Imprecatory Psalms and the Effect of Culture on Theology

Psalms are great source material for things to be sung in corporate worship. We often like to take nice verses that give us warm fuzzies about God and build a good song around it. Think About His Love is one example:

Think about His love
Think about His goodness
Think about His grace
That's brought us through
For as high as the heavens above
So great is the measure of our Father's love
Great is the measure of our Father's love

Such songs are good because they do indeed help us incline our hearts to God. It is good sometimes to look past the warm fuzzy verses and include passages that help us focus our sufferings on Him. This past Sunday we sang a song, For Thou, Oh Lord, taken from Psalm 3:

Many are they increased that troubled me
Many are they that rise up against me
Many there be which say of my soul
There is no help for him in God

But Thou, oh Lord, are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head
Thou, oh Lord are a shield for me
My glory and the lifter of my head

I cried unto the Lord with my voice
And he heard me out of His holy hill
I laid me down and slept and awaked
For the Lord sustained, for he sustained me

I've been teaching my kids some simple categories of Psalms to help them understand the Psalms better. One type of Psalm is one you don't hear sung very often in contemporary circles. The imprecatory Psalm are those where the Psalmist condemns his enemies. In our Politically Correct culture we are often taught that we shouldn't judge. Even in church we are taught that we should love our enemies. This is right. We interpret this to mean that we shouldn't imprecate against them because that's the way our culture works.

We aren't free from imprecations in our culture, however, and they are more common than we would like to admit. Try driving in a place as tame as the US for a week without at least thinking to yourself, "That idiot! Where'd he learn to drive? If he wrecks, it would serve him right!" Try going to public school (or even most private schools for that matter) without hearing condemnations of one student to another. My own kids occasionally vie to get each other in trouble by pointing out each other's sins the their parents. In the business world, it's not uncommon to find dissatisfied customers imprecating their suppliers. Even in churches where we would otherwise say we should not speak so unkindly of others, particularly our brothers and sisters in Christ, you may find people imprecating each other, often in gossip circles. Finally, who hasn't heard liberals imprecating George Bush? I thought they were the loving, tolerant, all-inclusinve ones. Unfortunately, some conservatives who are less than spiritually mature have likewise mused over Obama's potential assassination. How horrible we are!

Well, there is such a thing as godly imprecation. So stuck are we on the warm fuzzies that we lack the cultural beans and spiritual maturity to sing them in worship. Well, they were written to be sung. They're in the Psalms - in the Bible that we so revere for it's inerrancy and capacity to inform our spiritual lives. Yet we don't apprehend the imprecatory Psalms as we ought.

I pointed this out in a humorous way to the kids: "Let's raise our hands and voices in praise to God with Psalm 55:"

22 Cast your burden on the Lord,
and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
the righteous to be moved.

23 But you, O God, will cast them down
into the pit of destruction;
men of blood and treachery
shall not live out half their days.
But I will trust in you.

"...or Psalm 137:"

1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there
we hung up our lyres. [I thought this was interesting. Aren't we always singing songs urging people to sing?]
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4 How shall we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy!

7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!

The music is good and sung with such conviction that we all applaud God with shouts of "Amen!" and "Halleluiah!"



Of course this won't happen in contemporary western churches, and perhaps our idea of worship is a bit limited. Can we get warm fuzzies over the happiness that people have over brutally killing the children of our enemies? Yet, this was written to be sung.

I bring this up to make an observation about more subtle theological understandings. We don't have much an idea the huge impact our culturally induced sensitivities have on our capacity to correctly apprehend scripture. The good news is that enough truth is understandable in any culture for the Holy Spirit to awaken God's people to faith and to mature spiritually. However, it must be understood that the whole testimony of revealed truth in the scriptures will never be fully understandable to us, no matter what culture we are part of. We rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal more truth to us as we continue to grow in joyful obedience to the will of God, but we should never presume to understand all things.

Whatever Happened to Courting?

Apparently, "hooking up" is the new norm. Where once teens dated a few times and if things worked out they might have sex, now it seems that they have a sex a few times and if things work out they might go on a date.

When I was in high school, you "went with" someone until your parents let you go on a date. That was the 80's. You got to see your girlfriend or boyfriend at school, the mall or a party with a bunch of other people around. That was the 80s.

What's the purpose of "dating" or "hooking up"? At that age, kids aren't likely to marry their high school sweethearts. Hormones are in full swing, but making commitments and keeping covenants aren't taught sociologically. With a divorce rate over 50% there's little concept of purpose in relationship. Boys enjoy sex without commitment and girls hope that having sex will eventually lead to commitment, but the boundaries of respect and honor have been all but erased.

If there is no established goal of monogamous marriage, there is no purpose beyond mere narcissistic self-fulfillment. Even the desire for commitment as a reason for sexual submission is self-depreciation for the sake of self-fulfillment. That's just plain irrational.

My wife and I dated. We were adults and dating was normal. We actually started spending time as friends. We enjoyed hiking and watching movies together. Once we realized that there was something more developing, we called our getting together "dating". When I went away to school, I fought tooth and nail to see her nearly every weekend. One weekend my car broke down and she drove the two and a half hours to my school to come get me so we could be together. We were ready to commit and I did what few do anymore: I spoke to her dad.

Before the phenomenon of dating there was courting. Even as young adults the suitor would call on a woman in her home where others were present. They would sit together and develop a relationship with the intent of eventual marriage. If the two were idologically or developmentally incompatible, this would soon be discovered and marriage would be averted. If the two were in agreement, then the suitor would appeal to the woman's father or other familial advocate or defender for her hand in marriage. The point is that the relationship was predicated on mutual honor, respect, and devoted commitment without which a marital covenant will run afoul.

Whatever happened to courtship? I suppose I could guess at the degradation of western culture. Aren't we supposed to all be responsible and free to do whatever we want to do as long we don't hurt someone else? Aside from the fact that this fails to presuppose the fallen nature of mankind, a failure to honor others is harmful to the defense of their boundaries. Inasmuch as others are complicit in the degradation of those boundaries, they likewise inflict harm by not holding the other accountable.

Finally, children are harmed by the lack of self-respect their parents unwittingly place on them by allowing the degradation of the culture to inform their lack of values. Why else are such as teen suicide, cutting and murder on the increase?

Wisdom has been replaced with such as street cred and ill-placed liberties. May we come to our collective senses sooner rather than later.

Black And Reformed

Some of our brothers and sisters who hail from the black American culture hold to a reformed soteriology. This is no small thing for them and Pastor Lance pointed to a discussion at The Council of Reforming Churches that asks the question, "Can we be both Black and Reformed?"

I was born in what was then a rather homogeneous area of Ohio and raised there throughout my early formative years. My exposure to Black culture was on TV with programs like Good Times and Fat Albert. I was (and still am) vocally imitative. My kids love for me to read to them because I affect different voices. I could imitate nearly all the the Fat Albert gang. Despite these television shows, I knew little of the real black culture they caricatured. On a trip to Detroit for my dad to obtain his ham radio license, we left very early in the morning and brought breakfast with us to eat on our arrival. I remember my aunt offering leftover orange juice to a black lady on the street and getting a strange look.

A few years later we moved south and I was introduced further to black culture. As far as I could see, these were people like any other people who had been dealt a difficult cultural hand. However, my new associates were kind in general and I made several friends among them. In high school, I enjoyed hours of writing and improvising jazz with a remarkable saxophone player who happened to be black. I even had a chance to sing in a black country church one Christmas. The walls of the small church were held together by a small cable and the church was packed. The choir was small but dynamic and I could swear the whole building moved with praises to God. I fell in love with black gospel music then.

In the Marines I continued to broaden my experience with brothers in arms who were black. For a short time I played with an R&B group that played base clubs - we did Keith Sweat stuff mostly. The group gave me my black nickname "P-bone". Many of my fellow jarheads who were "dark green" (they said there was no white and black - only green) were also brothers in Christ. As I strayed from the faith, among the brothers God sent to bring me back was a godly black man named Larry Williams. I started going to the base chapel and sang in the choir. The choir director was black and the choir was thoroughly mixed. We sang a variety of things, but I learned how to sway and clap here.

I love learning different cultures. I was envious of my wife and children as they spent the summer in Venezuela and received firsthand experience of the culture there. I love reading mission books like "Cowboy Boots in Darkest Africa" by Dr. Bill Rice and "Peace Child" by Don Richardson. I've been deployed to England and the Middle East with the Marines and Venezuela on missions. All these required some education as to developing and utilizing an understanding of the culture.

Some observations regarding cultures:

1) Multiple cultures can provide an opportunity to destroy moral mores in each. Wisdom must be employed when transversing or mixing cultures that the law of God as manifested differently in each is not compromised.
2) Mot people understand only a single culture and other cultures often prove to be a stumblingblock to them. In this case a certain lack of cultural sensitivity is to be anticipated and some education may be lovingly offered to these.
3) Culture is fluid and changes over time, often at dramatically different rates. I'll call this "cultural progression".
4) Cultural progression carries with it popular philosophies and outlooks that influence the understanding of the people in that culture. This understanding has theological ramifications for any religious group with a contingency in that culture.
5) Reciprocally, the introduction of theological concepts influences cultural progression.
6) Therefore, Christians must understand that a culture may cloud the truth of the gospel in some ways and reveal it particularly well in others.

With regard to Reformed theology, we should understand that much of our theology is a reaction to theologies we regard as false for whatever reason. Reformed theology, by definition, is a reaction to the poor theology of the Roman Catholic Church - originally with regard to Pharisaical abuses where ecclesiology and soteriology overlap. The purpose therefore is to arrive at the truth.

I am a Reformed theologian because I believe it is the best reading of scripture, not because I necessarily want Reformed Theology to be true. I want what's true to be true and I didn't particularly like Reformed theology when I started realizing the teachings in scripture. They challenged my previous understanding. However, I wanted to align myself with truth, so I changed my understanding and reassessed my presuppositions. My personal culture (if there is such a thing) changed. My prayer is that it has changed to be more in accordance with the transcendent culture of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So, whatever culture that can be identified, whether white, black, Asian, Hispanic, or any number of the hundreds or thousands of particular iterations of culture in the world, can be said to have elements that cloud the truth and elements the reveal the truth. We must be diligent to cast off those elements that cloud the truth and use those elements that reveal the truth to proclaim the truth. From 1 Corinthians chapter 9:

19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law;

21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law.

22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

23 I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

This past weekend, I sang a little solo with my wife at church in a portion of a program that was choreographed and styled after the 1940s white American culture. I wore a top hat, a coat and scarf over my tux. My wife wore a nice 1940s style dress and makeup. People knew that we were from 2007, but they understood the words I sang in the context of the 1940s. It made a nice warm-up for a program that was otherwise steeped in worship and praise for our God who deigned to become a man so as to pay the penalty of sin for men.

So, can you be black and reformed? Just as much as you can be white and Reformed. If I cannot share the gospel as a white man, I must wear the culture that people understand as though it were a piece of costumed attire. "You're not one of us, are you..." may be the sentiment of someone of a different culture "...but I understand what you are saying."

The multitude of cultures speaks to the extravagance of God's grace. The pursuit of truth is possible in each of them. However, while we can enjoy many of the particulars of a culture in the truth, there are elements that must be cast off and new elements that must be added. The culture must change as we grow closer to God. This is true of the white culture as well as the black culture. You can be black and Reformed with the understanding that the grace of God is greater than all this.

Friendship: RIP

Last summer the results of a study was released that observed that friendships are on the decline. This was reported in such media as USA Today and the Washington Post.

Perhaps what has contributed to this trend is what is noted by Anthony Esolen, a senior editor if Touchstone magazine. He wrote a thoughtful article on the death of friendship in our culture written. I’ve considered the impact of the homosexual agenda on relationships within the mainstream western Christian church in the past, but can’t recall if I’ve ever written on it. I urge you to read this article entitled A Requiem for Friendship.

Esolen’s argument is compelling and employs an understanding of language that I’ve touched on before. We are well familiar with the culture today, but many of us have forgotten who we once were as a people. The cultural language has changed significantly and we have sacrificed such things as trust for tolerance, candor for avarice and commitment for convenience. Have we become awkward pursuing the appearance of devotion while allowing deeper needs to remain unattended?

Consider the impact on the Church if our spiritual fellowship is relegated to superficial interaction. We become weak and incapable of impacting this world with the message of the gospel if we fail to exhibit the very real brotherhood that exists between children of God. Yet this brotherhood is inconceivable or unrecognizable by someone who misunderstands the cultural language. Indeed, have we not failed to maintain the good language of the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven if we cannot have deeper relationships in the culture of our world?

Take the time and read the article. Use a dictionary if necessary.

On a personal note, what I appreciate of Anthony Esolen’s writing here is his command of the English language. Most who demand that the United States officially recognize English as the national language do not possess an understanding of English beyond the tenth grade. Among these are people I love dearly, but with whom I cannot express myself fully. My natural speaking tempo is much slower and deliberate than others. I tend to think carefully before I speak. As such, I often find myself on the receiving end of a one-sided conversation or completely lost in a group conversation. At that, the verbiage I’m subjected to is generally repetitive and simplistic. As such, I’ve learned to mimic common speech patterns in an effort to “fit in”. This is not conducive to building deeper relationships, but it’s better than nothing.