The Gift of Imprecation
There is a lot happening right now in my world, under the title of “political things.” And that title always gives me a bit of pause, because I am wary of it, and weary of it, and realize it will bring up a lot of strong feelings and opinions from many people I love and respect. I am not sure I am ready to respond to all of that in the loving manner that God calls me to. I know I need to be all prayed up.
I grew up with the “Acts” of prayer: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. World Renewal, the organization I work for, has taught me about Intercession through their weekly Thursday 10am prayer meetings (message me on how to attend in person or online!). I think the clearest picture I’ve had of Consecration for me was when Pastor Flavio put his hands on my newborn daughters, in front of our little yellow church, and we consecrated them to Jesus with tears in my eyes. I still have a lot to learn about Blessing, but I started to learn about this when I went through Psalms, writing them out in my own words.
Returning from Brazil in 2020 began my process of learning, for the first time, what Lament is. It has now become my one of my favorite tools in my toolbox of gifts that God gives us to get through life. I wrote a book that includes most of that learning journey (but that is still ongoing). But I’ve always shied away from Imprecatory prayers. I held my nose and passed over them quickly when going through Psalms. I repeated to myself that those were to remind me of how God hates sin.
I’ve never been a person that connected (or wanted to be anywhere near) to anger and rage. It scares me. It scares me the most when I feel it inside myself. As a woman, and a people pleaser, I learned the skills of de-escalation, of humor, of smiling and nodding to appease from an early age. This is how we keep the peace. I was the faun or flight, rather than fight. Maybe it is perimenopause. Maybe it is getting old. Whatever it is, I am ready to learn more about imprecatory prayers now.
I encourage you to study for yourself. Here are some examples: Psalms 7; 35; 58; 59; 69; 83; 109; 137; 139. From the New Testament: Matthew 23:13, Matthew 26:23–24, 1 Corinthians 16:22, Galatians 1:8–9, Galatians 5:12, 2 Timothy 4:14, and Revelation 6:10.
Simply put, imprecatory prayers are judgement/justice prayers. To me, they sound like a “How dare they” list to God. I start a bullet point list, and it continues until the rage loses steam. From there, I can understand better what is really bothering me. Once that is pinpointed, I write out what I feel was done unjustly, and I ask God to “get ‘em.” I don’t get very far into this process before I realize that a lot (if not most) of my anger was misplaced. That it wasn’t injustice, it was my feelings that got hurt. When I write out the judgement I want God to rain down on them, I am normally all raged out and realize this is really more of a lament than anything else. I don’t think you can honestly pray for someone else—even imprecatory prayers—and not be touched yourself.
It’s cold outside right now. And we work hard to prepare ourselves for the cold weather. It’s divisive and angry outside right now. Let us, as Christians, work hard to prepare ourselves through prayer. And if all you can manage right now are some imprecatory prayers: I get it my friend, I get it. What a good gift God has given us! It’s like He knew we’d need it.