text: The office of Sen. David Perdue insisted he was not praying for the death of President Obama today, as some critics have said, when he recited a particular Biblical passage during a speech. 
   
   The Georgia Republican was speaking at the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Road to Majority” event when he said, “I think we're called to pray for our country, for our leaders and, yes, even our president. Now in his role as president, I think we should pray for Barack Obama. 
   
   “But I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, 'Let his days be few, let another have his office,’” Perdue added. 
   
   After some laughter, he went on to say, "In all seriousness, I believe that America is at a moment of crisis." 
   
   The next verse, which he did not recite, reads “may his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” 
   
   Democrats accused Perdue of wishing for Obama’s death. 
   
   “If Republicans are still wondering why Donald Trump is their nominee, look no further than today’s Faith and Freedom conference where a sitting Republican senator left the impression he was praying for the death of President Obama,” Kristen Orthman, a spokeswoman for Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada wrote in an email. 
   
   In response to questions about the phrase, a spokeswoman for Perdue accused the media of “pushing a narrative to create controversy.” 
   
   "Senator Perdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president. He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that,” spokeswoman Megan Whittemore said in a statement. 
   
   The passage is one of the Bible’s “imprecatory psalms,” which as Harvard Divinity School professor Michael Coogan explained to ABC News, is “one of the best examples of an extended series of calling upon God to punish or curse one’s enemy.” 
   
   “About half the [imprecatory] psalms are individuals praying to God for help in various situations, and often those situations is one in which the praying individual precedes that he is being persecuted, perhaps unjustly by enemies who are often described in hyperbolic terms like ‘raging lions’ or ‘a pack of dogs’ or something like that,” Coogan said. 
   
   When asked what he thought about the use of this psalm in a political speech, Coogan responded, “I can’t imagine that he meant this literally. I think it was tongue in cheek.” 
   
   Graham A. Cole, the dean and vice president of education at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois, also weighed in. 
   
   "It puzzles me that this psalm was used in this way. It is technically a psalm of lament. That is to say, that it expresses anguish over the state of affairs the psalmist is in. The senator clearly feels such anguish. 
   
   “However, the line quoted does not make much sense in the present context. President Obama will indeed be out of office soon and another will take his place. I do not think that the senator's use of the line necessarily means he wishes death for the president," Cole wrote in an email. 
   
   This isn’t the first time a public official’s use of this 109th chapter of the Old Testament book has elicited some measure of controversy. 
   
   A Florida sheriff’s deputy was suspended without pay in 2010 when he left an open Bible with the verse highlighted on a colleague’s desk with a note that said “The Obama Prayer.” ||||| Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) joked at a conservative Christian event on Friday that he prays President Barack Obama’s days will be "few." 
   
   The first-term senator began his opening statement at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference by telling attendees to pray for Obama. With a smirk, Perdue said, “We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says: 'Let his days be few and let another have his office.'” 
   
   The large crowd laughed. 
   
   Perdue did not continue reciting the words, but Psalm 109 is a death wish for one of David’s enemies. 
   
   It goes on: "Let his children be fatherless; and his wife a widow. Let his children wander about and beg; and let them seek sustenance far from their ruined homes. Let the creditor seize all that he has; and let strangers plunder the product of his labor. Let there be none to extend lovingkindness to him; nor any to be gracious to his fatherless children. Let his posterity be cut off; in a following generation let their name be blotted out." 
   
   Caroline Vanvick, a spokeswoman for Perdue, issued the following response: 
   
   Senator Perdue said we are called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and for our president. He in no way wishes harm towards our president and everyone in the room understood that. However, we should add the media to our prayer list because they are pushing a narrative to create controversy and that is exactly what the American people are tired of. 
   
   The Christian Science Monitor noted that conservatives have used this verse in the past to talk about the end of Obama’s days in office. ||||| There are a few axioms to live by in American politics, even in this degraded age: All politics is local. If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. Politics stops at the water’s edge. And, uh, don’t pray for the death of the sitting president of the United States. 
   
   At least, that last one seemed like common sense. Yet Senator David Perdue appeared to break the rule Friday morning. In his remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority conference, Betsy Woodruff reported, the freshman Georgia Republican encouraged attendees to pray for President Obama. According to Perdue’s office, he said: 
   
   I think we’re called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and yes, even our president. In his role as president I think we should pray for Barack Obama. But I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, “Let his days be few, and let another have his office.” 
   
   As many people quickly pointed out, the quotation is not exactly a benign plea for a new president in its original context. Here’s a chunk of the psalm: 
   
   8. Let his days be few; and let another take his office. 
   
   9. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow. 
   
   10. Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places. 
   
   11. Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labour. 
   
   12. Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children. 
   
   13. Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out. 
   
   That’s pretty ugly stuff. As frightening as the imprecation is in its original Old Testament version—its really masterful, bitter language—it takes on an even more chilling aspect in Christian theology. In the New Testatment book of Acts, Peter quotes the psalm as foretelling the ruin of Judas Iscariot, the betrayer of Jesus. 
   
   Perdue didn’t make this up. In fact, this verse—sometimes labeled “the Obama Prayer”—has been circulating for years among conservatives. Gawker’s John Cook noted the prevalence of the reference on internet message boards and in CafePress t-shirts and bumperstickers back in November 2009. Other cases have popped up over the years, from the Manatee County, Florida, sheriff’s office to the Kansas House, where the speaker forwarded an email involving the psalm.
target: – A spokesperson for Sen. David Perdue insists the Georgia lawmaker wasn't praying for President Obama's death during a Faith and Freedom Coalition event on Friday, ABC News reports. While speaking at the event, Perdue said we need to pray for all leaders, even Obama. He continued: “But I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, 'Let his days be few, let another have his office.’” The Huffington Post notes the line got a laugh from the audience at the conference. It didn't go over so well elsewhere. The next part of Psalm 109 reads: “May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.” In its Biblical context, the psalm is a "death wish," according to the Huffington Post. And a Harvard Divinity School professor tells ABC it's “one of the best examples of…calling upon God to punish or curse one’s enemy.” It's even used later in the Bible in reference to "the ruin of Judas," the Atlantic reports. It's also been used by conservatives against Obama since 2009. A Florida sheriff was suspended in 2010 when he labeled the psalm "The Obama Prayer." Amidst accusations that he was wishing a sitting president dead, a spokesperson clarifies that Perdue "in no way wishes harm towards our president.” She says the media is twisting Perdue's words.