The expectation that YHWH will accomplish justice for his people thereby vindicating their belief in him and their renunciation of human vengeance is a frequent element of the biblical storyline. The texts that call for God’s justice, however, do not always allow such a mundane portrayal of God’s justice. The imprecatory psalms provide a challenging set of texts for evaluating the expectation of God’s justice, vindication of belief in him, and human renunciation of their pursuit of vengeance. Erich Zenger has suggested that the imprecatory psalms “have a fundamental conviction that what is at stake in the encounter with the power and success of the violent is the true identity of YHWH-God” (Zenger, A God of Vengeance?: Understanding the Psalms of Divine Wrath [Westminster John Knox, 1996], 32). In other words, the imprecatory psalms suggest that the victory of the powerfully violent against God’s people would suggest that YHWH is not as the biblical texts have claimed. Many years ago, L. Russ Bush identified a messianic thrust in the imprecatory psalms. He argued that the pray-ers of the imprecatory psalms sought “to preserve the messianic hope for all mankind by asking God to preserve them through the administration of His justice” (Does God Inspire Imprecation?: Divine Authority and Ethics in the Psalms, paper presented as the presidential address at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society, November 16, 1990, Theological Research Exchange Network, 2). Bringing together Zenger and Bush, I suggest that the imprecatory psalms encourage ongoing trust in YHWH by appealing to the messianic expectation of a head-crushing deliverer in the midst of severe injustice that threatens God’s promises. Three claims support this thesis. First, the complaint originates in an apparent failure of God to complete the promise to send one of the seed of the woman, of the seed of Abraham, of the seed of Judah, of the seed of David to crush the head of the seed of the serpent. Second, the request reflects the writer’s desire for God to complete the promises already made. Third, the affirmation of trust and vow to praise God develop from the writer’s realization that God can still fulfill the messianic promises of the OT. The paper concludes with an affirmation of prayer as a means of renouncing human vengeance, even if one were not capable of accomplishing vengeance in the specific set of circumstances.