The longest book of the Bible is the book of Psalms. It is the most cited Old Testament book by New Testament writers (but Isaiah runs a close second). Walter Bruggemann has written: “In season and out of season, generation after generation, faithful women and men turn to the Psalms as a most helpful resource for conversation with God about things that matter most.” He divides the Psalms into three categories:

1) Psalms of “orientation.” I call these “good time psalms,” expressions of the heart when times are going well.

2) Psalms of “disorientation.” These are the “bad times psalms,” expressions of the heart when things are not going well. There is hurt, separation, suffering, and death. Life is ragged. The largest number of psalms are of this type (wonder why that is?).

3) Psalms of “reorientation,” which I call “turn around psalms.” Things have been going poorly, but life has changed and is now headed in a new and better direction.

Of all the Psalms, perhaps none has provided Christians with as much difficulty as those called the “Imprecatory Psalms.” These are prayers that ask God to do horrible things to other people. The most notable are Psalms 55,59,69,79,109,137. How could a person of God ask God to “let death take my enemies by surprise”or make their eyes “darkened so they cannot see and their backs bent forever”? Is it really appropriate for us to pray: “Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the kingdoms that do not call on your name”?

We are much more comfortable with Jesus’ and Stephen’s prayer for their enemies: “Do not hold this sin against them.”

While we would like to pray Jesus’ prayer, and while it is surely more in keeping with his command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43ff), it is nevertheless true that there are times justice seems so trampled on that the imprecatory psalms more accurately reflect the feelings of our heart. The book of Psalms is God’s word to us that whatever we feel about ourselves, about others, and even about God, none of those feelings are new nor unique to us. Great people of God have felt them too. And when they had those feelings, good or bad, joyful or sad, convicted or confused, they didn’t take matters into their own hands. They took their feelings to God. As much as anything else, the book of Psalms provides us with the vocabulary to unburden our heart and approach God in any season of life.

In the 4th century A.D., Ambrose, a preacher and Elder of the church in Milan, Italy, wrote: “Although all scripture breathes the grace of God, yet sweeter than all the others is the book of Psalms. History instructs, the Law teaches, Prophecy announces, rebukes, chastens, and morality persuades. But in the book of Psalms, we have the fruit of these – and a kind of medicine for the salvation of men.” More near our own time, Walter Bruggemann (whom we mentioned earlier) has written: “The Psalms draw our entire life under the rule of God, where everything may be submitted to the God of the gospel.”