Pray for Enemies—and against Them? Lessons from the Psalms
Christians pray for their enemies—but should they also pray against them? Consider two verses. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5:44). But David says—of an enemy—“Let there be none who extend to him loyal love, nor any who pities his orphans. Let his descendants be cut off. Let their name be blotted out in the next generation” (Ps 109:12–13). Are Jesus and David contradicting one another?1 Should we pray “imprecations” (prayers for God to bring retributive justice to wicked enemies) like these?2 In this excerpt, adapted from May/June 2021 Bible Study Magazine, Adam J. Howell considers these sticky questions—and how we can rightly apply the imprecations from the Psalter to pray for enemies in our own lives. The first thing we must remember is that the imprecatory prayers of the Psalms are inspired Scripture and therefore profitable in the Christian life. We cannot disregard these portions of God’s Word or pass them off as irrelevant to Christi