10/6/82 Rev 6:9; 11/14/82 Rev 8:2
A. Definition.
1. This is a prayer in which justice is demanded for some form of persecution, antagonism, or hostility directed toward the one involved.
2. Do we as Church Age believers have the right to go to God in prayer and demand the execution, destruction, ruin of some person, whether believer or unbeliever?
B. Hypersensitive arrogance utters imprecatory prayer, Ps 13:1-4
. 1. We can get mighty impatient when subjected to injustice.
2. Injustice is always a test. It can come from a person or a system as testing.
3. Verse 4 gives us the key to the frame of mind of a person who prays such a prayer. The psalmist is more disturbed about his image than he is about his relationship with the Lord.
4. This kind of imprecatory prayer is not answered, for it is wrong. When you are more concerned about what people think of you than the Lord, then spiritually you are in trouble.
5. This is the prayer of hypersensitive arrogance. We make enemies because of arrogance: impulsive arrogance, self-righteousness, institutional arrogance, crusader arrogance, sexual, political, and authority arrogance; and then turn and ask God to destroy our enemies.
6. The hypersensitivity of arrogance will utter imprecatory prayers.
C. The Legitimate Prayer to Ask God to Punish Evil, Ps 54:1-5.
1. The key in this passageis deliverance based on divine power. Verse 4 gives the legitimate background for verse 5.
2. Verse 5 follows the principle of doctrine that when you are slandered or maligned, the Lord will answer the prayer “let evil return to the slanderer.” This occurs through triple-compound discipline. There is divine discipline for:
a. The mental attitude sin that motivated the slander.
b. The sin of the tongue.
c. The sin he assigns to the one he maligns.
3. It is a legitimate prayer to ask God to measure the evil back to the person. Verse 5b, “In Your faithfulness destroy them.”
4. Note that the victim does not seek to destroy them himself. He puts the whole matter in God’s hands. All revenge tactics are blasphemous in that they take the option from the sovereignty of God.
5. Your just cause is no longer just the moment you retaliate.
D. Imprecatory prayers are only for mature believers, Ps 143. Verses 11-12 teach that imprecatory prayer depends entirely on the integrity of God. This is a bold prayer even for the mature believer. If you are wrong in this prayer, the whole thing falls on you. To ask for the destruction or ruin of others, you have to be absolutely certain you are right. Either you remain silent and let God handle the situation, or you pray that God silence your enemies, but be sure of your ground. Imprecatory prayers are only for mature believers who are recipients of terrible injustice.
E. A true imprecatory prayer appeals to the supreme court of heaven, Ps 35. This is not a prayer to kill someone, but to frustrate the injustice against him. Everything is left to the justice of God. A true imprecatory prayer appeals to the supreme court of heaven.
F. A Legitimate Imprecatory Prayer, Ps 69. David’s enemies are trying to prosper at his expense. People whose prosperity comes by sin, evil, and injustice are destroyed by that prosperity. David has been disciplined for his sins, but his discipline is over; yet now his enemies are taking advantage of the Lord’s discipline to add their own vindictiveness. This was a legitimate prayer for David to make.
G. The Most Powerful of All Imprecatory Prayers, Ps 109. This passage emphasizes the legitimacy of this function. Verse 6 requests that Satan punish this slanderer. To pray such a prayer requires the greatest boldness, because if you are wrong you receive the punishment.
H. Imprecatory prayers were legitimate in the Old Testament, but probably are not valid in the Church Age, though there is no Scripture to prove it. It is better to put the matter in the Lord’s hands than to get your tongue involved. In the Tribulation, the tribulational martyrs will offer legitimate imprecatory prayers in heaven. To pray that God will turn Satan loose on someone, that the next generation will be beggars and then die, is incompatible with being a member of the royal family. The Church Age believer is commanded to put the matter in the hands of the justice of God.