Funeral Gerrit Douma — RIP

Call to Attention

The grace and peace of God our Father who raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, be with you all.

We have gathered in Worship for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and to remember the Life of Gerrit Douma.

By way of comfort consider the Revelation of God,

John 11:25 Jesus said … “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.

Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints. Psalm 116:15

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in need. Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. — Psalm 46:1-2

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:1-6)

Because of these great and precious promises, those united to Christ, believe that all the ties of family, friendship and affection which knit us together throughout our lives can in no way be unraveled by death. Confident of God’s love and His ability to keep His own, even in the face of death, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Benevolent and Holy Father
the death of our Father, GrandFather, Uncle, Brother and Friend Gerrit Douma
reminds us of our frail human condition
and that life is but a vapor.

Yet for those who are owned and loved by you
because of your provision in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
death is not the end,
nor can it destroy the bonds
that bind the departed saints to you and to the saints that remain.
We who remain as the Church militant, understand our union with the Church at rest.

Help we who are gathered here to share that faith together
even through our tears and sadness.
Bring the light of Christ’s resurrection
to shine on this time of grief and emptiness,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

Hymn — By The Sea Of Crystal

One of the portions of Scripture that Gerrit had memorized was the 23rd Psalm. He recited it more than once during his recent convalescence,

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
3
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.
4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.

Paul offers us comfort likewise in his letter to the Thessalonians,

13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord,[d] that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. — I Thessalonians 4

Having been reminded of the ability of God to keep his own we rise to lift our voices in praise sining,

* Hymn — How Great Thou Art

Eulogy – Gospel

When we consider the Eulogy we are reminded that the word literally means “good words,” or “good saying.” It is the point in the service where we remember the virtues of the one who has been excused from this life. It is not a time we seek to preach someone into heaven and it is not a time where magnify the deceased above our magnifying of the Lord Christ. It is a time where we magnify God by speaking of a life well lived of one of those who bore the Image of God. The virtue we see in the Saint departed is a virtue that was kneaded into the Saint by the ongoing sanctification of the Spirit of God.

Work Ethic

When we speak of Gary we can speak of his long faithfulness to Marge and the children. We can speak of his career as a Parole Officer. We could speak of his dry and droll humor.

Let us start by remembering that Gerrit was never far from the soil. He grew up close to the land and the noble calling of Farmer was never completely extinguished in him. Gary would recall stories about time on the farm and time helping one of his Grandfathers sell produce. Even after marriage Gary remained close to the land via his Saturday work on the Litch farm where he earned 1.25 an hour plus the opportunity to raise his own crop.

I’ve never met a family Farmer who didn’t know how to work and a strong work ethic is a gift of the Lord. When we work, we reflect a God who works. The Christian faith, wherever it has gone in history, has always produced a work ethic in those who were called of God. And in God’s providence the work on the Litch farm taught Gary’s son the work ethic as well as eventually Tom would be put to work as well.

We could say more of the work ethic. We could note that after Gerrit retired he didn’t retire. There remained the work of driving for Spartan, and all the work that could be found in tandem with and on top of a Tractor. It was only in the last few months that Gary conceded that he had finally retired.

Traveling,

Then there was the Traveling.

Gerrit used the road to bond with his family. Years ago, Gary and Tom took off on a 6 week road trip across the country in a hatch-back pinto. Do you remember those hatch-back Ford Pintos? This was living on the edge.

The day would come when Grandsons would head off with Grandpa on these types of road trips.

Singing

While on those road trips it was not unknown for Gary to burst out in song. Perhaps at the end of a long days drive. Perhaps when on top of a Mountain when soaking in the beauty of God’s handiwork. Perhaps while driving.

Singing was close to Gary his whole life. He spoke many times of his time singing in the Calvin College Choir when they preformed the Messiah. He would travel yearly for some years to Randolph Wisconsin to hear the Men’s choir. He would sing in our annual Christmas worship service. Sometimes solo. Sometimes in duets. Sometimes in quartets. He loved to sing.

In the last few years Mr. Douma would always lead the doxology in the Evening service. Often he would lead us in what is particularly poignant today.

Lyrics

1. God be with you till we meet again;
By his counsels guide, uphold you;
With his sheep securely fold you.
God be with you till we meet again.

(Chorus)
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet,
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.

2. God be with you till we meet again;
When life’s perils thick confound you,
Put his arms unfailing round you.
God be with you till we meet again.

3. God be with you till we meet again;
Keep love’s banner floating o’er you;
Smite death’s threat’ning wave before you.
God be with you till we meet again.

Before we knew it Gary was closing every meeting with a doxology. A business meeting. A fellowship activity. He even asked to close one of the weddings with a doxology. He loved to sing.

Even in his last days he was singing God’s songs to and with folks who would come to visit.

Praying,

Similar to that motif, I used to love to hear Gary pray.

By the means of a combination of the Timber of his voice, and the cadence in his speech it was a privilege to hear him pray. More then cadence and timber though was the deep solemnity that Gerrit brought to prayer. The old timers used to say of people that they “could pray you into heaven.” Because of Gary’s sense of God’s majesty his prayers would bring us before God’s throne.

Like all of us here today, Gary had his pecadillos, idiosyncrasies, and besetting sins but these help explain why he loved the Church. He knew he was a sinner and was in constant need of being reminded that Christ was a greater savior than he was a sinner.

OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME … OPEN TIME

Church

Mr. Douma’s attachment to the Church was part of his covenant heritage.

He told me a story once that I have, in turn, told many times myself in other settings.

Part of Gary’s childhood memory included a Grandfather who would carry a ill Grandmother into and out of Church each Sunday. Doubtless this made an impression upon him on the importance of the Church.

His commitment to the Church, then, was doubtless a commitment that was passed on from generations prior. God promised to be the God of us and our seed and God’s faithfulness was seen in those Grandparents. Seen in Gary’s parents presenting Gary as a infant to be Baptized. And was seen in Gary reading Scripture to his children at meal time and making sure they were in Catechism and in Church.

For generations then, to date, — because of God’s faithfulness alone to His covenant promises — the name “Douma” as been associated with the Reformed Church and so the Biblical faith once forever delivered to the saints. It is my earnest prayer that for generations yet to come that will remain true of the “Douma” name.

You see the Reformed Church was only important for Gary as it was a carrier for the Message of Christ Crucified — the one who brings sinners into God’s approval because of His death, resurrection and ascension.

The message of the Reformed faith that Gary lived and died by is succinctly summarized in the Heidelberg confession,

Q.
What is your only comfort
in life and death?

A.
That I am not my own,
but belong with body and soul,
both in life and in death,
to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood,
and has set me free
from all the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way
that without the will of my heavenly Father
not a hair can fall from my head;
indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation.

Therefore, by his Holy Spirit
he also assures me
of eternal life
and makes me heartily willing and ready
from now on to live for him.

In this catechism we are reminded of why we bother with Church.

We are reminded that no man owns Himself.

Pleasant poetry notwithstanding none of us can say that “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.” As mortals we are not independent beings. We belong either to God or to the enemy.

The Heidelberg, following Scripture, tells us that if we belong to God it is by way of the work on the Cross done by Jesus Christ.

We are thus reminded that apart from trusting Christ our sins will eat us up.

And this is a large part of what the Church is to remind us every week. We are great sinners but Christ is a greater savior. Apart from Christ we become alienated from God, from others and even from ourselves. Apart from Christ we constantly seek to de-god God and en-god ourselves so that all people and things serve us and our wants. Apart from Christ we are bent in upon ourselves. Only Christ can deliver us both from God’s just anger against sin, from our sin, and from ourselves at the same time.

We are thus reminded that the Christian life looks like something

By the work of the Spirit we now longer live for ourselves as the center of all things. Now we live with God as the center of all things. We live for Him. And we learn what it means to live for Him by knowing and conforming to His explicit instructions as set forth in Scriptural revelation.

Yes we fail … every day in word, thought or deed, but our failure doesn’t diminish or eliminate God’s grace. Instead the thought of God’s forgiveness in Christ fills us with gratitude to the end of confessing our sin and then rising to be again hearty and willing to live for Him.

This is the Faith of clan Douma for generations and this is the faith that remains for generations to come.

Let us stand for prayer,

Prayer

Triune God of all mercy who has given us the Holy Spirit for consolation.
We are reminded Father that you are our refuge in times of sorrow,
our light in death’s darkness,
and our stability when faced with the valley of the shadow of death.

Comfort your people in their loss and sorrow we beseech thee.
Be a reservoir of hope to Gary’s family during this time.
Lift them from their grief
into the peace and light of your presence.

We thank thee, that your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,
by dying has destroyed our death,
and by rising, restored our life.
Enable us now to press on toward him,
so that, after our earthly course is run,
you may reunite us with those we love,
when every tear is wiped away.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

Having Prayed for you, I ask that we might confess our Faith by praying together the Prayer our Lord taught us to pray,

Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, for ever. Amen.

And now receive the Benediction

May the peace of God
which is beyond understanding,
keep your hearts and minds
in the knowledge and love of God
and of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

AMEN.
—Philippians 4:7

Francis Nigel Lee On The Goodness Of Nations

“Of course there is to be contact between the nations, but not supranational miscegenation or slow genocide. National seclusion is wrong, but even a supranational ecumencial movement can be guilty of seclusion! For as Dooyweerd remarks: ‘The history of the building of the tower of Babel, viewed in the light of the cultural commandment is contrary to the divine ordinance. Cultural expansion, the spread of humanity over the surface of the earth in the differentiation of the cultural groups, and the cultural contact between these groups, have been set as a task to mankind.’ And again: ‘In the removal of the rigid walls of isolation, historical development moves in the line of cultural integration. The latter has its counterpart in the process of an increasing differentiation. This process of cultural integration and differentiation should be sharply distinguished from the levelling tendencies which in our days threaten to penetrate the so-called under-developed cultures with secularized factors of Western Civilizations.’

In spite of a slight amount of marginal intermixing and still less of intermarriage with other stocks, God preserved the the Israelitic nation and its culture (and land and language) up to the advent of Christ. Neither did Christ destroy nationality, but sought to preserve it and to cleanse it from sin to perfect it. And this involved at least two things: His mandate to improve international relations, but also to sanctify national life to His glory.

Christ insisted on His followers improving international relations. And this they were to do by loving their neighbors as themselves, yes, by loving even their hostile Samaritan neighbors. Also, they were to pray for their enemies, even for their Roman conquerors, and, after Christ’s death and ascension, to go into all the world and teach all the nations, as commanded in Christ’s Great commission.

Yet they were also to sanctify national life and to promote specifically the National welfare. Jesus Himself clearly taught the necessity of the Israelitic believers’ ministering first to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ and that it was not meet to take the Israelitic “children’s bread cast it ‘ to other nations. Nor should Samaritans be encouraged to inundate the temple of the Jews in Jerusalem, but rather worship God in their own temple in their own land for ‘God is spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit,’ that is, in one and the same spirit, and not necessarily in one and the same international or supranational geographical location. And, have assured his followers that nations would still be in existence on the future day of Judgment, and that many would then come from the east and the west into the Kingdom of heaven, He told His followers to go into all the world, and disciple the nations (as nations!), beginning amongst their own nation in Jerusalem, but going forth thence even into the hostile territory of ‘Samaria’ and into the uttermost parts of the earth.’

Shortly, after that, the risen Christ poured out His Spirit on the day of Pentecost, causing the disciples to speak of his wonderful works of God in every then known language for the benefit of those Parthians, Medes, Elamites, etc., who were then in Jerusalem for the feast. Far from suggesting the future creation of a one-world nation with a one-world language, this important event certainly suggests the sanctification of the then existing nationalities to the service of God, inasmuch as ‘devout men, out of every nation under heaven’ there heard the Gospel ‘ever man in our own tongue, wherein we were born.’

Nor did the Christians later lose their nationality. Even amongst the early Israelitic Christians, the Greek speaking Israelites maintained their group consciousness vis-a-vis the Hebrew-speaking Israelites. Paul became a Roman to the Romans solely so that he might save some, but in spite of all this he still remained an Israelite, spoke always to the )ews first and then to the Greeks, and loved his people so much that he was prepared to sacrifice himself in their stead, as it were. At the same time, he emphasized that in Christ there is neither Greek no )ew nor barbarian, nor Scythian, and that as the nations of the world were progressively more and more won for Christ, and as Christians of each nation prayed for their kings and those in authority so that Christian men may lead a quiet and peaceable life and so that all men may be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth, national and international relations would improve, in spite of all temporary setbacks, as the Gospel runs its course through the world of nation. The Cretans may be liars, evil beast, slow bellies, the Corinthians may be factious and passionate; the Galatians may be foolish; the Thessalonians lazy; the Israelites blinded; but the day is coming when Christ shall be all in all.

It shall come to pass in the latter days
that the mountain of the house of the Lord
shall be established as the highest of the mountains,
and it shall be lifted up above the hills;
and peoples shall flow to it,
2 and many nations shall come, and say:
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,[a]
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall decide for strong nations far away;
and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;

By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,… they will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations.”

Francis Nigel Lee
Communist Eschatology — pg. 770 – 772

Athanasiaus … A Knight of the Rectangular Table

This sense of Victory that we find in Psalm 98 and in Watt’s Hymn was common place enough throughout Church History. Athanasius, who lived through some of the worst persecution that the early Church knew, and who knew the trials of being a wilderness voice for orthodoxy on the trinity for nigh unto 40 years – A man who was exiled 5 times and was often in danger of losing his life could still speak of this victory. Athanasius could be Athanasius contra mundum (Athanasius against the World) because the man believed, that with Christ’s coming the Kingdom had come. Athanasius believed the “age to come” Kingdom that Christ established was overcoming this present wicked age. Athanasius wrote to that end,

“Since the Savior came to dwell among us, not only does idolatry no longer increase, but it is getting less and gradually ceasing to be. Similarly, not only does the wisdom of the Greeks no longer make any progress, but that which used to be is disappearing. And demons, so far from continuing to impose on people by their deceits and oracle-givings and sorceries, are routed by the sign of the cross if they so much as try. On the other hand, while idolatry and everything else that opposes the faith of Christ is daily dwindling and weakening and falling, see, the Savior’s teaching is increasing everywhere! Worship, then, the Savior “Who is above all” and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and made to disappear by Him. When the sun has come, darkness prevails no longer; any of it that may be left anywhere is driven away. So also, now that the Divine epiphany of the Word of God has taken place, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are enlightened by His teaching. Similarly, if a king be reigning somewhere, but stays in his own house and does not let himself be seen, it often happens that some insubordinate fellows, taking advantage of his retirement, will have themselves proclaimed in his stead; and each of them, being invested with the semblance of kingship, misleads the simple who, because they cannot enter the palace and see the real king, are led astray by just hearing a king named. When the real king emerges, however, and appears to view, things stand differently. The insubordinate impostors areshown up by his presence, and men, seeing the real king, forsake those who previously misled them. In the same way the demons used formerly to impose on men, investing themselves with the honor due to God. But since the Word of God has been manifested in a body, and has made known to us His own Father, the fraud of the demons is stopped and made to disappear; and men, turning their eyes to the true God, Word of the Father, forsake the idols and come to know the true God.”

Lenin & his Pupils on the Assimilation of the Nations

“All advocacy of the segregation of workers of one nation from another, all attacks on Marxist assimilation … is bourgeois nationalism, against which it is essential to wage a ruthless struggle.

The theory and program of ‘cultural-national autonomy [is] petty bourgeois, for it converts bourgeois nationalism into an absolute category, exalts it as the acme of perfection, and purges it of violence, injustice, etc.

Marxism cannot be reconciled with Nationalism, be it even of the ‘most just,’ ‘purest,’ most refined and civilized brand. In place of all forms of nationalism, Marxism advances internationalism, the amalgamation of all nations into a higher unity, a unity that is growing before our eyes…

The proletariat … welcomes every kind of assimilation of nations, except that which is founded on force or privilege.

The proletariat cannot support any consecration of nationalism: on the contrary, it supports everything that helps to obliterate national distinctions and remove national barriers; it supports everything that makes the ties between nationalities closer and closer, or tends to merge nations.”

Vladimir Lenin
Critical Remarks on the National Question

And here we find Obama channeling Marx.

“That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another. The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic can not stand.” “The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least can not stand.” “The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews can not stand. These hallowed walls we must tear down.”

Barack Obama – Berlin, July, 2008

And here we find Bojidar Marinov, (he who has been embraced by institutional Reconstructionism).

Marinov.

” The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least can not stand.” “The walls between races and tribes, natives and immigrants, Christians and Muslims and Jews can not stand. These hallowed walls we must tear down.”

Imprecatory Psalms — Overview

Imprecatory Psalms

These are the Psalms where we find the longing of God’s people for God’s enemies to be defeated so that the glory of God’s name may not be tarnished or diminished.

There is an urgency in the Psalms with which we are too often unfamiliar. An urgency to protect God’s honor and his position. The closest that we may be able to get to this is the instinct that a husband might have to protect the reputation and honor of his wife were her reputation and name to be called into question.

Though we will be looking at the Psalms this morning we see some of this urgency to protect God’s honor and his position when the Lord Christ, by means of violence, clears the Temple of the money-changers. God’s name was being brought into disrepute and the Lord Christ rose up to defend His name.

This type of mindset, minus the violence that the Lord Christ brought to the Temple, is what is driving the Psalms of imprecation. He sees God’s name being overcome. He longs for God to be vindicated against those who are God’s sworn enemies and in that context he calls down imprecations and curses upon the wicked.

When we consider, what moderns consider to be the Harshness of these Psalms we agree with D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Look at the Psalmist. Look at some of those imprecatory Psalms. What are they? There is nothing wrong with them. It’s just the zeal of the Psalmist. He’s grieved and troubled because these people are not honoring God as they should be. That is His supreme concern.”

Moving on we understand that “Imprecate”, “Imprecatory”, and “Imprecation” are words that we seldom use any more so we briefly pause to define what these words mean.

IM’PRECATE, L. imprecor which means “in”(precor) to pray.

So, to imprecate is to invoke, evil upon any one.

It is to pray that a curse or calamity may fall on one’s self or on another person.

So, in the inspired prayer book and song book that God left to us one finds these Imprecatory Psalms. These imprecatory Psalms are those that invoke judgment, calamity, or curses, upon one’s enemies

We find these Imprecations sprinkled throughout the Psalms

Psalms 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40, 52, 54, 56, 58, 69, 79, 83, 109, 137, 139, and 143

Besides what was read this morning from Psalm 58 I offer just a few samples of what we are speaking of,

“Pour out Your indignation on them, and let Your burning anger overtake them” — Psalm 69:24

“Happy the one, who taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock.” — Psalm 137:9

“Let death take my enemies by surprise; let them go down alive to the grave.” Psalm 55:15

“O God, break the teeth in their mouths.” Psalm 58:6

“May they be blotted out of the book of life and not be listed with the righteous.” Psalm 69:28

“May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” Psalm 109:9

Well, here we have these Imprecatory Psalms. They are Psalms that typically offend modern sensibilities. They are Psalms that don’t comport either with our vision of God or our vision of Christians. How should we understand them?

Well, there have been different approaches to understanding them.

A.) Some folks just want to ignore them as being repulsive.

Well known Bible teacher of the 20th Century Bill Bright speaking of these Psalms said,

“We cannot demand that the Bible give us nothing but correct teachings and safe moral instruction and be offended when it does not.”

A 19th century Bible teacher, John J. Owen could write,

(These) “forms of expression are of such cold blooded and malignant cruelty, as to preclude entertaining the idea for a moment that they were inspired by God.”

Another popular evangelical bible handbook of the 20th century offers,

“In OT times God, in measure, for expedience’ sake, accommodated Himself to men’s ideas. In NT times God began to deal with men according to his own ideas.”

C. S. Lewis spoke of these Psalms as “devilish” and “diabolical.”

C. I. Scofield could say — these are a “cry unsuited to the Church.”

Examples like this could be multiplied but the point is that there has been a large contingency of men who have basically said that these Imprecatory Psalms do not count. They are, so they say, unworthy of God and of Scripture.

The problem here of course is that man’s fallen sensibilities are being used as a guide to what God can and cannot say. To refuse these Psalms is to fall to the ancient ploy of the Serpent when he came to Eve planting doubt in her mind by hissing, “Hath God really said?” If we do not allow these Psalms to be God’s voice then haven’t we become God, determining good and evil? How can we fault those who claim to be Christian and yet who deny the Virgin Birth, the divine creation of the world, the resurrection of Christ, and all the miracles of Scripture if we just, on our own whim, read these Psalms out of Scripture?

A second problem is that one doesn’t get away from Imprecatory sentiments in Scripture by getting rid of the Imprecatory Psalms. The imprecations of God continue throughout the OT right into the NT. The point here is that we couldn’t get rid of, what we consider to be the unsavory character of God, by eliminating the Imprecatory Psalms. Imprecation is everywhere throughout the Scripture including the NT.

Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.

(These “Woe Passages” are a Imprecatory prophetic pronouncement against God’s enemies in which a Divine lawsuit is being brought against God’s enemies)

Matthew 26:23-24 And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.

1 Corinthians 16:22 If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema (accursed) Maranatha.

Galatians 1:8-9 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

Galatians 5:12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.

2 Timothy 4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works:

II Thes. 1:6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from[b] the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

Revelation 6:10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

More than that many of these Imprecatory Psalms are quoted in the New Testament. The Lord Christ quotes from them in John 15:25, and John 2:17, while Paul the Apostle quotes from Psalm 69 in the Epistle to the Romans 11:9-10 and 15:3.

So, again we say that we don’t relieve God of His “meanness” by just eliminating the Imprecatory Psalms. Even without these Psalms God remains “mean.” And we do see that summarily removing parts of the Scripture we don’t like ends up with us being sovereign over Scripture.

B.) Another tack that some have taken with these Psalms is to admit that they are inspired and so legitimate. However they then immediately insist that these Psalms were for a different time … a different era. They suggest that we must understand that God has changed with the coming of Christ.

A noted white hat “Reformed” Theologian who is a Professor on the West Coast, for example has written,

“The imprecatory Psalms, invoking God’s judgment on enemies, are appropriate on the lips of David and the martyrs in heaven. However, they are entirely out of place on the lips of Christians today, guided as we are not by the ethics of intrusion but by the ethics of common grace.

Therefore, moderns are wrong for dismissing such episodes as immoral, and fundamentalists are wrong for invoking them as if they were in effect during this intermission between Christ’s two advents.”

Michael Horton, The Christian faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way (Grand Rapids, 2011), pp 961-2.

Here the idea is that the Imprecatory Psalms are true but they are to be regarded as only appropriate to the OT saints or to the Martyrs in heaven. The idea is that we live in an age of common grace that does not allow us to pray this way, whereas in the OT they lived in a time when

We are explicitly told we would be wrong to pray that God would vindicate His name by crushing His enemies today.

Wrong to pray that God would crush those who “put women and children under the ground who were alive,” as it is being reported is being done to Christians in Iraq.

Here is another description of what is going on in the World and remember we are told that we are wrong to pray Imprecatory Psalms against these people.

“They tied the hands of one woman to the back of a car and her legs to another car and they split her into two,” another said. “Have you seen anything like this? This is all because she is not Muslim and did not want to be converted.”

What I’m seeking to do here is to tease out the real life implications of suggesting that we should not pray the Imprecatory Psalms asking for God to visit justice upon His enemies who will not relent.

Here is another case where we are told it is wrong for God to rise up to defeat His enemies.

One of our family members has abandoned his wife and children to pursue a lifetime of perversion, which he apparently has been engaging in for the last seven years. He moved out in January to go live with the new friend but continued attending church with the family and picking up the children (ages 14, 12, and 5) to go spend time with his new paramour. The wife is moderately sick from a Tick bite and relies on expensive medications to suppress the symptoms, but they no longer have medical insurance because he’s unemployed due to his new instability. She can’t pay the kids’ private school tuition; they’re about to lose the house and go bankrupt; and she just applied for welfare. The church is in the process of excommunicating him; no facility is willing to hire him; the older two kids hate him; and he is trying to get a divorce so he can move to Texas with his new paramour.

Those who say that we cannot pray against God’s enemies and petition God to destroy those who would destroy him or His people have forgotten that, in the words of Cornelius Van Til,

It is at all times a part of the task of the people of God to destroy evil. Once we see this we do not, for instance, meanly apologize for the imprecatory Psalms but glory in them.

C. Van Til
Christian Theistic Ethics

We agree with Theologian Dabney that,

This age has witnessed a whole spawn of religionists, very rife and rampant in some sections of the church, who pretentiously declared themselves the apostles of a lovelier Christianity than that of the sweet Psalmist of Israel. His ethics were entirely too vindictive and barbarous for them, forsooth; and they, with their Peace societies, and new lights, would teach the world a more beneficent code.

R. L. Dabney
Discussions– Evangelical and Theological (Vol. 1, pg — 709-710)

Of course the major obstacle to the reasoning that the Imprecatory prayers are not for us to pray has already been mentioned. The major obstacle is that we find the same type, though not the same degree, of Imprecation going on in the NT. Anathemas and Woes are pronounced upon people by Jesus and Paul. Portions of the Imprecatory Psalms are quoted by the Lord Christ and others. Alexander the Coppersmith is explicitly inveighed against in an imprecatory fashion. The principle of imprecation is found in the NT and if in the NT that suggests the idea that Imprecations are only for the NT age is a theory that is not satisfactory.

It all really comes down to this. Do we love God and His Kingdom enough to not love those who viciously oppose God and His Kingdom? Do our hearts burn within us to see God’s name exalted by the leveling of Satan’s Kingdom?

God’s Kingdom cannot come without Satan’s kingdom being destroyed. God’s will cannot be done on earth without the destruction of evil. Evil cannot be destroyed without the destruction of men who are permanently identified with it. Instead of being influenced by the sickly sentimentalism of the present day, Christian people should realize the glory of God demands the destruction of evil. Instead of being insistent upon the assumed, but really, non existent, rights of men, they should focus their attention upon the rights of God. Instead of being ashamed of the imprecatory Psalms, and attempting to apologize for them and explain them away, Christian people should glory in them and not hesitate to use them in the public and private exercises of the worship of God.

Johannes G. Vos
The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms
Westminster Theological Journal

Now, what is the danger of praying these Psalms? The danger is that we will be praying them with a lack of love. You see it is love that drives us to pray in such a way. Love for God and others.

Puritan David Dickson gets at this point when he offer

If any of the enemies of God’s people belong to God’s election, the Church’s prayer against them giveth way to their conversion, and seeketh no more than that the judgment should follow them, only until they acknowledge their sin, turn, and seek God.

So we pray God’s judgment against them as God’s enemies fully realizing that should they turn and be saved that our Imprecatory prayers against them immediately cease.

We pray Imprecatorily with hopes that God will crush His enemies the same we He crushed us when we were enemies and that is by granting repentance.

At this point we are one with Luther who said on this score,

We should pray that our enemies be converted and become our friends, and if not, that their doing and designing be bound to fail and have no success and that their persons perish rather than the Gospel and the kingdom of Christ.

Martin Luther

Our tendency to pray Imprecatorily, as our tendency to love unbiblically is too often forgetful of a genuine love to God and His Christ. Whether praying imprecations or loving unbiblically what to often drives us is love for self. When we pray imprecatorily we have ourselves at the center thinking only of the wrong done to us personally and forgetting the injury to thrice Holy and Glorious God. Similarly, when we love unbiblically we have ourselves at the center. We refuse to oppose others, via imprecatory praying or in other ways, because we love ourselves to much to want to risk being widely disliked. And so, too often both in our Imprecatory praying and in our unbiblical loving we have self at the center.