Issue: Praying Against Evil & Evildoers

Questions: Do we have warrant for praying against evil and evildoers? Do we have historical examples of praying against evil and evildoers? Are we not in fact instructed to pray against evil and those who perpetrate it? Yes, we have warrant. Yes, we have historical examples. And yes, we are instructed to pray against evil and those who perpetrate evil. Below are two examples from David and two examples from Christ:

• “Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually. They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of asps” (Psalm 140:1-3, ESV).
• “Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked; do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted!” (Psalm 140:8, ESV).
• “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one” (John 17:15, ESV).
• “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him” (Matthew 4:10-11, ESV).

The first two examples are from David. David, though a fallen man, a man who had one of his own military men (Uriah) set up to be murdered, a man who was an adulterer, a man who failed as a dad, especially with his son Absalom, was nonetheless a contrite man, a broken man, a man redeemed by God. One cannot read the 51st psalm, e.g., without feeling the depth of David’s humility and brokenness before the Lord. And in Scripture, David is called a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22). David, though fallen, was redeemed. And as a redeemed sinner, he prayed against evil and evildoers (Psalm 140).

The second two examples are from Christ himself. Jesus, the second person of the triune God, had taken on flesh in the incarnation. The holy One of God had condescended to us sinners. In his prayer from John 17, in what’s often called the High Priestly Prayer, because one of Jesus’ mediatorial roles is that of the High Priest who intercedes on behalf of those he represents to God, he prays protection from the demonic.

Christ is our mediator, Scripture teaches (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Jesus prayed that his followers/disciples/Christians would be kept from the evil one, i.e., Satan. And when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, part of his model prayer for them included to pray to not be led into temptation but to be delivered from evil (Luke 11:1-4).

Encouragement: So, should we pray against evil and evildoers? Yes. Do we have multiple examples in Scripture of Christ, the disciples, Old Testament saints, apostles, and believers praying against evil and workers of iniquity? Yes. Has God promised that all who are in Christ will be kept by God’s power against the forces of hell? Yes (John 6:37-40).

In my own life, I have found that God draws me to himself often through the crucible of suffering wherein I will see the evil that is pervasive. If people don’t see the spiritual warfare we are all in, they are blind (2 Corinthians 4:4). Therefore, we should align with the spirit the disciples had that day when they said to the Lord Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.”