The curses in the Psalms were suprarational appeals for justice that were implemented when the limitations of human tribunals and forensic evidence were realized, which is an application alluded to outside of the Psalter and in Levantine inscriptions. The latter corpus is included here to provide an emic framework through which to interpret the psalmic curses, and they, above all, help to establish the decorum of psalmic curses as a part of the broader Levantine cursing tradition, one that is also disassociated from the work and influence of later biblical tradents. On the one hand, the curse formulae attested in the Psalter and the inscriptions were both strongly rooted in talio and were unequivocally dependent upon divine agency for efficacy. On the other hand, they preserve little evidence of typological exchange, suggesting a literary cursing tradition unique to the suppliants and liturgists responsible for the composition of the Psalter.

The psalmic curses were motivated by two impetuses: false accusation and military threat/assault (future/past). False accusations are the catalysts of imprecation in twenty-four of the twenty-six psalms, and the curses in these psalms serve as appeals to Yahweh to prove the innocence of the suppliant amidst certain conviction by punishing the accusers as directed in the imprecation. The three psalmic curses motivated by military threat/assault seek protection and retribution respectively, both of which are justified by a sedition against Yahweh and/or the slaying of his people. The teloi of the psalmic curses are death and "shame," and, as the punishment for the offense, they the operate within the confines of talio.