A God of Vengeance?: Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath

by Erich Zenger

The aggressive tone of the psalms that deal with violence is often viewed as in direct opposition to Jesus' command to love one's neighbor. Erich Zenger, a preeminent international scholar, offers to Christians a new understanding of these powerful, albeit disquieting, psalms. To Zenger, these psalms are laments that cry out against violence and injustice in the world and have great relevance to people of faith today. Readers will appreciate Zenger's forthright discussion of how to use these psalms in modern prayer.

Genres: Theology

120 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1995

Reviews

[Leah Wilson · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this was certainly an interesting read, I was disappointed by Zenger's exegesis of the imprecatory psalms. He engaged well with opposing theories (unfortunately these opposing views were almost entirely German, which amusingly begs the question of why German theologians have been so keen to remove the psalms of enmity, particularly scholars post WWII), but his own theories purported seemed to fall flat with hardly any support in favor of his presentation. Zenger even translated a majority of biblical text himself.

Zenger's historical critical analysis was commendable; however, I personally would have liked to have seen more literary criticism preformed on the psalms he repeated ensured were poetic and therefore needed to be read metaphorical.

I appreciated the contextualization in chapter 3, but believe the discussion could have benefitted from more engagement with liberation theology, which also had me question how an almost entirely German viewpoint could avoid any mention of Jurgen Moltmann?

On a stylistic note, Zenger could have paraphrased his extremely long quotations for better engagement and flow. By far, the greatest disappointment of Zenger's study was the seven page conclusion on the practical application of reading and praying the psalms of enmity. Within the final section only four pages were used to gloss over the necessity of revitalizing a language of lament within prayer.

Even with the brevity of it in the final chapter, probably the most fascinating facet of the entire study was Zenger's call to retextualize the enmity psalms, particularly Psalm 139 which he transposed into a new metaphor.

[Douglas Fyfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read and some wonderful explorations of the imprecatory psalms from a German scholar reflecting on theme specially in light of the horrors of WWII. Toward the end he made some theological moves I disagreed with but as a whole I enjoyed the book.

I wasn’t sure whether it’s to be shelved as scholarly or pop - so it’s in both.

[Jay Merrill · Rating 5 out of 5]

No fluff; excellent material.

[Zacarias Rivera, Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative exegesis and analysis of key psalms that address injustice and violence perpetrated by enemies of God.

[Nathaniel McVay · Rating 5 out of 5]

For many, this will not be an easy book, both conceptually and in readability. I can’t praise it enough for how it handles this topic.