Violence in the Psalms

 

Some people find it difficult to pray with the psalms because of the violent streak that runs through many of them. This is a serious problem.

 

The psalms do indeed contain violent language. The psalmist often complains about his enemies, rejoicing at the thought that they will be struck down: “To deal out vengeance to the nations and punishment on all the peoples… this honour is for all his faithful!” (Ps. 149) He calls upon God to sustain him in battle against his foe, even cursing his enemy: “Arise, Lord; save me, my God, you who strike my foes on the mouth, you who break the teeth of the wicked!” (Ps. 3)

 

This violence is difficult to reconcile with the merciful, forgiving God we have come to know. Even the psalms speak of God as a “God of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, abounding in love and truth.” (Ps. 85/86) So how do we deal with the violent streak in the psalms?

 

First, we must remember that these texts were written in a social situation that was much more violent than is ours. Wars were common and physical violence rife. Life was “nasty, brutish and short” as Thomas Hobbes wrote back in 1651. So the psalms simply express the reality of the psalmist’s world, a reality tragically still present in too many parts of our world today.

 

Second, the pain that is expressed by the psalmist’s anger and curses is the same kind of pain that is expressed by all victims of violence. People who have been oppressed, people who have been kidnapped, raped and tortured, people whose family members were killed by a terrorist bomb: they hear in the psalmist’s words an echo of their own shock, despair and visceral call for revenge. Nothing of the human condition is avoided in the psalms.

 

And the Semitic style of writing does tend to exaggerate, a bit like we do in the world of sports today: “I hope our team crushes them. Oh yeah! They’re going to get slaughtered.” No one expects to see someone die at a hockey game, but out language does go a bit far: so do some of the psalms.

 

Third, we can imitate the psalmist in expressing our anger to God rather than acting on it, letting God deal with the injustice. This is already a first step on the way to reconciliation and peace.

 

Finally, we should remember that the true enemy is evil itself. God wants to free us from the power of evil, and we should pray intensely for this kind of liberation. The political and military battles of the Old Testament are symbols of the spiritual struggle in which we all find ourselves. In Christ, God conquered death. We can truly rejoice in that victory.

 

So let us not be afraid of the violence in the psalms. We can recognize in them an expression of the terrible and awful reality of many people’s lives. Yet we can see in them a symbol of the process through which God is saving us from evil and death. Jesus himself said: “I came to bring fire to the earth.” (Luke 12:49) He wasn’t talking about a fire of destruction. He was talking about the fire of his Spirit.