out.

So be careful when you hear these reports. Israel did this. If an atrocity happened, if a bomb fell, say in the case near this historic church, a bomb fell in an adjacent building causing structural damage, walls to collapse, killing people who were sheltering. That's tragic. Palestinian blood is just as important as Israeli blood. Palestinian elderly, Palestinian women, children, non-combatants are just as precious in God's sight as Israeli elderly and women and children, non-combatants. It's not a comparison thing.

It's tragic, period, period. But Israel doesn't do that intentionally. That's the moral difference. Israel does not do that intentionally. And Hamas does intentionally put their weaponry near churches, near hospitals, near mosques. The more civilian casualties, the better.

Either make it difficult for Israel to attack at all, or if they do attack, let there be civilian casualties so Israel looks bad. What about the civilian casualties? Hey, it's a good loss. It's a good loss for the cause. That's how Hamas terrorists would think.

It's a good loss for the cause. Get people even more enraged against our enemy Israel. And it works.

It works. The whole world gets in an uproar. You say, okay, so now that the word is out that it was in Israel, everything will change. No, the narrative's out. Damage is done. I'm glad there's an apology, but do better the next time. You know who you're getting the information from.

Do better the next time. All right, so there is a Talmudic passage. It is found, it's in a couple of places. It is found in Sanhedrin and it is found in Megillah in the Babylonian Talmud.

So I'm going to read from the expanded translation of Adin Steinshalt. The Gomorrah, meaning the Talmud, asks, but is the Holy One blessed be He, gladdened by the downfall of the wicked? Isn't it written, in the verse describing the victory of the Jewish people in battle, He appointed them that they should sing unto the Lord in praise and the beauty of holiness, in Chronicles 20, 21, as they went out before the army and said, holudadonai k'ilolam chasdo, give thanks to the Lord for His mercy endures forever. Now if you're familiar with the text, something's missing, holudadonai k'itov k'ilolam chasdo, give thanks to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever.

Those words are missing. Rabbi Yonatan says, for what reason is it not stated in the praise, give thanks to the Lord for He is good for His mercy endures forever, as is stated elsewhere, like Psalm 118 1. This is because the Holy One blessed be He is not gladdened by the downfall of the wicked. So it's a homiletical commentary, but it says, hey, God brings the judgment, but He's not happy about it.

He's not happy about it. Then Ezekiel 18 32 was God said there, I take no pleasure in the death of anyone. This is not the Talmud here, this is me referring to it. I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord, repent and live, repent and live.

So God's not taking pleasure in the death of the wicked, even though it's right and righteous, He doesn't take pleasure in it, He would rather they repent and He could have mercy on them. So the Talmud continues, Gomorrah Talmud comments, as Rabbi Shmuel Bar Nachman says, that Rabbi Yonatan says, what is the meaning of that which is written in the passage describing the splitting of the Red Sea? And one came not near the other all the night, Exodus 14 20.

So the Egyptians and the Israelites did not come near each other. This is homiletical commentary, the Rabbi's kind of taking this in a free form expository way as opposed to exegeting the text and this is exactly what it means here. It's like a free form preaching commentary, like many pastors and Christians will do. It's like the text is this but let me make a free application of it to us.

All right. At that time, here's the explanation, at that time the ministering angels desired to recite a song before the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, my handiwork. So the angels, God's about to drown the Egyptians in the sea and we know that's Exodus 14, Exodus 15, the children of Israel will rejoice and sing as they should. God delivered them from their enemies who had enslaved them and who were you going to enslave them again or kill them.

So it's a good thing. God delivered them. Praise God. I would be praising God.

God would want me to be praising Him if He delivered me from my enemies. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

They're about to kill us. You delivered us. Thank you, Lord. If a bolt of lightning took them out, thank you, Lord. If a giant rock fell on them, thank you, Lord. If our army arrived in time to take them out, thank you, Lord. Thank you for delivering me. Yes, absolutely.

Absolutely. And again, it's the song in the next chapter, but this is rabbinic homily now talking about this. So at that time, the ministering angels desired to recite a song before the Holy One, blessed be He. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to them, my handiwork, that is the Egyptians, are drowning in the sea and you're reciting a song before me? Mitch Donchild says, apparently God is not gladdened by the downfall of the wicked.

So isn't that interesting? On the one hand, it is right, it is right for us to rejoice when God judges the wicked. Thank you, Lord. More people are not going to be hurt. More people are not going to be destroyed.

More people are not going to be bombed or raped or tortured or killed. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for your intervention. If I heard, if I heard there was a drug cartel about to smuggle deadly drugs into America that were going to kill young and old Americans, and they were evil and wicked people, and detectives and journalists that tried to expose them got miserably brutally tortured and slaughtered in cold blood. And this evil, wicked cartel is about to do something that's going to create massive damage. And I hear that there was a gun fight with American officials and law enforcement agents.

There was a gun fight at the border and every one of them was killed and a hundred billion dollars worth of drugs was confiscated. Thank you, Lord. I'm sad that they died in sin, but thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord.

I'm sad that they're going to be families without fathers or husbands or children or grandchildren, as the case may be. Thank you, Lord, for saving lives. If, again, if Hamas terrorists brought all the hostages out in one place and said, we're about to behead them all, right down to the little children and babies, we're going to behead them all, and suddenly lightning struck them, just them, and they dropped dead, wouldn't we all be saying, thank you, God. Thank you, Lord. That's a miracle.

That's incredible. At the same time, it's a terrible loss as well. Those were human beings created in God's sight. So as I say in the article, surely as we praise God, these are good and righteous sentiments and surely we can relate to them.

After all, how would we feel if murderous terrorists around our children's school threatening to kill every one of them? Then as we prayed and cried out to the Lord for help, a bolt of lightning came out of nowhere and killed them all. Wouldn't we be weeping for joy and hugging each other and racing to be with our kids, praising God with all our might?

Thank you, Lord. Again, these are good and righteous sentiments. We should rejoice at such times. The bad guys got what they deserved.

The good guys were delivered. At the same time, this imaginative rabbinic commentary that I just cited gives us something else to think about. There is value in the life of every human being and it is a real shame and a true loss when people rebel against their maker's plan and come under his judgment. We too can rejoice in the righteousness of that judgment while grieving at the loss of human lives.

We can have that sentiment. It's a shame that those people create it with potential. No, with respect to my Calvinist friends, I don't believe they were created to be wicked or created specifically to be judged and destroyed. That's not how I understand Proverbs 16 and 4 and many other passages.

It's a shame it's a loss. They were created in the image of God. They felt they could have been redeemed. They could have been brothers and sisters. They could have been with the Lord in us forever. It's a shame that didn't happen. But you better believe I'm glad they were cut short before they could hurt other people.

And you better believe I'll say, God, your ways are good and your ways are righteous. Yeah, some of you held the whole show. I'm sorry.

Couldn't get to any calls. There's so much content to cover. Blessings to you. Don't miss the show this week and please share these with others. We want to make an impact together. The times are critical. God bless you. Oh, another program powered by the Truth Network.