Imprecatory Prayer

Do you find yourself praying just for yourself (usually those things you want) and maybe for the health of others? How do you address God in your prayers? "Dear God..." "Heavenly Father...." What about all those other ways God introduces Himself and describes Himself in the Bible? Do you every pray, "Sovereign Lord of hosts...." or "Eternal God..." or "Everlasting Father..." or "Lord God Almighty for whom nothing is too hard..."?

Want to enrich your prayer life? Pray the psalms. The psalms teach us and lead us to pray pleasing to God (it's His Word), comprehensively, honestly (the psalmists keep it real), reflectively, with a bigger view of God, addressing subjects we might otherwise neglect, and whatever else makes for a full prayer life.

Think about praying, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." There's a name for God we don't often use--"Shepherd." As we chew on that and see ourselves as needy sheep and see the situations of our lives that prompt want, that takes our prayer in a whole new direction, to another level in response to God.

That works with psalms like Psalm 23. But what about psalms like Psalm 137:9 that declares, "Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock" or Psalm 10:15 that asks God to "break the arm of the wicked." How do we pray these prayers, especially when we they seem so unChristian?

These sentiments are called imprecations. They pronounce malediction instead of benediction. And the psalms are laced with them. Some psalms are so filled with them that they are called "imprecatory psalms." What do we make of them? What place can they find in our prayer lives? Take a look at the article, "Praying the Imprecatory Psalms" under "Resources" in the top bar of the CHOP website and learn what these psalms say about God and His direction to us in prayer.