Lesson 396: "Retribution"
It is hard for us to understand some or many of the psalms but ancient Israel came together and chanted imprecatory psalms in their worship. This was not to call down curses on their enemies but to sing the words was to remind them how the godly should respond to sin, whether theirs or a sin against them. In many of the psalm of David he claimed his innocence while claiming the sins of his enemies. He states he had treated his enemies with goodness and they repaid him with evil. When they hated he loved; when they did evil he prayed. Only an innocent person would have dared to pray as David did.
David did not claim to be sinless but his heart was right with God (1 Sam. 13:14, Acts 13:22). These enemies not only treated David wickedly but all righteous people were treated wickedly as well. The instruments of evil were the tongue, lying and accusing, making them not only David's enemies but enemies of God. Remembering that someone was always trying to kill David from Goliath to King Saul to David's own son until the day of his death, we read that David himself did not seek revenge (Heb. 10:30). He did, however, request that God give his enemies what they had given to him and asked for retribution.
Since the wicked loved to curse, David asked that they be cursed. All the while David prayed for God to take care of his enemies he prayed for mercy. From his teen-age years David feared dying and wanted to know his enemies had been dealt with. This is only human and in most cases David did live to see the goodness of the Lord but always left vengeance to God. I believe this inspired the last line of Psalm 23; "goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever". Follow God through David's example and you too will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.