{"id":34105,"date":"2025-06-04T17:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T17:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-need-for-imprecatory-psalms\/"},"modified":"2025-06-04T17:22:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T17:22:00","slug":"our-need-for-imprecatory-psalms","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-need-for-imprecatory-psalms\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Need for the Imprecatory Psalms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Journalist Lance Morrow won the National Magazine Award for an essay&mdash; &ldquo;The Case for Rage and Retribution&rdquo;&mdash;written on Sept. 11, 2001. His opening in that essay captured the national mood as well as reflecting Morrow&rsquo;s sense of good and evil:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>For once, let&rsquo;s have no &lsquo;grief counselors&rsquo; standing by with banal consolations, as if the purpose, in the midst of all this, were merely to make everyone feel better as quickly as possible. We shouldn&rsquo;t feel better. For once, let&rsquo;s have no fatuous rhetoric about &lsquo;healing.&rsquo; Healing is inappropriate now, and dangerous. There will be time later for the tears of sorrow. A day cannot live in infamy without the nourishment of rage. Let&rsquo;s have rage.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading is-style-article-subhead2\"><em>Possible Preaching Angle:<\/em><\/h2>\n\n<p><em>When preaching the imprecatory psalms, remember they are not about personal vengeance, but prayers focused on God&rsquo;s justice, sovereignty, and protection. These psalms express a longing for justice from those oppressed by enemies of both God&rsquo;s people and God. God promises divine justice for His people: &ldquo;Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?&#8230; He will see that they get justice, and quickly&rdquo; (Luke 18:7&ndash;8; cf. Rev. 19:2).<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[446],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3414,3597,3677,3769,3771,3817,3867,4174,4313,4315,4744,4762,4831,4833,5138,5260],"tax_ctp_topics":[386,395],"class_list":["post-34105","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-anger","tax_ctp_tags-christian-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-destruction","tax_ctp_tags-determination","tax_ctp_tags-divine-judgment","tax_ctp_tags-enemy","tax_ctp_tags-human-anger","tax_ctp_tags-judgment","tax_ctp_tags-justice","tax_ctp_tags-punishment","tax_ctp_tags-rage","tax_ctp_tags-retaliation","tax_ctp_tags-retribution","tax_ctp_tags-terrorism","tax_ctp_tags-war"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Need for the Imprecatory Psalms - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/our-need-for-imprecatory-psalms\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Our Need for the Imprecatory Psalms - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Journalist Lance Morrow won the National Magazine Award for an essay&mdash; &ldquo;The Case for Rage and Retribution&rdquo;&mdash;written on Sept. 11, 2001. 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