The Psalms (Tehilim, תהילים, or "praises"), considered part of both Hebrew and Christian Scripture, served as ancient Israel's "psalter" or "hymnbook", which was used during temple and private worship.
The Old Testament is not alone in containing imprecations: Imprecatory Bible passages have presented a variety of interpretive and ethical issues for scholars throughout various times in various situations.
Biblical scholars agree that their intent is to purposefully alarm, and that invokers of imprecations in the Psalms did so for purposes of self catharsis, and to lead group catharsis during temple worship (see Solomon's Temple), noting that this probably helped provide ontological security to the Psalms' principal audience, the Israelites, who were a minority within their larger Mesopotamian world.
[8] So the reader must be certain to look for evidence that, the writer or the nation for which pleads has failed to recognize his or their own guilt as equal to that of his or of their persecutors and is in just as much need of mercy; only then might he or she have warrant to label any particular Psalm as unjustly impprecatory.
These theories include the notion that the curses are allegorical, cathartic, belonging to a particular dispensation (time period), quotations of enemies, spells, prophecies, the words of the Messiah, or expressions of dependence.