Pour Out Your Indignation Upon Them

"Pour out Your indignation upon them, And let Your wrathful anger take hold of them."
(Psalm 69:24)

The full psalm can be viewed here.

To continue my topic on the Psalms, I meditate on Psalm 69.

It is common to experience anger at times. Whether it’s because of injustices such as racial discrimination, murder, and even someone’s wronged you. If you do the objectives of my previous posts, it is likely you will face persecution. Is it right to bristle with anger at these occurrences? How should you feel about those who have wronged you? Who persecute you endlessly? How should you think?

Jesus taught us in Luke 6, “Love your enemies, do good to those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (verses 27-28). Jesus also prayed for those who persecuted Him, saying on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24). These passages seem to point to the fact that we are to have patience with our enemies and love them even though they terribly wrong you.

However, Psalm 69 is one of a group of psalms that include curses and judgements against God’s enemies. They are usually called imprecatory psalms. Psalm 69 is the most extended one of these so I’ll use this one as the basis for my meditation.

In summary, this psalm tells of king David, who is not perfect (vs. 5), but who is righteous (vs. 28), trusts God’s mercy for ransom and redemption (vs. 18), stands up for the cause of the humble (vs. 32-33), is suffering undeserved persecution and calls upon God to punish these enemies.

It is interesting to note that seven of the thirty-six verses of this psalm are quoted in the New Testament. That includes the imprecatory bits. Not once does it treat the psalm as something we should reject, as sinful vengeance. Romans 11:9-11 quotes verses 22-23 of this psalm:

“And David says:
‘Let their table become a snare and a trap,
A stumbling block and a recompense to them.
Let their eyes be darkened, so that they do not see,
And bow down their back always.’”

Paul’s point in this chapter is that most of Israel has rejected Jesus as their Messiah and has come under God’s judgement. He goes straight to Psalm 69 to support this. He uses it as a reliable expression of what happens to the adversaries of God’s anointed. Not as merely emotional words of retaliation, but prophetic words of judgement. Jesus himself quotes the words of this psalm, saying in John 15:24-25:

“If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’”

This is a quote from verse four of Psalm 69: “Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.” Jesus is seeing Himself, the Son of David, as the fulfilment of David’s experiences. See also Romans 15:3.

So there are two scenarios in the New Testament regarding Psalm 69. One is judgement. The imprecations are not sinful, but rather a display of God’s just retribution for sin. The other is a reflection of the suffering of Christ, endured for God’s sake, and as a result of being a representative of God.

So what does this psalm mean for our thoughts and feelings today?

Firstly we should learn from David’s imprecations that judgement is coming on the unrepentant adversaries of the Lord. It is right, it is sure, and it is desirable.

Secondly we should not take these curses as encouragements to curse those who wrong us. It’s because there is judgement coming from God. It’s not our responsibility to judge them, but God’s. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19, Hebrews 10:30). On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;” (Proverbs 25:21).

Look forward to the day when Christ will return, and God’s indignation will be poured out, and His wrathful anger will take hold of them.