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Psalms..Loving your enemies?

PrincessMaryPrincessMary
edited April 2006 in Faith Issues
As christians we are supposed to love our enemies "But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those: who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you" Luke 6:27 and "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse (Romans 12:14).....but howcome in many of the psalms we are praying for negative things to happen to our enemies, ex: wipe them out according to the abundance of their ungodliness (psalm 6), He shall return the evil things to my enemies; utterly wipe them out by Your truth psalm 53, But they vainly sought after my soul; they shall go into the lowest parts of the earth. They shall be delivered up to the hand of the sword; they shall be portions for foxes.psalm 62

Comments

  • Andrew SaadAndrew Saad
    First of all, it was the old testament an eye for an eye.
    Second, This is mostly saying what God will do to our enemies not what we are doing to them.
  • nene0587nene0587
    .
  • mikeforjesusmikeforjesus
    I think maybe even in the old testament God did not desire for His people to avenge themselves.. even though it was said eye for an eye
  • AdeodatusAdeodatus
    well i think what god says is that we all will make mistakes and hurt someone and we will be hurt but we must acept it because it is wat we are and they are our brothers and sisters and we must love them no matter what they do.
  • Unknown
    As probably already stated, the Old Testament is VERY different from the New Testament, which began the age of grace..in the old testament people were capable of stoning their kids if they fought with them..but the reason I believe we still pray the psalms such as those is simply because of the symbolism..we don't wish for our enemies to be slaughtered but we wish that evil would be slaughtered..that our 'adversary' which is actually temptation and sin would be destroyed..I don't believe the Psalms are to be taken literally in such a sense..
  • publicanpublican
    St. Gregory of Nyssa discusses this issue in his sermon on Prayer, to summarize he says that David is speaking of the evil act not the person. He wishes vengeance not on the sinner, but on the devil who enticed the sinner to sin. The sinner is a victim. He compares it to asking God to eradicate homelessness and poverty...you're asking God to take away poverty, not kill the poor.
    Hope that helps.
  • PrincessMaryPrincessMary
    ok, thanks for all the nice answers :)
  • Unknown
    Our Lord Jesus has indeed defeated the enemies: the idol gods, the devil and his angels, our weakness and our evil sins etc and our death. He has crushed the serpent's head.

    In the world there is still a fight between good and evil, but he who uses the sword will be taken by it.

    In the Old Testament, Pslams included, you find all the prophecies and symbols about Jesus Christ: the who, why, when, where, and all what He will do in the New Testament. He came and fulfilled everything.

    One thing to be clear though is to avoid at all the misinterpretation of God's Love and Kindness as weakness, like the way people think when they deal together. God can "dissolve" all elements any time.
  • Christ4LifeChrist4Life
    I believe when he is talking about the enemy, he was speaking of the devil. Remember until he sinned, David lived a fairly peaceful life.
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