How do we respond to these “imprecatory” psalms that ask God to destroy enemies instead of forgiving them? We should recognize something important here, namely that even in the Old Testament the psalmist is not trying to take revenge himself. These psalms, then, “allow us to turn our anger over to God for him to act as he sees fit” and align us with Paul’s advice to “not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath” (Romans 12:19).80 Once you relocate your enemies—taking them out of your hands and putting them into God’s—you may find yourself developing sympathy for them.
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