Imprecatory Psalms - An Example of How to Understand them (Psalm 137)
Most honest readers of psalm 137 must admit that there are disturbingly graphic and frightening statements made. Most pointedly, there is a divinely inspired word regarding violent men, committing violent and lethal acts against little children, with an expectation that God will bless them anyway. Wow!
How are we to understand such things?
We studied psalm 137 together some months ago. It is called an imprecatory psalm because of the curse and judgment that is pronounced by the psalmist against others. Because there are many passages of Scripture that include such statements, I thought it might be helpful to review in summary fashion how we understood that psalm. This provides a pattern for understanding similar passages in Scripture.
Click here to read my attempt to understand a difficult passage, or you can click here to listen to the message as I preached it our church.
Jesus made a shocking statement in Matthew 5:29.
…sin is serious because of what Christ had to do to remove it. In order for our sins to be forgiven, Jesus Christ had to be born a man, had to experience abuse and mistreatment throughout his life, and then had to die a cruel death on a cross…
I recently bumped up against an old post on a blog that expressed a kindred conclusion toward the idea of sin, self-examination, and the Lord’s Table. Paul’s warning to examine yourself before partaking of the bread and the cup, lest you take in an unworthy manner, should not be taken lightly. However, the opportunity for self-examination, rather than scaring you away from the Lord’s Table, should result in an opportunity to receive afresh the cleansing of forgiveness (1 John 1:9).
We have considered 17 elements of repentance from Psalm 51. Now, with a clearer understanding of genuine repentance, we are ready to consider how one should cultivate repentance.
Repentance is required for salvation, but it doesn’t end when a person gets saved. That’s only the beginning! A person who is saved continually repents. In fact, every Christian could be called a “repenter” because he continually hates sin and loves God - he continually repents of his sin.
The Doctrine of Repentance is a major topic throughout all of Scripture. In spite of the importance of the topic, it seems many people misunderstand the Biblical teaching on the subject. What is repentance? What does it look like in the life of a person? How can I tell if I am truly repenting? How can I tell when another person is truly repenting? When is repentance required? Many people have questions. Even worse, many people do not have questions, but they do have misconceptions. A great need for good, clear teaching on repentance from the Scriptures is needed.
