20240407 SS

All right, let's begin with the Word of Prayer. Our Father, we rejoice that we are here to worship, to fellowship together, to open Your Word together and to enjoy what You have written and to benefit from it.

We ask Your blessing upon our time of study and reflection upon Your Word. We pray that You would guide us in our thinking and that Your Spirit would be our teacher this morning through what is written here in Your Word, that You would help us to think clearly about difficult issues and about the issue of imprecations and curses in the Psalms and help us to be conformed, we pray, to the image of Christ and that You would do this work, You would send Your Spirit to mold our thinking to Your thinking and our affections to Your affections so that we may think rightly about righteousness and wickedness and our place in this world and our relationship to both.

We ask Your blessing upon this time for the glory of Christ in whose name we pray, amen. All right, well, if you've just joined us, we are doing a series on the imprecatory Psalms, which is a series, or sorry, I should say, it is the Psalms in the Old Testament, passages in the Old Testament that include curses, either prayers for or pronouncements of or prophecies of judgments and curses upon the wicked.

Two thirds of the Psalms have imprecatory elements, either a mention of God's judgment, a promise of God's judgment, prayers for God's judgment, or praises over God's righteous judgments on the wicked.

Psalm 69 as a Messianic Imprecatory Psalm

And so today we come to a study of two imprecatory Psalms. We're going to be looking today at Psalm 69 and Psalm 109. These are two imprecatory Psalms, and I've chosen these two, not only because they are imprecatory, but also because they have elements of imprecation in them that are severe.

In fact, these are probably two of the most severe imprecatory Psalms in all of the Psalter. So I didn't want to take a couple of Psalms that were sort of easy to work our way through. I wanted to take two examples of really severe curses and mentions of judgment in the Psalter.

And I also chose these two imprecatory Psalms because they are messianic Psalms. And I think that helps us to think in terms of the theology which I've been trying to craft for the last several weeks of thinking of the imprecatory Psalms through the eyes of David as the King of Israel, but also speaking for and on behalf and describing the judgments that would be executed by his greater son, that is his descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David.

So turning your Bibles to Psalm 69, if you haven't yet, Psalm 69, this is 36 verses, and we're going to read the entire Psalm, and then I'm going to put some passages up on the screen, which will sort of help us to walk through the thinking and the theology of the Psalm, Psalm 69.

And I'm going to give you here an outline up on the screen here of how this Psalm kind of breaks apart.

Well, I did that. There we go.

All right, verses one to 12 describes a rejected king, verses 13 to 21, a prayer for deliverance, verses 22 to 28, a prayer for the destruction of his enemies, and then verses 29 to 36, an expression of confidence in God's promises.

I had to put on my cheaters for this, so join me now in Psalm 69. For the choir director, according to Shoshanim, a Psalm of David. Save me, O God, for the waters have threatened my life. I have sunk in deep mire, and there is no foothold.

I have come into deep waters, and a flood overflows me. I am weary with my crying, my throat is parched. My eyes fail while I wait for my God. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head.

Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies. What I did not steal, I then have to restore. O God, it is you who knows my folly, and my wrongs are not hidden from you. May those who wait for you not be ashamed through me, O Lord, God of hosts.

May those who seek you not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel, because for your sake I have borne reproach. Dishonor has covered my face. I have become estranged from my brothers, and an alien to my mother's sons.

For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. When I wept in my soul with fasting, it became my reproach. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

Those who sit in the gate talk about me, and I am the song of drunkards. That is the rejection of David as king. Verse 13 through 21 is a prayer for deliverance. But as for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord, at an acceptable time.

O God, in the greatness of your lovingkindness, answer me with your saving truth. Deliver me from the mire, and do not let me sink. May I be delivered from my foes, and from the deep waters. May the flood of water not overflow me, nor the deep swallow me up, nor the pit shut its mouth on me.

Answer me, O Lord, for your lovingkindness is good. According to the greatness of your compassion, turn to me. And do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me quickly. O, draw near to my soul and redeem it.

Ransom me because of my enemies. You know my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor. All my adversaries are before you. Reproach has broken my heart, and I am so sick. And I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found none.

They also gave me gall for my food, and for my thirst. They gave me vinegar to drink. Verses 22 to 28 is a prayer for the destruction of these enemies that he's been describing, the first 21 verses. Verse 22, may their table before them become a snare, and when they are in peace, may it become a trap.

May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see, and make their loins shake continually. Pour out your indignation on them, and may your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate, may none dwell in their tents, for they have persecuted him whom you yourself have smitten, and they tell of the pain of those whom you have wounded.

Add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into your righteousness. May they be blotted out of the book of life, and may they not be recorded with the righteous. Notice there that verse 27 and 28, he is praying for their eternal destruction and damnation, what he's asking for.

May they be blotted out of the book of life, and may they not be recorded with the righteous. Verse 29 through 36, his confidence in God's promises. May, but I am afflicted and in pain, may your salvation, O God, set me securely on high.

I will praise the name of God with song, and magnify him with thanksgiving, and it will please the Lord better than an ox, or a young bull with horns and hooves. The humble have seen it and are glad. Those you who seek God, let your heart revive, for the Lord hears the needy, and does not despise his who are prisoners.

Let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them, for God will save Zion, build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. The descendants of his servants will inherit it, and those who love his name will dwell in it.

There is a promise there of everlasting life, and a promise that the righteous will inherit the land. I want to go over a couple features of the psalm. You can hear the aggressive imprecations of that psalm.

He is praying for God to judge his enemies who have caused this affliction that is described in verses one through 21, and he is praying for not just their judgment, but actually their eternal destruction.

And this is the type of language that has caused us, that has been our focus in studying how do we interpret this, this type of severe imprecations, severe calls for judgment on God's enemies. And the question, of course, is should we, or can we pray for such things for God's enemies?

Is that appropriate? And I've been slowly, but I think consistently making the case that we should be making imprecatory prayers great again, not that that's the only thing we pray for our enemies, but that it is an appropriate function to pray for God to judge the wicked.

If this is something that God is going to do, and it is something that he has promised to do, and it is something that God is going to do without sinning or without doing any kind of wrong, for us to ask God to fulfill his promises and do what he has promised to do is not a sinful prayer.

But the question then becomes how or when do we pray such prayers? I'm not answering that today. We're just observing these. We're going to go into that in a couple of weeks. Let's look at a couple of the features of this psalm.

This psalm is quoted in the New Testament and applied to Christ. How many of you noticed things in that psalm as we read through it that you directly thought of places or episodes in the New Testament where that psalm is quoted?

Did you see them? They gave me gall and vinegar to drink, right? That was probably the most noticeable one. We have in John 15, verse 25, but they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in the law.

They hated me without a cause. Of course, that is a quotation from Psalm 69, verse four. Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who would destroy me are powerful, being wrongfully my enemies, but I did not steal, I then have to restore.

That is quoted in John 15 as referring to Christ, and John is saying that Christ fulfills that. He is the one who truly was hated without a cause. I promise you that there is some reason that somebody could have hated David, right?

Because he's a fallen man. I'm sure David did something to someone somewhere along the line that would have caused them to hate him, but David in describing himself is really saying, what I have received from them, I do not deserve.

They have hated me to this degree without a cause, but the one who ultimately fulfills that, of course, is Christ because Christ truly did nothing to anyone that would cause their hatred, and yet we can say of Christ that those who hated him and still continue to hate him are more than the hairs of your head.

We see another allusion in Psalm 27, verses 27 to 30. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his hand, and they knelt down before him and mocked him, saying, hail, king of the Jews.

They spat on him and took the reed and began to beat him on the head. And while that is not quoted directly, it is an allusion to Psalm 69, verse 12. Those who sit in the gate talk about me and I am the song of drunkards.

The reviling of David in Psalm 69 was a picture of the ultimate reviling of Christ in the book of Matthew. Matthew 27, 34. They gave him wine to drink mixed with gall, and after tasting it, he was unwilling to drink.

Psalm 69, verse 21 says, they also gave me gall for my food and for my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. You can see these allusions to New Testament truths. John 2, verse 17, his disciples remembered that it was written, zeal for your house will consume me.

That, of course, is quotation from Psalm 69, verse nine, for zeal for your house has consumed me and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me. How is it that in John they can say this was written of Christ when it is David who was writing it?

How is that possible? Remember, I suggested to you several weeks ago that we have to view the statements in the Psalms that David makes, many or most of them, through the eyes of one who really is a picture of the king that is to come.

And so, therefore, when we're reading in the Psalms about one for whom zeal has consumed him, we have to look at that and say that's ultimately a reference to Christ because David, though he's describing himself, is describing one who would come after him who, prophetically, he was a picture of that one.

We see another reference to this in Acts 1, verse 20. It is written in the book of the Psalms, "'Let his house, homestead, be made desolate "'and let no one dwell in it "'and let another man take his office.'".

Who's that referring to, Acts 1? Judas, Judas is the one. Peter's talking about Judas there. They're gathering together to replace Judas, to replace the casting of lots, which, by the way, is my position.

It was a legitimate, Matthias was a legitimate apostle, and he was the one whom God ordained to take that role. And so what they're doing there is citing the Old Testament Scripture that describes the betrayal of this one.

There was one who had betrayed David and many hated him without a cause, and then they see in Judas the ultimate fulfillment of that ultimate betrayal of the ultimate king. And so it's quoted in Acts 1, verse 20.

It comes from Psalm 69, verse 25. "'May their camp be desolate "'and may none dwell in their tents.'". Peter also, by the way, quotes Psalm 109 in the same passage, which is the next Psalm that we're gonna be looking at.

So these two messianic and precatory Psalms, Peter quotes in Acts 1, Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, both of whom he says refer to Judas and gave him biblical Old Testament authorization to do what they did in selecting Judas as the apostle to replace, sorry, selecting Matthias as the apostle to replace Judas.

Then there's another reference in Romans 11, verses seven to 11. "'What then, what Israel was seeking, it has not obtained, "'but those who were chosen obtained it "'and the rest were hardened. "'Just as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, "'eyes to see not and ears to hear not, "'down to this very day.'.

"'And David says, let their table become a snare "'and a trap and a stumbling block "'and a retribution to them. "'Let their eyes be darkened to see not "'and bend their backs forever.'". And there in verse nine, he is quoting Psalm 69.

"'May their table before them become a snare "'and when they are in peace, may it become a trap "'and may their eyes grow dim so they cannot see "'and make their loins shake continually.'". That's a reference, by the way, Paul quotes this in Romans 11 to describe Israel's rejection of their kings.

It's not just David's compatriots who rejected him and afflicted him, but in the rejection of Christ, which Israel did, Paul sees Israel's doing that to Christ as the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 69.

It's not just Judas who betrayed Christ, but the entire nation rejecting him and having him crucified. And so then Paul quotes Psalm 69 to point to the judgment that was to come to Israel, which judgment is not permanent.

It is, as the rest of Romans chapter 11 shows us, is a judgment that ultimately will end and then all Israel will be saved. So those are the New Testament references to the psalm. Only Psalm 22, out of all of the psalms, only Psalm 22 has more attributions to Christ, more verses or things which are identified in the New Testament as pointing to Christ.

And Psalm 22 is the one that reads, "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me "'at the beginning of the psalm?'. And then describes, "'All my bones are out of joint. "'I am thirsty. "'They pierced my hands and my feet "'and they gambled for my garments.'".

Only Psalm 22 has more allusions to Christ or direct quotations in the New Testament. A third observation is not every element of the psalm can be applied to Christ, and I hope you noticed this as we were going through.

For instance, Psalm 69, verse five, "'O God, it is you who knows my folly, "'and my wrongs are not hidden from you.'". That doesn't refer to Christ, does it? Okay, so here's an important interpretive principle when looking at the imprecatory psalms and seeing them as fulfilled, ultimately as pointing in some sense to Christ.

It's to keep in mind that while David describes a lot of his experiences and his prayers and things that he is doing and that will happen to the wicked, not every single detail of every single psalm that points to Christ or is a messianic Christ ultimately is fulfilled in Christ because Christ had no folly, Jesus had no sins or wrongs.

So David is aware of his sin and he is confessing it, but he is also aware that his sin is not the reason for his suffering. And we can say that of Christ, there was no sin that he committed that was worthy of the suffering that he endured.

And David is aware of his sin, but he is, and while he confesses that, he's also aware that it's not his sin that has resulted in the affliction. Something else is going on. There's truly one who without sin suffered all of these things that Psalm 69 describes.

So not every element of the psalm can be applied to Christ. A fourth observation, the target of the wicked in this psalm was a righteous king, David. So David's suffering in Psalm 69 is a portrait, a picture, a foreshadowing of another king who would come from his line, who would suffer even worse than David has suffering.

So really the target of the wicked in Psalm 69 was the righteous king, who in Psalm 69 is David, but ultimately the righteous king who would come from David's line is the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's something else going on in Psalm 69, another king who receives the same treatment so that we can say of Psalm 69 of the psalmist that the suffering that David is describing ultimately is suffered and experienced by Christ himself.

There is a sense in which the psalmist describing their own affliction, and we can say this David specifically, the psalmist David in describing his own affliction really is describing something that would come upon his son, the king who would come after him, who would be rejected by Judas, by the Israelites, and by the entire nation.

That make sense? So therefore the judgment that comes and that is described in Psalm 69, we should also see as a messianic judgment, a judgment that would come upon those who have rejected this righteous king, and it is a righteous judgment that will fall.

It is a judgment that God has warned us about in the Psalms that is going to fall upon the wicked, and therefore all who reject this righteous king and hate him without cause, they will suffer the judgment that is described in Psalm 69.

So that is the judgment that the wicked face. Look at Psalm 69, verse 22. May their table before them become a snare, and when they are in peace, may it become a trap. May their eyes grow dim so that they cannot see and make their loins shake continually.

Pour out your indignation. What did I miss? Oh, sorry, I flipped the page too quick. Pour out your indignation on them and make your burning anger overtake them. May their camp be desolate. May none dwell in their tents.

For they have persecuted him whom you yourself have smitten and they tell of the pain of those you have wounded. The iniquity, sorry, and they, yeah, the iniquity to, try it again, add iniquity to their iniquity, and may they not come into your righteousness.

May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous. Now, what has God promised will happen to all the wicked who oppose the righteous King? This is what will happen.

That is what He has promised. So, we can legitimately see that the declaration, the prophetic declaration of these curses are going to fall upon all who have rejected the Messiah King who came from David's line, who is the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 69.

So, is it sinful to pray for or to rejoice in judgments that fall upon those who afflict this King?

I don't think it is.

Let me give you a couple more observations. God will deliver the righteous. Of course, that is the end of the Psalm, right? There is the confidence in God's deliverance for the righteous. Ultimately, that will mean the destruction of the wicked.

It must certainly mean the punishment of those who oppose the Christ. Second, the fulfillment of God's promises will mean the destruction of the wicked. Look at Psalm 69, verse 34 through 36. Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them.

For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it. The descendants of His servants will inherit it, and those who love His name will dwell in it. The word descendants there is the word for seed, describing the seed of Abraham as well as the seed of the woman in Genesis 3, verse 15.

So, the fulfillment of God's promises to deliver the righteous will mean inevitably and unalterably the destruction of the wicked. Because what is it ultimately that is the deliverance for the righteous?

It's not necessarily anything in this life. Ultimately, our deliverance is in the life to come when God destroys the wicked entirely and casts sin and death and all impenitent sinners in the lake that burns with fire forever, along with the devil and his angels, and He recreates a new heavens and a new earth and brings the righteous to dwell in the land.

We get the land forever and ever, and that's what's being described there in verse 36. It's the same promise contained in Psalm 37, 9 through 11. Evil doers will be cut off, but those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.

Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more, and you will look carefully for his place, and he will not be there, but the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

That phrase, the righteous will inherit the land or dwell in the land or receive the land, that is repeated over and over again in Psalm 37, which describes the prosperity of the righteous, ultimately.

And Psalm 37 is going to be a psalm I'm gonna preach through as soon as we're done with the book of Hebrews. So probably this fall, we're gonna take some time to work through Psalm 37. It's an imprecatory psalm in the sense that the judgment upon the wicked are mentioned in Psalm 37, but there the author's contrasting the doom of the wicked alongside of the prosperity of the righteous, the real gift of the righteous.

And the psalmist is saying just a little while, just a little while, the wicked will be cut off and destroyed and the righteous will receive an eternal inheritance. We will dwell in the land, that land renewed and regenerated and promised to us in all the way back in the book of Genesis to Abraham and his seed, those descendants will receive the land.

Third observation, the unjustified persecution of David, a righteous king, deserves God's justice. It deserves God's justice. When we talk about God judging the wicked, let's be clear,.

We're not talking about anything.

That is undeserved or ill-deserved in any way. It's not over the top. God's justice is always perfect. Every last thing that He executes upon the wicked will be exactly what they deserve and no more, certainly no less and no more.

It will be absolute perfect justice. Those who oppose the son who is the king of the Psalms, they will perish. And they are the same ones who oppose David and then later on they oppose his greater son.

So David's struggle with the nation and with certain enemies who rejected him and persecuted him, that struggle was a microcosm of a much bigger and greater struggle. And therefore his prayers for the damnation and his pronunciation of damnation upon his enemies, that is a microcosm of a much greater judgment that is to come.

In other words, we see it in small in David and we are going to see it in large, writ large in his greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the wicked have been warned, Psalm 2, verse 12, do homage to the son that he not become angry and you perish in the way for his wrath may soon be kindled.

How blessed are all who take refuge in him. So David speaks of Christ and he speaks for Christ in his suffering and in the judgment. He describes his confidence in Yahweh's deliverance, in Yahweh's vindication, in the establishment of the righteous and in a God who will fulfill his word both to punish the wicked as well as to reward the righteous.

James Hamilton in his commentary says this, the point made throughout these imprecatory prayers is that God's enemies have no right to God's blessings. God's enemies should expect God's curses and David calls on the Lord to render to them what they deserve.

That is profound and that you should write at the top of your notes and return to it over and over again. The point made throughout these imprecatory prayers is that God's enemies have no right to God's blessings.

God's enemies should expect God's curses and David calls on the Lord to render to them what they deserve. And therefore, is it appropriate for us to pray that God would render to the wicked what they deserve?

I think it is. I think the imprecatory psalms are there as a model for us to know how we ought to pray. I'm just making the case now that these are legitimate prayers for us. Two weeks from today, I will try and give you five principles for praying imprecatory prayers.

Any questions on Psalm 69? We're going to Psalm 109. What I wanted you to see there is just David's struggle, how it is mirrored in Christ. I think this is the theological framework in which we understand the imprecations that what's being described here is a greater cosmic battle and ultimately a greater judgment than even what the psalmists are describing.

Any questions, comments? Nope, you're already flipping to Psalm 109. All right, Psalm 109 it is. Give you an outline for this psalm as well. It is a similar structure to Psalm 69. We have in verses one to five a lament over his sufferings.

Verses six through 15, a prayer for judgment upon the wicked. Verses 16 to 20, their crimes and justice is defended. And when we get to that point, I want you to recognize how what the psalmist is asking for is something that is appropriate, almost a tit for tat, this for that recompense to the wicked for what they are doing.

And then verses 21 to 25, a description of his sufferings. And then 26 to 31, confidence and deliverance and vindication. And of course, you see the lament at the top of the psalm and the confidence in God's vindication at the bottom of the psalm.

That was the same structure, similar structure to what we had in Psalm 69. So now with my cheaters on and your Bible before you, Psalm 109, let's read the psalm. For the choir director, a psalm of David.

Oh God of my praise, do not be silent. For they opened the wicked and deceitful mouth against me. They've spoken against me with a lying tongue. They've also surrounded me with words of hatred and fought against me without cause.

In return for my love, they act as my accusers, but I am in prayer. Thus they have repaid me evil for good and hatred for my love. Appoint a wicked man over him and let an accuser stand at his right hand.

Here's the imprecations. When he is judged, let him come forth guilty and let his prayer become sin. Let his days be few. Let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless and his wife, a widow.

Let his children wander about and beg and let them seek sustenance. Far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend loving kindness to him nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.

Let his posterity be cut off. In a following generation, let their name be blotted out. Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

Let them be before the Lord continually and that he may cut off their memory from the earth. Verses 16 to 20 is their crimes that they have committed and so justice is defended here. Because he did not remember to show loving kindness but persecuted the afflicted and the needy man and the despondent in heart to put them to death.

He also loved cursing so it came to him and he did not delight in blessing so it was far from him. But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment and entered into his body like water and like oil into his bones.

Let it be to him as a garment which he covers himself for and for a belt with which he constantly girds himself. Let this be the reward of my accusers from the Lord and those who speak evil against my soul.

Notice there that he is asking, they hated cursing so let, or they hated blessing so let blessing be far from them. He spoke cursing so let curses fall upon him. In other words, David is asking that everything that the wicked have done to this innocent individual, let that fall back upon the head of the wicked person.

And this is one of the principles that we'll look at in a couple weeks but I'll give it to you now. It is wrong, I think, to pray an imprecatory prayer for a judgment that does not match the crime.

Okay?

Somebody steals your lunch out of the refrigerator at work. We don't ask that their name be blotted out from the book of life. That's not justice. So what the author is asking here for, what David is asking here for, is a justice that fits the crime.

He's not asking for damnation to fall upon the head of somebody who cut him off in traffic or didn't feed his animals at the right time or whatever. That would be immoral and wrong. That wouldn't be justice.

That wouldn't be right. So the psalmist is asking for something that is, what's the word I'm looking for? Commensurate, I guess. That's not the best word but there's another word out there. It'll come to me this afternoon.

Look at verse 21 to 25, it's a description of his sufferings. But you, O God, the Lord, deal kindly with me for your name's sake. Because your loving kindness is good, deliver me. For I am afflicted and needy and my heart is wounded within me.

I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens. I am shaken off like the locust. My knees are weak from fasting. My flesh has grown lean without fatness. I also have become a reproach to them. When they see me, they wag their head.

Verses 26 to 31 is his confidence in God's deliverance and justification. Help me, O Lord, my God. Save me according to your loving kindness and let them know that this is your hand. You, Lord, have done it.

Let them curse, but you bless. When they arise, they shall be ashamed, but your servants shall be glad. Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor and let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

With my mouth, I will give thanks abundantly to the Lord and in the midst of many, I will praise him for he stands at the right hand of the needy to save him from those who judge his soul.". And there's a prayer there, a confidence in deliverance and vindication.

Let me give you a couple of features of the psalm. Again, this psalm is quoted in the New Testament and used to describe the enemies of Christ. Psalm 109, verse eight, "'Let his days be few and let another take his office.'".

And we saw this verse, we saw Peter quote Psalm 69 in the same verse, Acts 1, verse 20, "'For it's written in the book of the Psalms, "'Let his homestead be made desolate "'and let no one dwell in it.'".

That's a quotation from Psalm 69. "'Let another man take his office.'". That is a quotation from Psalm 109. So what is significant to observe here is that the apostles and Luke, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, quotes imprecatory psalms, which are messianic psalms, and they use them to describe the judgment even that fell upon Judas.

So I don't think the apostles had any problem with imprecatory psalms. I read a quotation from C .S. Lewis this last week where he basically refers to the imprecatory psalms as sort of those embarrassing redheaded stepchilds in scripture that you sort of need to push off into the closet and hope nobody ever sees them and never refer to them.