March 7, 2007

• CS Lewis said the imprecatory Psalms are “diabolical”, “petty”, “vulgar”, “terrible” and “contemptible”.

   

  

   

  He quoted Psalm 23:2, “You shall prepare a table for me against them that trouble me” and commented that –

  “The poet’s enjoyment of his present prosperity would not be complete unless those horrid enemies (who used to look down their noses at him) were watching it all and hating it. THIS MAY NOT BE SO DIABOLICAL AS THE PASSAGES I HAVE QUOTED ABOVE; but the PETTINESS AND VULGARITY OF IT, especially in such surroundings, ARE HARD TO ENDURE. One way of dealing with these TERRIBLE or (dare we say?) COMTEMPTIBLE PSALMS is simply to leave them alone. But unfortunately the bad parts will not “come away clean”; they may, as we have noticed, be intertwined with the most exquisite things. {Reflections on the Psalms, 1961, p24}

  My comment: Lewis assumed that the imprecatory Psalms are David’s own personal cursings. And thus, Lewis thought that the imprecatory Psalms were “diabolical”, “terrible” and “contemptible”. After all, the Scripture forbids men to curse. And since the imprecatory Psalms contain cursing, Lewis concluded that these Psalms are “un-Christian”.

  Now, cursing is forbidden in the Scripture. Christ said WE can’t curse.

  “Bless those cursing you and pray for those insulting you.” (Luke 6:28)
  “But I say to you, Love your enemies; bless those cursing you, do well to those hating you; and pray for those abusing and persecuting you,” (Matt 5:44)

  Sadly, Lewis did not see the other option (the imprecatory Psalms are actually Christ cursing his enemies, the reprobate)

  Christ says, “But these HOSTILE to me, those not desiring me to reign over them, bring them here and EXECUTE THEM BEFORE ME.” (Luke 19:27)

  And now read and see Christ in Psalm 83 when he says, “Let them be ashamed and afraid for ever; yea, let them be confounded and PERISH.” (Psa 83:17)

  Also – notice the similarity between Psalm 69 and Christ speaking in Revelation 1.

  “Blot them out from the Book of Life; yea, let them not be written with the righteous.” (Psa 69:28)

  I am the First and the Last, and the Living One; … And I HAVE THE KEYS TO HELL, AND OF DEATH. (Rev 1:17-18)

  Sadly, Lewis was blind to the close connection between Christ and the Psalms. And thus — thinking the imprecatory Psalms are David cusing other men — Lewis  said that the imprecatory Psalms are “terrible” and had been “hideously distorted by the human instrument”. He wrote,

  “… At the outset I felt sure, and I feel sure still, that we must either try to explain them away or to yield for one moment to the idea that, because it comes in the Bible, all this vindictive hatred must somehow be good and pious. We must face both facts squarely. THE HATRED IS THERE — FESTERING, GLOATING, UNDISGUISED — AND WE SHOULD BE WICKED IF WE IN ANY WAY CONDONED OR APPROVED IT, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves. … For we can still see, in the worst of their maledictions, how these old poets were, in a sense, near to God. THOUGH HIDEOUSLY DISTORTED BY THE HUMAN INSTRUMENT something of the Divine voice can be heard in these passages … It even contains a streak of sanity … the ferocious parts of the Psalms serve as a reminder that there is in the world such a thing as wickedness … In that way, however DANGEROUS HUMAN DISTORTION MAY BE, HIS WORD sounds through these passages too. But can we, besides learning from these TERRIBLE PSALMS, also use them in our devotional life? I believe we can. {Reflections on the Psalms, 1961, p33}

  
  But is it really David judging men in the Psalms? Or is it Christ? Notice in these four verses below, that Christ DOES JUDGE and DOES CURSE reprobates.

  “For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22)

  “Truly, truly, I say to you, The one who HEARS MY WORD, and believes the One who has sent Me, has everlasting life, and DOES NOT COME INTO JUDGMENT, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24)

  “Then He will also say to those on His left, Go away from Me, cursed ones, into the everlasting fire having been prepared for the Devil and his angels.” (Matt 25:41)

  “And He will say, I tell you I do not know you, from where you are. “Stand back from Me all workers of unrighteousness!” (Luke 13:27)

  Now, obviously Christ – who is speaking in Luke 13 – also spoke in Psalm 6.

  “Depart from me, all workers of iniquity, for Jehovah has heard the voice of my weeping.” (Psa 6:8)

  So the imprecatory Psalms are spoken by Christ, NOT David. This is the only way to reconcile that 1) Scripture prohibits men to curse and 2) the Psalms are full of cursings.

  Sadly, Lewis never new saw the solution to the problem (of how the psalms can be filled with cursing, but cusing be banned) He saw this as“fatal confusion” and wrote,

  “We need therefore by no means assume that the Psalmists are deceived or lying when they assert that, as against their particular enemies at some particular moment, they are completely in the right. THEIR VOICES while they say so may GRATE HARSHLY ON OUR EAR and suggest they are unamiable people. But of course the fatal confusion between being in the right and being righteous soon falls upon them. In Psalm 7, from which I have already quoted, we see the transition. In verses 3 to 5 the poet is merely in the right; by verse 8 he is saying “give sentence with me, O Lord, according to my righteousness and according to the innocency that is in me.” There is also in many Psalms a STILL MORE FATAL CONFUSION — that between the desire for justice and the desire for revenge. These important topics will have to be treated separately. The self-righteous Psalms can be dealt with only at a much later stage; the vindictive Psalms, the cursing, we may turn to at once. It is these that have made the Psalter a closed book to many modern church-goers. Vicars, not unnaturally, are afraid to set before their congregations poems to full of passion to which OUR LORD’S TEACHING ALLOWS NO QUARTER. Yet there must be some Christian use to be made of them; if, at least, we still believe (as I do) that all Holy SCRIPTURE IS IN SOME SENSE — though not all parts of it in the same sense — the word of God.”  {Reflections on the Psalms, 1961, p22}

  
  My comment: Lewis was consistent in his dislike for the apparently contradictory personalities of the Psalmists. He says that there is a “fatal confusion … between the desire for justice and the desire for revenge.”

  But we avoid calling the Bible “confused”, when we recognise that Christ CAN and DID curse the reprobate in the Psalms.

  
  “For we know Him who has said, “VENGEANCE BELONGS TO ME; I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” (Heb 10:30)

  “And you should not fear the ones killing the body, but not being able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him being able to destroy both soul and body in Hell.” (Matt 10:28)

  CONCLUSION

  Lewis’ view that the imprecatory Psalms describe David’s cursing, caused Lewis to label these Psalms as “diabolical”, “petty”, “vulgar”, “terrible” and “contemptible”. It seemed “Un-Christian” for David to be cursing the children of other men to hell. In fact, Lewis considered this “fatal confusion”.

  On the other hand, it is logical and consistent to say that the Psalms are about Christ alone. He CAN and WILL judge and curse the reprobate at Judgment Day, and this is described in the Psalms. “Kiss the Son lest he be angry” and curse you (Psalm 2).

  More on this – http://psalms.pbwiki.com
  

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