A year or so ago, Mark Mullery came to preach at our church and I haven’t read the Psalms the same since. He shed such light on my confusion. There is much in the Psalms about the righteous and the wicked. But, in light of the Gospel and the knowledge that we now have that surpasses that of the people during the Psalmist’s life, the pronouncements of judgment on the wicked is not how we should think towards our enemies. Yes, God hates sin and He will judge it, but in reality we are all wicked apart from Christ and deserve His furious wrath. So, instead of praying judgment on our enemies we should be following Jesus’ instructions:
“Love your enemies and pray for them.”
There are certain people in my life right now that, in my sin, I would love to pray for their pain and destruction, but I thank God that He’s opened my eyes to His ways and that He’s giving me a heart of compassion instead. My prayer is that the one I’m speaking of would cry out like David in Psalm 51 “Against you and you only have I sinned”. True repentance can only come as we see our sin as against God, the righteous One. God’s grace is sufficient for the vilest of sinners.