Can I pray a curse?
The survey revealed that these prayers for judgment, which are also called “imprecations,” are not isolated to the Psalter but found throughout the Bible, even on the lips of Jesus himself. It seems, then, given the somewhat frequent appearance of imprecation throughout Scripture with positive portrayals, and the commands to sing the psalms in Paul’s letters to New Covenant churches, that there is at least some expectation that Christians would be praying for God’s justice today. My guess, however, is that most of us haven’t heard imprecatory prayers uttered in the church. Usually, the reasoning goes something like, “That’s not how Jesus taught us to pray,” or “Aren’t we supposed to pray for our enemies, not against them?” Or, perhaps you’ve heard, “That was just an Old Testament thing, but we pray differently now.” These are understandable objections, to be sure. To answer these and other objections, and assert that imprecation is indeed appropriate for Christians today, I’ve grouped ...
