Just you wait

In reading Psalm 58 this morning I was reminded of My Fair Lady. Now don’t rush off and read the psalm expecting to be similarly reminded. The connection is not obvious and will need some dot-connecting. The specific memory was of Eliza Doolittle’s both melodic and vitriolic diatribe, “Just you wait.” If you read the psalm now, the connection should be clearer.

Eliza in her anger and frustration at ‘enry ‘iggins, brilliantly and infuriatingly played by Rex Harrison, sings the song:

Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!
You'll be sorry, but your tears'll be to late!
You'll be broke, and I'll have money;
Will I help you? Don't be funny!
Just you wait, 'enry 'iggins, just you wait!

And it continues on. I am particularly fond of this number because it gives voice to my longing to hit Henry Higgins with a big stick.

The psalmist, like Eliza, wishes calamity on the wicked, indeed even more graphically so:

O God, break their teeth in their mouths;
pull the fangs of the young lions, O Lord.
Let them vanish like water that runs off;
let them wither like the trodden grass.

Psalm 58 is imprecatory (from the Latin to pray towards). The prayer here is a negative one and might be better described as a curse. While I might empathize or even sympathize with the sentiments and want to join Eliza in chorus, I remain a little uncomfortable. Jesus did tell us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate us. It is hard to reconcile this to the imprecations of the 58^th psalm.

There is some value, however, in the words of the psalmist. First they remind us that he is not a pious fraud. Many believers spend a lot of energy lying to themselves and to others with phrases like “I don’t get angry, I just leave it with the Lord.” Or who refuse to even use words like angry and prefer the safer, more acceptable words like “frustrated.” Lying about how we really feel is not helpful. The scriptures do not say “do not be angry”, but rather, “in your anger, do not sin.” (Ephesians 4:26) The psalmist is angry and despises the wicked. That is very clear and it is clearly articulated before God. The problem with the pious fraud is that the anger comes out somewhere. Better it come out in prayer before God than in harsh words or behaviours towards others (including our enemies).

There is also a difference the psalmist’s cry and Eliza’s. Unlike the flower girl of Covent Garden, the psalmist is not making a plan, but rather a prayer. He is praying to God, who is the source of all justice. The psalmist is not planning to DO anything, but is pouring out his desire for justice before God. And we all long for justice. Where we see things amiss. Where there is unfairness or injustice we, quite rightly, long to see it changed. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

The imprecatory psalms are gritty, frank prayers to God ultimately for his justice and order in the world. The psalm concludes:

They (the righteous) will say,
Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
surely there is a God who rules the world.