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.

I read an article called, “Abandoning an Incomplete Gospel,” by Dieter Zander, originally published in Regeneration Quarterly. I was intrigued by the title since I have written a booklet called The Whole Gospel of Christ: Helping Christ’s Ambassadors to Faithfully Deliver the Message of the King. I thought Zander might be saying the same thing - so I read the article. I recommend you read the article too, BUT don’t go away without reading my comments too.

Zander makes some good points, but I didn’t like everything. Here’s the good stuff…