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Is It Wrong to Pray Against Your Enemies? What the Imprecatory Psalms Teach

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Illustration of an open book of psalms on a wooden table at dawn, with a broken sword laid down beside it and warm light breaking through a window

It is not wrong to bring your anger about an enemy to God, or to ask him to stop evil and judge it justly. The Bible does exactly that, in some of the rawest prayers ever written. What Christians are not free to do is wish a person destroyed for our own satisfaction, or use prayer as a weapon. Jesus was plain: "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" (Matthew 5:44). The cursing psalms and that command fit together better than most people expect, and seeing how can change the way you pray when someone has really hurt you.

Why this question keeps coming up

Imprecatory prayer is back in the conversation. On October 21, 2026, the With The Perrys podcast released an episode with author Nona Jones called "Imprecatory Prayers, Friendship, and Jesus", and it drew tens of thousands of views within days. Google's search suggestions tell the same story: people are typing "imprecatory prayer meaning", "imprecatory prayers against enemies" and, more bluntly, "is it wrong to pray for your enemies to die".

Those are honest questions. Most people asking them are not looking for a curse. They have been betrayed, bullied, cheated or abused, and they want to know whether the anger they feel has any place in prayer.

What are the imprecatory psalms?

To "imprecate" means to call down a curse. The imprecatory psalms are psalms that ask God to bring judgment, ruin or disaster on enemies. Lists vary, because a psalm with even one line of cursing is often counted. Psalms 55, 59, 69, 79, 109 and 137 are the ones most often named, and Psalms 35 and 58 are frequently added.

They do not soften anything:

  • "Pour out your indignation on them. Let the fierceness of your anger overtake them." (Psalm 69:24)
  • "Break their teeth, God, in their mouth." (Psalm 58:6)
  • "Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." (Psalm 109:8-9)
  • "Happy shall he be, who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock." (Psalm 137:9)

Christians have struggled with these lines for centuries. C.S. Lewis gave them a chapter called "The Cursings" in his 1958 book Reflections on the Psalms. He said the hatred in them is "festering, gloating, undisguised", and that we would be wicked to use it to justify the same passions in ourselves. After the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church removed some imprecatory psalms from the Liturgy of the Hours, its daily cycle of prayer.

There is a good reason for caution. John Calvin recorded the case of a wealthy woman who paid friars to pray Psalm 109 against her own son. That is exactly what these psalms must never become: a spell for hurting people we resent.

Five things to notice before you pray them

1. They hand revenge to God instead of taking it

The psalmist never picks up a sword. He asks God to act: "Contend, Yahweh, with those who contend with me. Fight against those who fight against me" (Psalm 35:1). Paul uses the same logic in Romans 12:19: "Don't seek revenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to God's wrath. For it is written, 'Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord.'"

Handing justice to God is not passive. It is how you stop carrying a debt you were never able to collect.

2. They come from real injustice, not irritation

Psalm 109 is the prayer of someone repaid with evil for good: "In return for my love, they are my adversaries; but I am in prayer" (Psalm 109:4). Psalm 137 was sung by exiles after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and carried its people away. These are prayers from the wreckage of betrayal, violence and war.

They are not a template for the colleague who took credit for your work or the driver who cut you off.

3. They are brutally honest, and God allows that

"Pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us" (Psalm 62:8). God would rather hear your rage than a tidy prayer that hides it. If prayer feels flat right now, read When Prayer Feels Like Talking to the Ceiling. If the hurt has left you anxious or stuck, Being a Christian With Anxiety may help.

4. They often turn back on the person praying

Psalm 139 says, "I hate them with perfect hatred". Almost immediately it adds, "Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me" (Psalm 139:22-24). The psalmist does not stop at the enemy. He asks God to examine him too.

5. The New Testament reads them through Jesus

The longing for justice does not disappear in the New Testament. Peter applies Psalm 109:8 to Judas in Acts 1:20. In Revelation 6:10, the martyrs cry out, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood?" Even Paul writes, "Alexander, the coppersmith, did much evil to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds" (2 Timothy 4:14).

But the tone of what Christians ask for changes. On the cross, Jesus prays, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). As he is being stoned, Stephen prays, "Lord, don't hold this sin against them!" (Acts 7:60). When James and John offer to call fire down on a Samaritan village, Jesus rebukes them (Luke 9:54-55). Paul's instruction is short: "Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don't curse" (Romans 12:14).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer faced this question under real persecution. In 1937, after the Nazis arrested his fellow pastor Martin Niemöller, he preached on Psalm 58 and asked, "May we pray this way? Certainly not!" His answer was that only the truly innocent could pray such a psalm, and the only truly innocent one is Jesus, who took God's judgment on himself. Christians can still read the cursing psalms, but they read them as people who have been forgiven.

Praying for justice vs cursing someone

Here is a practical line to draw.

Fine to pray:

  • "Lord, stop him from hurting anyone else."
  • "Bring the truth into the light and expose the lies."
  • "Give the people in authority courage to act justly."
  • "Bring her to repentance, because that is the best thing that could happen to her."

Not fine to pray:

  • Asking God to make someone sick, ruin their family or kill them.
  • Treating a psalm or a "fire prayer" as a hex to be repeated until something bad happens.
  • Using prayer to keep a grudge warm or to rehearse what you would like to see happen to them.

A simple test: would you be glad if this person turned to God and was forgiven? If the honest answer is no, bring that to God too. That is the Psalm 139 move, and it is where change usually starts.

A way to pray when someone has hurt you

  • Say exactly what happened. Psalm 13 asks, "How long shall my enemy triumph over me?" You can be that specific.
  • Name what you feel. Anger, humiliation, fear and the wish to see them suffer are all things to say out loud to God, not to act on.
  • Ask God to be the judge. Give him the case, including the outcome.
  • Ask for protection and wisdom. That might mean a boundary, a report or a hard conversation.
  • Ask him to search you. Is bitterness growing? Is there anything you need to own?
  • Pray one line for their good. Even through gritted teeth, it counts.

A short version you can use: "Father, you saw what happened. I am angry and hurt, and I want them to pay. I give this to you, because you judge fairly and I don't. Protect me and anyone else in harm's way. Stop the wrong and bring out the truth. Search my heart. And, if I can mean it today, bring them back to you."

One important caution: if you are being abused or threatened, prayer is not a substitute for getting safe. Contact local emergency services, and talk to someone you trust: a pastor, a counsellor or a friend. Forgiveness does not mean staying in danger or pretending nothing happened. If the person who hurt you was in your church, When Church People Disappoint You speaks to that kind of wound. And when control has to be handed back to God, The Hardest Prayer: 'Your Will, Not Mine' is a good next read.

Frequently asked questions

Is it a sin to pray for your enemies to die?

Asking God to kill someone so you can feel satisfied goes against Jesus' command to love and pray for enemies (Matthew 5:44) and Paul's "bless, and don't curse" (Romans 12:14). Telling God you feel that way is not the same thing. Say it, then hand it over, and ask him to change what you want.

Are the imprecatory psalms still for Christians today?

Yes. They are part of Scripture and they teach a great deal: that God hates injustice, that victims may speak honestly, and that revenge belongs to him. Most Christian teachers read them through the cross, as cries for justice that God answers in Christ, not as scripts for cursing people.

Which is the most famous imprecatory psalm?

Psalm 109 is the best-known example of cursing a personal enemy, and Psalm 137, with its line about Babylon's children, is the most shocking. Both make the most sense read in their setting: betrayal in one case, national catastrophe and exile in the other.

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