like anything else, I think we have to look at the context of the writer and his time frame when we read them. But yeah, they're cool, actually, very ferocious. Rarely do you read "God watches over and protects me" without finding side by side with that something along the lines of "And he makes sure that my enemies get punished and in front of me, too, so I get to enjoy it."

David was a very conflicted man, but a good poet. So no matter how infused he was with the holy spirit, a little of his personal conflict was bound to spill into his writing.

I find that people in any given religion are more or less apt to believe that there is one set of rules and no leeway based on their own personal insecurities and not necessarily the teachings of the religion. This is not confined to Christianity, or any particular branch of Christianity. Buddhist teachers talk about the need to avoid "spiritual materialism" by which they mean the tendency to be sure that "my" way is the only one, and "your" way must therefore be wrong. It all comes down to that thing about seeing different as bad rather than as just different, which is I think a common human failing.

Peace.

There's no sense in being precise when you don't even know what you're talking about.
-- John von Neumann