Barack Obama and Psalm 58

Remember Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithful Word Baptist Church? In his latest diatribe he heaps curses down on our new president with some alarming rhetoric. Drawing on the imprecatory psalms, but especially Psalm 58, in his sermon "Barack Obama Melting as a Snail", he preaches as follows:

"Psalm 58:6. Boy, let's get into the prayer life of David. 'With David in the prayer closet.' [congregation laughing] We should put out a little brochure on this, you know? 'In the prayer closet with David': 'Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth.' Good night. 'Break out the great teeth of the of the young lions, O Lord. Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces. As a snail which melteth' -- Barack Obama, since you want to use your salt solution to kill babies in this country, Barack Obama. You're going to REAP! what you SOW! Because one DAY, Barack Obama, you're going to be BURNING IN HELL! And you're going to FEEL the burning sensation all over your SKIN, which was the SAME SENSATION FELT by every BABY THAT WAS ABORTED IN ITS MOTHER'S WOMB!

"And David's praying, saying, 'AS A SNAIL WHICH MELTETH' -- see, that was very scriptural, what I brought up about snails being salted -- he said, 'AS A SNAIL WHICH MELTETH, LET EVERY ONE OF THEM PASS AWAY: LIKE THE UNTIMELY BIRTH [fist pounding] OF A WOMAN [fist pounding]'. He said, like an abortion, right? He said, like a miscarriage -- that's what an 'untimely birth' is. He said, 'LET BARACK OBAMA PERISH LIKE AN ABORTION! LET BARACK OBAMA PERISH LIKE A MISCARRIAGE! AS THE UNTIMELY BIRTH OF A WOMAN, THAT THEY MAY NOT SEE THE SUN.'

"Let me tell you something. Somebody needs to abort Barack Obama." ["Amen!"] "It's true. Now I'm not going to do it, I'm not saying vigilantism, I'm not saying somebody should go kill him. I'm saying there should be a government in this country, that under God's authority, takes Barack Obama and aborts him on television for everybody to see in the whole world. Did you hear me? Hey, I'm not saying I'm going to do it, I'm not a vigilante. But I'm going to tell you something: if there was any justice [fist pounding] in this country, if the judicial branch [fist pounding] in this country meant ANYTHING, they would TAKE Barack Obama and all of his colleagues, and they would take him and they would abort him." ["Amen!"] "They would melt him like a snail. They would break the teeth out of his head, my friend.

"Now you say, 'Oh, I can't believe you're threatening the president.' I'm not saying I'm going to do it, I just wish GOD would do it!" ["Amen!"] "And He will do it, my friend. And I wish we had a government that would act on God's behalf like the government is supposed to do. You know the government is supposed to carry out God's laws." ["That's right!"] "They're supposed to enforce God's laws against murderers, against stealing, against lying, against deceit, against adultery. That's the purpose of human government. And so I'd like to see Barack Obama melt like a snail. I'd like to see the teeth knocked out of his head. I'd like to see him perish, just like an abortion. That's what David preached! That's what he prayed to God!"

Anderson also invokes the curses found in Psalms 55, 69, 109, which alongside 58 and 137 are surely the nastiest of the imprecatory psalms. His omission of that last one is curious, but perhaps not terribly surprising in view of the partial birth abortion issue being decried. In Psalm 137, after all, God's people cry out against Babylon, "Happy shall they be who pay you back for what you've done to us! Happy shall they be who take your infants and dash them against rocks!"

Anyway, there you have it. Steve Anderson is preaching hard as ever. Still, I found this sermon to be exceptionally harsh even by his standards.

UPDATE: It looks like there's a youtube video of the sermon. The part cited above is found at 21:23-24:09.