During the last few days, Psalm 109:8, a Bible verse in the form of a "prayer for Obama," has topped the Google trends chart: "May his days be few; may another take his office." Evidently, a bumper sticker emblazoned with this verse has popped up in various parts of the country. It is a sort of right-wing Christian equivalent to the old "01.20.09" stickers looking forward to the end of the Bush era.
It was, most likely, intended as a joke. But it isn't really very funny. Especially since the next verse reads, "May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow." The passage goes on the same way--asking God to pulverize this poor fellow--that he lose all his worldly goods, that his orphans be abandoned, that his father be remembered as a sinner, and finally, that "his memory be cut off from the earth."
Thus, the "Prayer for Obama," does more than anticipate that he leaves office; it entreats God to destroy the president.
Psalm 109 belongs to a special category of the psalms known as "imprecatory" prayers--it is a lament in the form of petition to destroy one's enemies. It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another--and usually more powerful--person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms--full of violent images of vengeance and death. Many a biblical critic has struggled with its words--and not a few--including Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant theologians--recommend that it not be used in public worship, much less as a bumper-sticker political slogan.
In his marvelous book, Reflections on the Psalms, C.S. Lewis observed:
In some of the Psalms the spirit of hatred which strikes us in the face is like the heat from a furnace mouth. In others the same spirit ceases to be frightful only by becoming (to a modern mind) almost comic in its naivety. Examples can be found all over the Psalter, but perhaps the worst is in 109 (p. 20).
Lewis suspects that it may be best to leave such psalms alone. But then he says that we must face "facts squarely."
The hatred is there--festering, gloating, undisguised--and also we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves (p. 22).
Lewis refers to these psalms as horrible, devilish, cruel, hateful, and evil. He believes that Psalm 109--and the poetry of its kind in the psalter--should point us back to the evil we carry within and teach us each how to behave with goodness, humility, and love.
According then, to the venerable C.S. Lewis, a "Prayer for Obama" is really a prayer for ourselves to go beyond "festering, gloating, undisguised" hatred. "If the Divine does not call to make us better, it will make us very much worse," he reminded his readers, "Of all bad men, religious bad men are the worst."
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In response to "Like it or not you live in a country that was FOUNDED and BASED in the Christian Religion.
Please demonstrate this with references to respected historians who are actually taken seriously by other people in the field (i.e., no David Barton or other Christian Right pseudohistories)."
... please consider the opening lines of the Declaration of independence below: You may not be able to in and of itself determine that the writers were of necessity referring to the Christian religion/belief. However, it is easy to see that the writers did NOT intentionally try to separate a God and a creator from the purpose of declaring independence. We live in a country of people NOT of one religion, belief, or faith. However, I think we can respectfully agree that those that signed this important document recognized an agreement in one God, one Creator, and (later in the document) the Divine.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Obama has evil plans for our nation. He must be stopped in any legal and ethical way.
I've read this story and found that other media outlets, typically supportive of the political left, have pounced on this, but instead focus on the verse not stated in the T-shirts/Bumper stickers. I can easily see the political speak with Psalm 109:8, but the focus on Psalm 109:9 is being foisted upon us as if it where Psalm 109:8. As for Psalm 109:8, I agree with the single verse sentiment. On it's own it has no reference to any desire to see President Obama killed. However, if one is going to take it in it's actual context you have to read the before and after verses. A practice often intentionally rejected by the political left when it suits them.
Using Psalm 109:8 was without a doubt not a good choice due to not only the verses that follow, but also it exemplifies the evil that can envelope mans heart when they have been harmed. I remember many years ago I actually prayed for defense against developing such hatred towards another for an injustice done to me. In a healthy mind it would seem that it takes a great deal of harm to let ones guard down and allow such hatred to enter. It is without a doubt something that can and does happen. President Obama has certainly harmed many, but in no way has his actions justified such a wrath as asked for by David. God has in fact made such generational wrath's on his own accord, but the new covenant/testament superseded that to the best of my knowledge. I could be wrong, but I don't think so.
This is a hoax from day one. I keep getting emails about this. It is easy to see that cafe-press corp. printed this up to capitalize on the anti-healthcare/tea party folks they thought would buy this crap. Fact is, just about any one wanting to make the religious right look malicious and dangerous to cast aspersions on them could produce this kind of drivle and pin it on "them". Just like the tea party coverage always seemed to hone in on the one or two Hitler-Obama signs and paint the whole crowd as racists- those people were plants by the SEIU. Since anyone could join in the activites, anyone could show up with derogatory signs and be assured of getting on CNN or MSNBC. That was too convenient folks don't you think?? Do you know anyone who has ever seen these items on anyones car or body? Probably sent to USA Today as a "press release" from Cafe-Press and they in turn have never said who made the T-shirts or if they made them for an organization who paid them to sell them or what. It's all about denigrating Christians, Republicans, and Tea Party folks none of whom would ever endorse such crap.
Personally, I don't want to hear word one about the alleged inappropriateness of Psalm 109:8 -- OR -- Psalm 109:9, for that matter -- unless it is prefaced by a heartfelt, convincing condemnation of the signage found here: http://www.binscorner.com/pages/d/death-threats-against-bush-at-protests-i.html
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