Psalm 35’s biblical curse against the abuser who thrives

You know what it’s like.  The abuser has done their horror.  Then they redoubled the horror through silencing you, through gaslighting you, through denying, attacking, reversing victim and offender, through every weapon you did not know about until they pierced you with it.  They win at every post, and they leave you destitute for justice.

Then you open the Bible and find yourself reading psalms like Psalm 35:

The psalmist calls for the Lord to contend with those who contend with them, to fight against those who fight them, to take up the shield and buckler, and brandish the spear and javelin.  “Arise to my aid... defend me against those in pursuit...”

The psalmist continues to implore of the Lord, repeatedly, “Say to my soul, ‘I am your salvation’.”  You know how it is, that need that God would reassure you that he IS your salvation—because it feels as if he’s silent.

Imbibe these words from the psalm:

May those who seek your life be disgraced and put to shame...

May those who plot your ruin be turned back in dismay...

May they be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of God driving them away...

May their path be dark and slippery, with the angel of God driving them away...

And, again, you’ll relate with this...

And since they’ve hid a net for me without cause...

And since they’ve dug a pit for me without cause...

May ruin overtake them now suddenly...

May the net that they hid there entangle them...

May they fall in the pit that they dug for me...

THEN.

And then, my soul will rejoice in the Lord...

And then my soul will delight in God’s salvation...

THEN.

Then, my whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, Lord?”

Oh Lord, who is like you??????

For our Lord is the God of justice.      And still, you wait.           Don’t defer your hope.

And all of this imprecation is biblical; it is godly, simply because you’re asking God to do it.

And as you pray these words of God over your enemies when you’re triggered, God allows for it, for such visceral emotion, for the spill over, for the boil over, for the spoil of lament, expressed in disgust.

It may not make you feel any better, but at least there’s a godly expression of anger for the hour or the day of its visitation.