Curses in the Psalms
Since I've raised this point, I thought I'd post this. I have read through most of the Psalms now in my ESV study bible, and the study notes. There is a good section in the introductory notes on the Curses in the Psalms, plus along the way there are many footnotes that deal with the apparent vindictiveness of the Psalmists (this is one of my problems with this chapter in CS Lewis's Reflections in the Psalms).
I first had to deal with this issue when I visited friends who were working at New Norcia, Australia’s only privately-owned monastic town, in WA in 2004 (which was a fascinating and beautiful place to visit – I’ve posted some pictures here). There the monks go to prayer five times a day (or was it seven) and pray/chant the Psalms. Yet, in the entrance to the prayer chapel was a sign basically offering an excuse for some of the Psalms and their content. And I didn’t like it. (I think I wrote it down somewhere, I just don’t know where). I found out that the Abbot was a fan of Charles Dodd (modern Welsh theologian who rejected the wrath of God and propitiation), which explained it to me.
It’s worth reading the ESV Study Bible Introduction to the Psalms for a quick brief on this point. And here is just one of the many footnotes from the ESV dealing with this issue:
35:4-8 Let Them Be Ashamed. The faithful pray that the schemes of the pursuers would fail, and that the pursuers themselves would suffer disappointment and humiliation, and finally destruction. There are many reasons such a prayre is proper for God’s people to pray. First of all, it is realistic; God’s protection of the faithful means that he must thwart the schemes of those who would harm them. Second, it is just, since the pursuers devise evil (v. 4), and without cause they hid their net for me (v. 7). (Observe the repetition of “without cause,” in vv. 7, 19.) Third, it takes God at his word (cf. v. 5 with 1:4). Finally, from all of this it is plain that the prayer is not a vindictive response to personal injury but an appeal based on faith.