The Imprecatory Psalms and “Modern Sensibilities”: The Patristic Reception of Ps 137:9

Abstract In the 20th-century, a number of Christian denominations removed imprecatory psalms from their liturgies. These decisions were often informed by contemporary biblical scholarship, which often treated these psalms as relics of an archaic and sub-Christian worldview. More recently, many biblical scholars have tried to rehabilitate the imprecatory psalms. These rehabilitations often assert, sometimes implicitly and sometimes explicitly, that it is modern Western values that have made these texts difficult to accept. Premodern readers, it is often suggested, did not experience these difficulties when reading the imprecatory psalms. Perhaps for this reason, there has been little research into how exactly premodern Christians interpreted the imprecatory psalms. This article aims to fill that gap by tracing the patristic reception of one of the most controversial imprecations in the psalter: Ps 137:9. As we will see, some early Christians were just as scandalized by the text as modern readers are. Consequently, they developed a variety of ways of reading this text that produced a non-violent interpretation. No early Christian, however, suggests that these psalms are not inspired or that they should be removed from the public life of the church. I suggest, then, that the early church presents models of understanding these psalms that remain viable for interpreters today.