In O.T times with pervasive idolatry and power of evil abounding , such prayers would have been possibly very much needed ..

the exorcism role getting more appreciated in our times is also appropriate !
With the help of The Lord and all the other help He has made available for us , we possibly now do not much see what evil is capable of , except through accounts of exorcisms ..it is thus easy to see how in O.T times , God had to ask Israelites to resort to all our measures against evil ,since they themselves had become weakened through sin !

And these imprecatory prayers also help to bring caution , as to what evil can come upon ourselves , if we resort to such !

Augustine offers up a similar recommendation in his interpretation of Ps 144. He writes, “Because you turn a blind eye to the interior battle and take pleasure in exterior battles, it means you do not want to belong to the new song, in which it says ‘who trains my hands for battle and my fingers for war.’ There is a war a person wages with himself, engaging evil desire, curbing greed, crushing pride, stifling ambition, slaughtering lust.”

Mr. Nickol,
You are quite right that what the human author of these Psalms originally meant was exactly as brutal and vicious as it sounds. However, those who wish not only to understand these Psalms historically but also to pray and internalize them must seek a meaning other than that originally intended if they wish to remain Christians.