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There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8”.... Christian Science Monitor

Here's the verse you find when you consult scripture:

Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

And here's the verse that immediately follows:

Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.

At BeliefNet, Diana Butler Bass explains:

Psalm 109 belongs to a special category of the psalms known as "imprecatory" prayers--it is a lament in the form of petition to destroy one's enemies. It is the personal prayer of an individual, someone who has been dealt an injustice by another--and usually more powerful--person. The words of Psalm 109 are those of deep agony, the longings of a victim for retribution and justice. This psalm is considered one of the most difficult of all the psalms--full of violent images of vengeance and death. Many a biblical critic has struggled with its words--and not a few--including Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant theologians--recommend that it not be used in public worship....

Some apologists for this partisan grotesquery maintain that the slogan/sticker is simply a prayer that Obama serve only one term -- a perfectly defensible sentiment, I suppose, if you believe in a God who helps pick winners and losers in elections. As though Biblical context is irrelevant. As though "let his days be short" is anything other than a prayer for death:

8 Let his days be few; Let another take his office.

9 Let his children be fatherless And his wife a widow.

10 Let his children wander about and beg; And let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes.

11 Let the creditor seize all that he has, And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

12 Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him, Nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children.

13 Let his posterity be cut off; In a following generation let their name be blotted out.

14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, And do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.

15 Let them be before the LORD continually, That He may cut off their memory from the earth;

16 Because he did not remember to show lovingkindness, But persecuted the afflicted and needy man, And the despondent in heart, to put them to death.

17 He also loved cursing, so it came to him; And he did not delight in blessing, so it was far from him.

18 But he clothed himself with cursing as with his garment, And it entered into his body like water And like oil into his bones.

19 Let it be to him as a garment with which he covers himself, And for a belt with which he constantly girds himself.

20 Let this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD, And of those who speak evil against my soul.

21 But You, O GOD, the Lord, deal kindly with me for Your name’s sake; Because Your lovingkindness is good, deliver me;

22 For I am afflicted and needy, And my heart is wounded within me.

23 I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like the locust.

24 My knees are weak from fasting, And my flesh has grown lean, without fatness.

25 I also have become a reproach to them; When they see me, they wag their head.

26 Help me, O LORD my God; Save me according to Your lovingkindness.

27 And let them know that this is Your hand; You, LORD, have done it.

28 Let them curse, but You bless; When they arise, they shall be ashamed, But Your servant shall be glad.

29 Let my accusers be clothed with dishonor, And let them cover themselves with their own shame as with a robe.

30 With my mouth I will give thanks abundantly to the LORD; And in the midst of many I will praise Him.

31 For He stands at the right hand of the needy, To save him from those who judge his soul.