PRAYER FOR OUR NATION: IMPRECATORY PRAYER

What I want to share with you today is kinda the other side of the coin from what I shared yesterday.

I’ve been doing short videos, encouraging you to pray thru Psalm 140 daily to stand for righteousness & against the lawlessness that is spreading like a cancer. One part of Psalm 140 are examples of what is called an “imprecatory prayer.” Here is it:

As for the head of those who surround me, may the mischief of their lips cover them. May burning coals fall upon them; may they be cast into the fire, into deep pits from which they cannot rise. May a slanderer not be established in the earth; may evil hunt the violent man speedily” (verses 9-11).

What is imprecatory prayer? One definition of imprecation is the “The act of... invoking evil; a malediction; a prayer or expressed wish that a curse or calamity may befall someone” (Wordnik).

It goes without saying that Christians have had a real problem with this concept of prayer for a lot of reasons. But I want to bring this subject up in the context of what is happening in our nation right now.

Please take a minute to watch this video. You may want to turn your volume down, as it has some extremely disgusting language in it. (If you listen to the first 5 seconds, there isn’t really any need to listen to the audio of the rest. It’s all pretty much the same.)https://twitter.com/i/status/1282070412466282496

What were your emotional response & thoughts about what you saw (& heard, if you kept the volume up)? To be honest, I felt & thought a lot of things. But the one thing I want to share with you is that I was angry. Not just on behalf of the officer that was disrespected, attacked, & injured. 

I was angry because if enough of this happens, the police will be de-motivated from protecting the people in this neighborhood. They need someone between them & the thugs the officers were trying to deal with. 

Where is the justice for the elderly, children, & disabled in the neighborhood who can’t stand up to the criminals? Who is going to protect the small business owners & their employees?

How do you feel when you see this happening? Everything is turned upside down & backward. Evil is considered good, & good evil. Here is an observation from another blog about imprecatory prayer:

While some would object that it is not patience at all to pray to God for the destruction of their enemies, that idea is simply wrong. If destruction is truly warranted and is the will of God, to pray for it is neither impatient nor wrong. Taking individual vengeance is both wrong and impatient. Rom. 12:19 "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord." Not taking one's own vengeance, but waiting on God to use His tools (natural means, governments, other evil men's predilection for evil, etc.) to bring His vengeance is exactly what patience is.
Also, anyone who would plead for God to relieve him from the evil of his enemies must truly make sure that his enemy can not rightly ask for the same relief because of the pleader's action. The righteous imprecatory prayer is a tool for the innocent only.

You can read the entire blog at: https://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-psalm-35.htm

There is nothing wrong with praying that God will deal with those who stand between justice & the hurting or afflicted. David did it. We can do it, & this is a season when we need to.