Crying For Justice: What The Psalms Teach Us About Mercy And Vengeance In An Age Of Terrorism

"Happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us--he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks." Psalm 137: 8b-9

How did such barbarism make its way into the prayer book of the people of God? What should New Testament Christians, living by Jesus' ethic to "love your enemies," do with these prayers of retribution?

Writing in today's setting of terrorism and increasing world violence, John Day ably answers these questions in this study of the retribution psalms. By examining the theology of the prayers, as well as their ancient cultural context, he demonstrates how mercy and vengeance should play out in the modern world.

"Preachers and teachers who have been at a loss as to how to understand and proclaim [the imprecatory texts of the Old Testament] will find a way out of their impasse by a careful reading of this fine work." --Eugene H. Merrill
Distinguished Professor of Old Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

"Thoughtful, biblical, and balanced, . . . Crying for Justice has a message for the Christian church in an age of violence and terrorism." --J. Carl Laney
Professor of Biblical Literature, Western Seminary

"This book is a tractate for our times. It reminds [Christians] of the continuing relevance of the so-called 'imprecatory psalms' in a day of ruthless terrorism and persecution of God's people." --Robert E. Longacre
Emeritus Professor of Linguistics, University of Texas-Arlington

John N. Day (Ph.D., Dallas Theological Seminary) is the senior pastor of Bellewood Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Washington.

Given the widespread violence and terrorism of the twenty-first-century world, should Christians be seeking divine vengeance like that demonstrated in the retribution psalms of David? This book examines the theology of the curses in the Psalms as well as the ancient cultural context and then shows how mercy and vengeance should play out in our current world.