So this morning we're going to look at something that may seem odd in relationship to these other scriptures that we've been looking at that have been progressively going up the steps. We're going to look at what's called the imprecatory prayers. A lot of you are saying, what is imprecatory? What does that even mean? Well, it's one of the most intriguing prayers in the Bible that's prayed a lot of times in the songs. An imprecatory prayer is a prayer to God against your enemies. Now, I have, to be honest with you, I've skipped over these prayers a lot of times. Because they just sound really, well, mean, yeah. And I say, how could these people pray these kinds of prayers? An imprecatory prayer is a type of prayer found in the Bible where a person praying calls upon God's judgment and calamity or curse upon the enemy or the wicked. Has anybody in here ever prayed an imprecatory prayer? Most of you haven't. Why? Because you read them and go, oh man, that's a little hard. We are going to get there. We're going to get there, Tina. Tina knows her word, so she's way ahead. But we're going to talk about the imprecatory. The imprecate means to invoke evil or a curse on someone. And so this has, let me give you one that's even stronger than the one we're gonna look at today. This is most likely David praying in Psalm 35. For without cause they hide their nets for me. Without cause they dig a pit for my life. Let destruction come upon him when he does not know it. There it is. Let destruction come. But I want you to know something very key here. He is not the initiator of destruction. Who is? His enemy. His enemy is the one who has initiated evil. You're going to see this throughout the imprecatory prayers, that it's all about evil is coming toward you from your enemy, and you need to do something. And you can either fight against it yourself, or you can call upon God to fight for you. And that's what we're going to get to in Precatory. It says, let the nets of them that hide ensnare him. Look at that. Let the nets that he hides ensnare him. Let him fall into his own destruction. In other words, he dug a pit. Let him fall into the pit. He set a net. Let him be ensnared by the net. It's like a boomerang. They're throwing evil at you, and now you can either fight evil with evil, or now you can allow that evil to boomerang back to them. The imprecatory prayer does that. So let's look at it in the text that we're looking at here. And the first thing that the psalmist does here is he calls upon God to look upon his affliction. Greatly they have afflicted me from my youth. Let Israel now say. Now what he says is, I've been afflicted. My family has been afflicted since the time of our youth. And then he says, let all Israel say that they were afflicted. Right? Because Israel is made up of families, made up of tribes. If they've inflicted one, they've inflicted everyone. And they have inflicted from the time of the youth of not only the individual, but also the nation. It says, greatly have they inflicted me from my youth. He's speaking personally and as a representation of Israel. Remember, they're singing this song as they go, all of Israel. Let me ask you something. Have the Jewish people been inflicted from the time that they came upon the earth? Yes. And you might say, well, what does this have to do with this progression, this ascent? Well, if you look at it, here's the way it would unfold. Psalm 127 was, Lord, build the house. Psalm 128 was, Lord, bless the house. Now, if he builds it, he blesses it. Now, the psalmist is really saying, Lord, now protect the house. You've built it, you've blessed it, now protect it. and protected against all of the enemies because we know that the enemies are out there. And you ever wonder why the Jewish people have been hated so much? Well, it has a lot to do with the covenant that God made with them in Genesis 12. If you go back and look at this covenant, here's what God says. This is the covenant that he made with Abraham for the nation of Israel. I will make of you a great nation. and I will bless you and make your name great." The Pentateuch says this, so that you will be a blessing. I'm gonna make you great, you're gonna be blessed, so that you then can bless others. Now Israel many times forgot that the blessings that came upon them was to turn around and bless the other nations. Listen, God says this, I'm making a covenant with you Israel, here it is, I will bless those who bless you, And those who dishonor you, I will curse. That's my covenant. Take it to the bank. They bless you, I'll bless them. They curse you, guess what? I'm gonna put on them a curse. Can you imagine being Abraham, hearing this covenant? But again, I want you to see that it's not just for the selfishness of Israel that they were blessed. Listen to what he goes on to say. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now this is also speaking of the Messiah. The Messiah's gonna come and he's gonna bless all the nations of the earth. So the Messiah's gonna come out of them. But it's also all blessings in all the earth is gonna come out of Israel. Now let me ask you, and I was reading the rabbis on this, not Messianic Jews, the rabbis, the Jewish rabbis, how they would interpret this psalm that we just looked at. And they said, all the nations of the earth, from the time we came on the scene, have been jealous of us. They have seen how God has blessed us. And they, every time they've got in power, their number one thing was to put the bullseye on us because we were the only thing standing in their way. We have power. We see something on them that just makes us terribly jealous. So whether it was the Canaanites, whether it was the Babylonians, whether it was the Romans, who all had greater military power, but there was something about these people that we want to eliminate them. They're standing in the way of what? Our greatness. And there's no greater manifestation of that than Hitler. The uber race of the German people. Survival of the fittest, taking Darwin's theory of evolution, that the strong will adapt and survive, and they will wipe out all the impurities. And they saw the Jewish people, and they said, no. They've always been blessed. We've got to get rid of them. Is that a spirit? Yeah, that's a spirit. But they've always had it. And all nations have known that. Let me show you how much God has blessed them, even just in the natural things. The Nobel laureates, it's an award that is giving out for literature. Do you realize that 22% of all of the Nobel laureates have been Jewish? And the Jewish people only make up 0.2% of the population. I will bless all nations, and it will come out of Israel. You know, we enjoy this American way of life. And a lot of this, historians have said, was birthed out of the 30s, the 40s, and the 50s, in which we saw this wholesome image of America coming forth. You know, Yankee Doodle Dandy, and all these patriotic films, and The Wizard of Oz. It was like, this is Americana. This is Kansas. These are values that we all endorse. It was coming out of this dream factory called Hollywood. Do you know every single one of the executives that were producing these films for America were Jewish? And did you notice that none of those films were very Jewish? They were just Americana. They were patriotic. They were about wholesome values. And yet you look at every one of the executives, Lemley, Fox, Goldwyn, Mayer, Warner, Zucker, all of them. Jewish people pumping into America what it should believe about itself. Phenomenal. Do I have to go further? Maybe I'll give one other example. By the way, at that time there was only 3% of the population in America was Jewish. So they are influencing 97% of Americans who are not Jewish. They're telling us what America is. Look at that promise. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. But they've always been targeted. They've always been hated. And the primary thing has been jealousy. The Bible says, where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder in every vile practice. You see the blessing upon them, and you put them in the bullseye. And that's what the psalmist is saying. We have always been hated from the time we came on the scene. Now, Lord, He says, protect us, but then he makes this statement. Greatly have they afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against us. You ever wonder why Israel even exists? Why Israel is still great. Well, because God has been with them. He has fought with them. This scripture in Isaiah, they believe, as a matter of fact, when I was reading these rabbis, almost all of them quoted this. And we quoted it a lot as Christians. No weapon that is fashioned against us will succeed. Listen, this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Their what? Their vindication from me. God will fight always for them. And if God is fighting for you, there is no weapon that can overcome that. The psalmist says that, and he uses this imagery, he says, the plower plowed upon my back. They have long furrows. In other words, they stuck this thing that plows the field into our backs. And maybe this is in relationship to all the times that they went into captivity, all the times that they went into slavery. But let me just say this, every time they were oppressed and every time they went into slavery, it wasn't because God wasn't fighting for them. As a matter of fact, it was because of their sin and God had to fight against them. They stopped fearing God and therefore God removed his blessing and therefore they went into captivity. But when they were righteous, the Lord who was righteous would cut the cords of the wicked. Make no mistake about it, had Israel simply walked with God and not turned his back on God, they would have always been blessed. But we're told in Psalms that the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people and he abhorred his heritage. And listen, he gave them into the hands of the nations so that those who hated them would rule over them, that their enemies would oppress them. They were brought into subjection under their power. But this was never God's plan. And it's never God's plan for you. It's God's plan for you for total and complete protection. For God to cut every cord of every wicked person who ever comes against you. He talks about this thing, and this is really big in the Jewish culture, shame. Have you ever been put to shame? May all who hate Zion be put to shame and turn backwards. That's what the psalmist says. One of the greatest feelings of pain for a Jewish person is to be put to shame. Have you ever had your name dragged through the mud where you had a really good name and everybody thought really highly of you and now whether it was something you did or something you didn't, your name got dragged through the mud and now everybody looks at you with a certain amount of shame. They used to honor you, but now they feel that what he did was shameful. Right? Shame is a big deal. So my question for you midway through this is have you ever prayed this prayer or have you ever prayed a prayer like this against your enemy? Or maybe even a better question is should we pray this prayer? And the answer to this question is yes. The fact that you haven't prayed it really shows that maybe you don't understand it. Because a lot of people don't pray because they say, well, Jesus didn't teach this kind of stuff. He taught the complete opposite of this. Didn't he say that we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us? Didn't he say that? Yeah. Didn't he say that we will be sons of our father who makes the sun rise on the evil and the good of life? Didn't he say that? Do you know that's not? Original Jesus, he was actually paraphrasing something in Proverbs when he says this. This is not a new teaching. In Proverbs 25, it says, if your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. If he's thirsty, give him water to drink. The thing I want you to know about this, these are all commands for you. You do this, it's not what God's going to do. It's what you're to do with your enemy while God is figuring out how he's going to defend you. This is the point of the prayer, is you are releasing your own vengeance, you're releasing your own anger, you are turning them over to God. And you really see this in the book of Romans, where it blatantly says, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if at all possible, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone. Then he says, beloved, never avenge yourself. Never. So the imprecatory prayer is basically you saying, I'm not going to do anything, God. I'm going to ask you to do something. And is that what Romans teaches? You better believe it, because here's what it says. This is the following verses. Romans 12, right after it says, you don't take revenge. Then it says this, but leave it to who? The wrath of God. It's like Paul is saying, you know that God has a bunch of wrath. and you just leave it to the wrath. Then it says, vengeance is mine, I will repay. These are two very strong words. This word wrath obviously means a state of mind in which revenge is the target. I'm going to avenge. Of course, the word avenge is very clear. I'm going to bring punishment on the people that have punished my people. So again, this prayer is basically saying, you be loving, you be kind, you be merciful, and you let me do it. Vengeance is mine. But you, on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, you feed him if he's thirsty. And then it goes on to say, by doing this, you are going to cause shame. You're going to heat burning coals upon his head, and then he says, do not overcome evil by evil, but you overcome it with good. In other words, this is really a punishment. You're going to make this person feel ashamed. Has anybody ever really like blatantly just ripped into you, and all you could say was something nice and kind back, and you watch them? They begin to feel ashamed. You're being nice, and they're being jerks. And this is the whole idea. God is saying to his people, don't worry about the target on your back. Don't worry that they're out to get you. Just you know this, that I am going to come to your rescue. If they're trying to shame you, I am going to turn that shame back on them. The shame is coming upon them. What is the opposite of shame? What do you think the opposite of shame is? Something like honor and glory. And by the way, that is the opposite of shame, honor and glory. To a Jewish person, to be honored is a big deal. To win and to have glory poured upon you is a big deal. The opposite of that would be shame. And God is saying, I'm always going to make sure that I honor you and that my glory defends you and that I bring shame upon your enemies. In many ways, this is very, very similar to all the other promises that deal with God's taking care of us. We say, I must please myself. I want to be happy. And God says, no, no, no. You don't please yourself. You let me bless you. I will please you. We say, I must provide for myself. And God says, no, no, no. I will be your provider. In this particular case, we say, I must protect and defend myself against my enemies. And God says, no, no, no. I will do that. You see how this works? God takes great glory out of blessing us, providing for us, and in this case, defending for us. And so the only thing the psalmist asked for is that God defends them. And then he throws this in. He says, may they be like the grass on the housetop, which withers before it grows up. In other words, Lord, do it quickly. with which the reaper does not feel its hand, nor the binder of sheaves his arms. In other words, when he goes to retrieve something off the housetop, yeah, the housetop, this is no place to grow grass, by the way, unless you live in Cunningham. Where's that place down in Cunningham that has this? Life expressions. But if your grass is in the sun all day long, it will eventually wither. And in this particular case, it would. It's also an allegory about somebody trying to be over top of you. Grass is meant for the ground, not for the roof, and so somebody's trying to get over you. Well, let them wither. And finally, the psalmist is reiterating that there will be no blessings for people that are wicked. God will never bless the wicked. Listen to what he says here finally in closing. I think this verse is wrong. Yeah, the verse is wrong at the top. Nor those who pass by say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you. We bless you. Let this never be said of our enemies. May nobody walk by and say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you, or we will bless you in the Lord's name. May you never be blessed. Now, Jesus has a heart of compassion. Have you ever had compassion for people that really seem to be for all outward, like, I won't say curse, but they had a hard road to hoe. And you look upon them with pity and sympathy. I remember when I was a kid, if I would see somebody that was blind or handicapped in any way, I remember in my heart, my heart would go out and I would just say, Lord, bless them. Just bring a blessing upon them. They must have a hard life. Lord, just bless them. Well, here, this psalmist is saying, may no one ever look upon the hardship that was inflicted by you, God, and ask a blessing to be upon them. May nobody ever look at it that way. Again, you're thinking of probably Jesus, where he says, bless those who curse you and pray for those who abuse you. We're to bless them, but believe me, God will not and does not bless them. And if you're thinking that God is being too hard on people by putting this in his word, we were too young, at least I was too young, to see the Nuremberg trials. But I guarantee you there wasn't a person who watched that trial that was like, oh, I hope they go easy on these Germans. Right? I hope that these German people can eventually be blessed. No. If you see somebody who's committed a heinous crime or has done heinous acts, the last thing you want is for a judge to be lenient. Right? Guy kills his family, kills his children, shoots up a community. The thing you're thinking is, I hope the judge doesn't throw the book at him. No, you're thinking, I hope the judge throws the book at him. And that's kind of what the psalmist is saying. This kind of evil deserves that kind of punishment. But again, I'm bringing this counter argument in all of this because I realize that we have a propensity to think of these scriptures. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Yes, if our enemy is operating in ignorance, this is a wonderful prayer. But what if our enemy is not operating in ignorance? What if he's operating with full knowledge? Then it's a different story, right? And by the way, just because we forgive people doesn't mean that they're not going to be under the consequences of a curse. There are consequences. I think Jason pointed that out. And we look through the scriptures. There are times where the Bible tells us not to pray for our enemies, not to pray for somebody who has committed the sin unto death. Other times it tells us to deliver people up to Satan for the destruction of their flesh. So there comes a time where we basically say, there is no blessing for these people. There is no blessing. They've passed the line of blessing. Every evil carries with it inside of itself its own destruction. And we should not ask God to bless something that is under the curse. So again, should we pray this prayer against our enemies? My recommendation is absolutely 100% you should pray this. And why should you pray this prayer? Let me give you three quick reasons. Because our enemy is God's enemy. Do you understand that? Who are you? You are the body of Christ. And if they've come against you, they've come against the body of Christ. The other thing is we need to make sure that that evil is turned back on them. I mean, I believe that the devil many times is allowed to do stuff because we never pray against it. We never say, God, push this back. That's called intercessory prayer. That's what we're to do. And number three, we are remembering God's Word and His covenant for us. Remember that. God says, I will bless those who bless you. And those who disobey, I will curse them. We're basically saying, God, keep your word. And this is just as true for the Jewish people as it is for the church, maybe more so because we have been born of the Spirit and they have not yet been born. This scripture applies just as much to the Jewish people as it does to us. For he who touches you, this is God speaking, for he who touches you touches the apple of my eye. It's like they poke me in the eye. They touch you, they touch me. And he says, behold, I will shake my hands over them and they shall become plunder. You understand this? This is who you are. This also has the reference, if somebody's the apple of your eye, that means that you're in love. This person is the apple of your eye. You would do anything for this person. Now, here's the caveat. If I'm the apple of God's eye, is God the apple of my eye? Is He my center vision? Because if He says He that I'm the apple of His eye and I live out Him being the apple of my eye. Let me just say this, we're eye to eye. And what is gonna stand against that? That's what 2 Chronicles says. The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him. I have His eye, He has my eye. He's the apple of my eye, I'm the apple of His eye. Take the best shot. Thanks for listening to this message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.