• Home
  • Our Authors
  • Blog
  • Events & Giveaways
  • Privacy Policy

Inspired by Life ... and Fiction

Novelists bound by the pen, sisterhood, & more

I Feel an Imprecatory Prayer Comin’ On . . .

March 17, 2025 By Angela Hunt

Growing up, I never heard anyone mention imprecatory prayers, which are mostly found in the Psalms. What are they? Imprecatory prayers are prayers in which you ask God to send calamity or hardship upon someone else.

David was a man of great passion–he rejoiced with all his heart, and he prayed with all his heart. Like this: “Lead me, Adonai, in Your righteousness, because of my enemies. Make Your path straight before me. For nothing upright is in their mouth. Inside them is a ruin–their throat an open grave. They flatter with their tongue. Declare them guilty, O God! Let them fall by their own schemes. Banish them because of their many transgressions–for they have rebelled against You” (Psalm 5: 9-11).

Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but did He say we should pray that their way would be easy? No. Sometimes, for our enemies and our loved ones, we need to pray that the Lord would make their way hard; that they would learn not to trust in worldly wisdom or drugs or false friends. But most of all, we need to pray that God would have His way in peoples’ lives.

Without going into too many details, there is a situation in my life where an evil person is making life difficult for people I love. And every time I learn of yet another lie, another situation of abuse, anger rises within me. With David, I could pray those verses above . . . but as someone raised on “love your enemies,” something inside me feels guilty when I feel even righteous anger. What should I feel in this situation?

I ran across a great article on imprecatory prayers–here’s the link, if you want to read all the details. There is a time and place for imprecatory prayers. Using Scripture, the author points out several principles:

  1. By asking God to execute vengeance, we are dealing with the desire we might feel to take retribution into our own hands. Paul wrote, “Repay no one evil for evil . . . for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ saith the Lord.”
  2. Allowing God to do the punishing means it will be executed with precision and perfect love.
  3. Imprecatory psalms recognize it is God’s good hand steering the story of redemption. These psalms acknowledge that God is sovereign, and the only One with the right to bring judgment. We set aside our anger and give Him His rightful place to judge the evildoer.
  4. Should we rejoice when God pours out wrath on evildoers? Proverbs 24 says: “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased . . .”

Yet–the Israelites rejoiced when the Egyptians drowned, and Miriam wrote a song about it, praising God. Time after time in the Old Testament, the Israelites rejoiced when their enemies were defeated. At the messianic synagogue I attend, we had a Purim party to celebrate Esther’s victory over Haman, and it’s supposed to be the happiest party of the year! But we’re not celebrating Haman’s downfall, we’re rejoicing in God’s victory.

We do not rejoice because our enemy suffers, we rejoice when God executes His righteous judgment–because it is good. Even when He chastises us.

I was dumbstruck when I heard about the Hamas terrorists who strangled the Bibas baby and his young brother, and killed their mother. I was horrified when I heard about even more gruesome atrocities committed on October 7th–I won’t describe them. My human nature would like those terrorists to be found, tortured, and killed just as their victims were.

But my spiritual nature reminds me that God alone is the righteous Judge. He knows who will repent and who will not. Some evildoers repent and are saved; some do not. So it is not my place to decide or judge; I must–I will–leave judgment and vengeance to God, who sees and knows the future. I must not hate my enemies; I must pray for them and consign them to God’s hands.

A couple of weeks ago, fifty Christians in the Congo where herded into a church and beheaded. The new leader of Syria has just executed thousands of Christians. And the war continues in Israel. Evil is loose in this world, and we cannot ignore it.

Pull out your Bible and pray Psalm 94 aloud. It ends with this:

Can wicked rulers be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute?

They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

But the Lord has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.

He will bring back on them their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness;

the Lord our God will wipe them out.

Amen.

~~Angie

The following two tabs change content below.
  • Bio
  • Latest Posts

Angela Hunt

Christy-Award winner Angela Hunt writes for readers who expect the unexpected in novels. With over five million copies of her books sold worldwide, she is the best-selling author of more than 165 works ranging from picture books (The Tale of Three Trees) to non-fiction books, to novels.

Latest posts by Angela Hunt (see all)

  • Extra-biblical Sources - May 19, 2025
  • Do Animals Understand Death? - May 5, 2025
  • March 19th was National Poultry Day! - April 21, 2025
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window) Pocket
  • Click to print (Opens in new window) Print

Like this:

Like Loading...
«
»

Filed Under: Assorted & Sundry

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

LINKS IN COMMENTS

Please note: If you include a link or links in your comment (URLs or email addresses), your comment will not post right away. It will wait for a moderator to approve it, which may take some time.

Comments

  1. Amy M. says

    March 17, 2025 at 7:54 am

    I recently prayed an imprecatory prayer of Psalm 70 over a court case with the welfare of a small child at stake.

    “Make haste, O God, to deliver me! Make haste to help me, O Lord!
    Let them be ashamed and confounded Who seek my life;
    Let them be turned back and confused Who desire my hurt.
    Let them be turned back because of their shame, Who say, “Aha, aha!”
    Let all those who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; And let those who love Your salvation say continually, “Let God be magnified!” But I am poor and needy;
    Make haste to me, O God! You are my help and my deliverer; O Lord, do not delay.”

    Praise the Lord, He answered in His righteous judgment and truth was revealed in a miraculous way. It was amazing to see God fight on their behalf in accordance with His word.

    Recently, God has convicted me about praying for the terrorists you described above. I’m asking God to ‘reveal’ Himself to these enemies of His people through dreams or visions and to bring the fear of Him into their lives to either punish or convict…remembering Paul was once killing Christians as well.

    Thank you for bringing up a difficult/timely topic that is rarely (if ever) brought up in Christian circles.

    • Angela Hunt says

      March 17, 2025 at 12:36 pm

      Thank you for this testimony, Amy. I’m so glad you prayed and God answered!

  2. Robin Lee Hatcher says

    March 17, 2025 at 8:31 am

    Powerful post, Angie. Thank you. I remember after 911 praying that the enemy would fall into their own traps, but I didn’t have a name for it. I will be mulling over this post in the future.

    • Angela Hunt says

      March 17, 2025 at 12:37 pm

      It’s a topic that few people ever talk about, for certain. I’ll be thinking about the topic a lot in the days ahead, too–lots of dark things happening in the world right now.

  3. Alana says

    March 17, 2025 at 9:20 am

    Difficult topic – thank you for sharing. Praying for my enemies has always been a challenge for me.

    • Angela Hunt says

      March 17, 2025 at 12:36 pm

      For me, too! It’s against our fleshly nature, for sure! But it’s much easier (and biblical) to pray that God would have His will in their lives.

  4. Terri Gillespie says

    March 19, 2025 at 8:03 am

    Wow. Angie, thank you. I post daily prayer prompts for Israel. Most of them are taken from Psalms. I’ve read these imprecatory passages, but skipped over them because of the very reasons you cite. I’m rethinking these. May I use your link in upcoming prompts for Israel?

    Toda raba, my friend.

    • Angela Hunt says

      March 20, 2025 at 12:50 pm

      Of course! Use as you see fit.
      Hugs,
      Angie

Search Site

Monthly Archives

Blog Categories

Recent Posts

  • Home Again May 28, 2025
  • Garden Time May 27, 2025
  • Decade birthdays May 26, 2025

Disclosure

Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the pages on this site may be "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, someone will receive an affiliate commission. We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Copyright © 2025 Inspired by Life & Fiction | Website Design by Robin

%d