Christians are supposed to be good citizens. Scripture teaches that government authority is legitimate, whether or not we agree with it. Therefore, we have a long history of praying for government leaders, obeying them, and paying taxes. It only strengthens the argument for submission that the people who taught such things did so under emperors like Nero.
Yet sometimes our leaders grieve us to the point that praying for them just isn’t enough. The question then becomes whether we can pray against them, even asking God to stop them.
Can we express our anger to the God who expects us to love? Can we ask God to stop the governments we are supposed to uphold in prayer? It’s tricky business, and a guide would help.
The Psalms are the prayerbook of the Bible, used by generations of the faithful during cruel and uncertain times. The Psalms provide a vocabulary for prayer, and many of them are aggressive, even uncomfortable. But they are a guide for anyone who doesn’t know how to pray. They grant permission to speak openly and honestly with God.
For example, Psalm 10 expresses the grief that comes from watching a powerful man act with impunity. Throughout the psalm, he is abusive, boastful, greedy, and vile. He is a bully who takes advantage of those who have no power. In fact, he hunts for them, sitting in ambush as he watches the helpless like prey. The psalm is an urgent prayer, pleading with God to make his evil behavior stop.
Believers can use Psalm 10 like a script, even putting a leader’s name in the psalm. Pray it when you feel our leaders have overstepped their place, and it will help you find your voice.
The most aggressive prayers in the Bible are based on two beliefs. The first is that God can do anything. The second is that he isn’t doing enough.
This is certainly the case in Psalm 10. In it, God seems distracted, and the psalmist is trying to get his attention. “Why, Lord, do you stand far off?” the psalm begins. “Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” The psalmist isn’t just angry at the powerful man; he’s angry at God for not stopping him. In other words, this is a prayer for when it feels as if prayer isn’t working. It’s helpful to anyone who thinks the world doesn’t look as it should.
Even for Christians, prayer can often feel insufficient. Democracy can be more enticing. It tempts us to believe that we are in charge and there’s no real need to pray—especially when we can vote and protest. In truth, democracy offers only the illusion of control. When our candidate isn’t in office, it mostly offers us a mixture of anxiety and indignation.
Prayer is different. It freely admits what most of us know deep down: We aren’t in control. Prayer is a spiritual practice that embraces our inability. It is decidedly not humanistic.
Psalm 10 is a call to action, but not the kind we are used to. It lays out the problem and then asks God to do something about it. It doesn’t encourage people to take matters into their own hands, whether through violence or mobilizing the base. David simply prays. He actually believes prayer will be enough.
Some Christians may feel uneasy praying angry prayers, especially when Jesus said to love our enemies. But these prayers can actually help us to love.
Consider David, whom we most associate with the Psalms. He prayed against political rivals and friends who wronged him. His psalms are impatient and vindictive.
Read his life story, however, and a different picture emerges. He prayed against Saul but never exacted revenge against him or his family. David’s soldiers even complained that he loved his enemies more than his friends, which sounds like Jesus (2 Sam. 19:6). For David, prayer was like the vent valve on a pressure cooker: By releasing the anger, he freed his heart to love the people against whom he prayed.
Psalm 63:10 might be the most remarkable prayer in the Bible. In it, David prayed that his own son would be “food for jackals.” That means David, who dearly loved his son, felt such freedom with God that he could ask God to do something David didn’t actually want to happen. David believed God would do the right thing, so he didn’t feel the need to restrain his prayers. That is the definition of a safe space.
Do Christians feel this freedom? I think many are hesitant to pray against a leader of their own party for fear the other political party might gain power. People don’t want to lose control of the government, even though prayer admits we never had it in the first place. The Psalms are never this careful. They give license to pray for and against the government, letting God sort out the right thing to do.
In fact, one of the first prayers recorded in the church was a prayer against political leaders. In Acts 4:25–30, the Christians prayed for boldness in the face of persecution. They began that prayer by recalling Psalm 2:1-2—a psalm in which God eventually breaks world leaders “with a rod of iron” and dashes them “to pieces like pottery” (v. 9).
Peter was at that meeting, and he prayed against those leaders, yet he later taught Christians to “honor the emperor” (1 Pet. 2:17). The two weren’t mutually exclusive. Matthew was also probably there, and as a tax collector he may have sympathized with the leaders politically, but he crossed party lines and prayed against them.
Prayer is a safe space, and the Psalter invites us to pray freely and honestly, with no regard for worldly affiliations.
If a leader belongs in Psalm 10, he or she also belongs in Psalm 37. And this is our source of peace in a cruel and uncertain time. The powerful man who strikes terror in Psalm 10 is the one who will fade like the grass in Psalm 37. You can’t pray one without the other.
The powerful can warp perception and form their own version of reality. If we aren’t careful, we will all start believing their reality. We believe they can do anything and get away with it. We wring our hands as if our leaders have taken control from God. But Psalm 37 reorients us. Fret not, says verse 10, for “a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.” In this psalm, the man of power draws his sword but eventually destroys himself instead. His arm will be broken, and the Lord will uphold what is right.
Line after line, Psalm 37 calms weary nerves. Praying it will help us rehearse the facts implicit within our faith: that world events—however dark—are in the hands of a good God. We can pray this psalm, naming whatever person of power we choose, and it will show us how to believe in something bigger.
Psalm 10 provides a vocabulary to speak freely about injustice. Psalm 37 reminds us God will make it stop. Together, they give us permission to wait and hope. It is okay to simply pray. In fact, prayer is the most powerful form of protest, however quiet. God will sort out what needs to happen.
We are fortunate to live in a country that welcomes prayer, and the government needs Christians praying for it. At the same time, it needs Christians who are willing to suspend their political affiliation and speak honestly to God about what’s wrong. This country needs Christians who are willing to ask God to make evil stop, no matter which side of the aisle is perpetrating that evil.
More than that, this country needs Christians who can lead the way in forgiving the other side. In the Psalms, we have God’s permission to say harsh things about people in prayer. But once we’ve done that, we have no reason to attack them. If God is carrying our burdens, our words can come from a place of peace, wisdom, and care. If David teaches us anything, it’s that this radical form of love is the result of angry prayer.
Reed Dunn is pastor of Redeemer Hudson in Union City, New Jersey, and author of When You Don’t Have the Words: Praying the Psalms.
The post Honor the Emperor … by Praying Against Him? appeared first on Christianity Today.
