Can Prayer and Hatred Coexist?

BY JAMES L. HIGGS
Psalm 137

    In the Book of Psalms, there are many psalms that express gratitude and adoration for Godís power, wisdom and grace. Take, for instance, this verse in Psalm 104, ìO Lord my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty.î Or this in Psalm 8, ìWhen I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers...î

    These are psalms of well-being, psalms that people sing when they feel good. But not everybody has a smooth life. To many, the obstacles in their pilgrimage seem so overwhelming that there is much gloom and dreariness. Significantly, quite a few psalms are written from this point of view.

    To illustrate this point, I have chosen to use Psalm 137 . It is a psalm written by those Israelites who love God and who have been carried into captivity to Babylon. They do not see any sunshine in their life. They are far from being in a state of well-being.
    The first stanza, verses 1 to 3, of this psalm arouses our sympathy for these slaves, who have been told to sing. In essence they say, ìall the music has been sucked out of our life. Donít ask us to sing glad songs, because we donít have any more music.î Listen to these words:

    By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ìSing us one of the songs of Zion!î
    Next, weíre impressed by the longing that these Jewish slaves have for their homeland, the loyalty that is expressed, and the promise never to forget those sacred memories. They say in verses 4-6:
 

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.

    So, we are moved to sympathy for these Jewish slaves and we appreciate their intense loyalty to their heritage and to their homeland. But we are not prepared for the venom that begins to spew out of their mouth in the third stanza. Itís negative, itís harsh. First, regarding their brother Esauís children, the Edomites, they say in verse 7:

 
Remember, O Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. ìTear it down,î they cried, ìtear it down to its foundations!î

    Jehovah God, please remember what our cousins did. They stood on the sideline and acted as cheerleaders to the Babylonian army and said, ìTear the whole city down. Burn it down.î
Turning to the Babylonians, they then say in verses 8 and 9:

 
    O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to usóhe who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

    The Hebrew word that was translated ìhappyî here is the same word that Psalm 1 begins with: ìBlessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked...î So, they are saying here in Psalm 137: ìBlessed is he who takes Babylonian babies and crushes their heads against the rock.î

    Have you ever prayed like that? Itís so full of hatred. Yet, Psalm 137 is a prayer. The question thus arises: Can prayer and hatred coexist?

    In His sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus tells us to go and be reconciled to any brother who has something against us before we bring any sacrifice to Him. So, prayer and hatred obviously cannot coexist if the object of our hatred is a child of God. If we do harbor such hostility, we need to ask ourselves if we have truly become saved.

    Resenting the wicked and wickedness around us, however, is another matter. And I have chosen to answer the question ìCan prayer and hatred co-exist?î with three other questions:

I. Do I accept the whole word of God?
    Psalm 137:7-9 is not at all the only place in the Bible where one asks God to punish his enemies. Here are just a few other examples found in the Book of Psalms: ìBreak the arm of the wicked and evil manî (10:15); ìOn the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lotî (11:6); and ìBreak the teeth in their mouths, O Godî (58:6).

    Rather rough praying, isnít it? We donít like it. We say to ourselves, this kind of attitude cannot help us in our worship of God or our service to God. And so we carefully excise those passages of Scripture from our worship and meditation.

    A classic example of that can be found in our hymnals. Most of us are familiar with these last two verses of Psalm 139: ìSearch me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.î We recognize those words because J. Edwin Orr adapted them into his beautiful hymn ìCleanse Meî.

    If you go through the hymnals carefully, youíll find hymns containing many other verses from Psalm 139. But not verses 19-22, which reads:
 

    If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

    Because we donít like that kind of prayer, we effectively block out such passages from our mind. The fact, nevertheless is that, these are the inspired Word of God, which in its entirety is ìuseful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousnessî.

    New Testament examples. I know some of you are saying, ìThose are prayers of the Old Testament time. In this New Testament era of love, we donít pray like that.î

    Surely the Apostle Paul is a wonderful man in the service of the Lord. Notice what he says in II Timothy 4:14, ìAlexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm. The Lord will repay him for what he has done.î And speaking of the circumcision advocates, he says in Galatians 5:12, ìAs for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!î
    What about Revelation, the Book of worship that tells about the climax of all things? Iím reading from Revelation 6:9:

 
    When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, ìHow long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?î

    I donít see much difference. All these prayers, whether they are recorded in the Old Testament or the New, are honest, authentic feelings of people that have been hurt and have been hindered in carrying out Godís purpose for their lives.

II. Am I bothered by evil and wickedness?
    These prayers for punishment upon evil doers in the psalms show that those godly people grappled with evil. They didnít pretend that it doesnít exist. They didnít suppress it in their meditations, they dealt with it. They hit it head on.

    We have a neat way of keeping evil from our prayer menu. We forget the command Paul gives in Ephesians 4:26, ìBe ye angry and sin not.î To be angry is not always a sin. Sometimes, godly anger is a virtue.

    Remember when Moses was up in the mountain forty days receiving commandments from God, the people began to engage in idolatry, worshipping a golden calf, and indulge in revelry? We read in Exodus 32:19:

 
    When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain.

    Thatís righteous anger, shown by a man whom God describes as the meekest man on the face of the earth.

 
    Insensitive. Much of the decadence and moral decay of our nation is attributable to our failure to get mad enough. We have lost our anger at evil. We have become so brainwashed that we are no longer shocked at sin and what sin really does.
    I am not saying that we should go around self-righteously condemning our neighbors for committing this or that sin. No, we ourselves are sinners saved by grace. Nor do I condone those who express their hatred through violent acts of their own. God says in Romans 12:19, ìDo not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for Godís wrath, for it is written: ëIt is mine to avenge; I will repay,í says the Lord.î

    You see, we should have righteous anger against evil, but we should leave room for Godís wrath. Thatís why we should commit our anger to God in prayer.

III. Do I pray with an honest heart?
    When we are angered by evil, therefore, we should cry out to God and say, ìMy heart is hurting because I see people being destroyed. O Lord, punish them, stop this.î  The people of the Bible did. And I think we should, too.

    Prayer should never be an empty ritual. Through the years of the ministry, Iíve noticed that certain people can pray long and very eloquent prayers, but they always pray the same thing. Itís as though they had been taught when they first became a Christian that their prayer should follow a certain formula, using certain pet remarks and praises.

    I think Jesus was bothered by this kind of repetitious praying. He says itís nothing but an extended list of empty banalities. And I think Jesus says, ìThese people are not really praying to me. They are just trying to impress the people around them.î

    The prayers that God wants us to pray are those that get to the heart of the matter. These prayers say, ìGod, Iím struggling with resentment, Iím struggling with intolerance, Iím struggling because I donít like the way some people are treating me and I need your help with this.î

    Yes, our Lord Jesus commands us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. But apart from Christ, we can never do it. And since God searches our hearts, if we donít tell him honestly how we feel about our enemies, He knows that we are being hypocritical.

    You know that motto: Prayer changes things. True, on our own we cannot turn the tide toward ever increasing wickedness and ever worsening immorality. But God can, and God works through our prayers. So, when you are in combat against evil in prayer, you are changing things.

    I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit has given us the scripture, and included in His inspired word are the prayers against the wicked. He didnít give them to us to cut out or to ignore. He gave them to us to help us pray. Sometimes, we need this kind of prayers. We need to be honest with God. So, pray to God frankly and get in combat with evil, believing that God will surely be victorious in the end. o

Rev. James L. Higgs is pastor of First Baptist Church, 21 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94102.

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