Psalm 137, our psalm for today, is a difficult one to read and understand today, with its hard words. It is one of over a dozen Imprecatory Psalms, which are psalms that have verses in them that call down God’s judgment and curses upon the writer’s or the nation’s enemies. Some people would like to just eliminate these psalms as inappropriate in today’s world. However they are a part of Sacred Scripture, and as we read in II Timothy 3:16 - “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. Thus, this Psalm is inspired by God, and there must be a message and lesson from Him for us in this passage. Let’s take a look at this passage and see what we can learn.
The setting of Psalm 137 is in the land of Babylon, where the Jewish people have been taken captive and exiled, following the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar’s overthrow of the Kingdom of Judah. While there, some of the native Babylonians requested that the Jewish people sing some of their songs, which must have been known to them (vs. 1-4). The Jewish people could not sing, they could not be happy. They were exiled in a foreign nation, away from their homes. They had heard that their beautiful capital, Jerusalem, and the Temple had been destroyed. As they said, “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? It can be difficult to praise and worship God when our circumstances and surroundings are grim. However, God wants us to praise Him at all times (I Thessalonians 5:18).
In verse 7 the people call upon God to remember how the Edomites reacted when Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed. The Edomites were descendants of Esau. Esau was the brother of Jacob, a son of Isaac and grandson of Abraham, so they were related by blood to the Israelites. From the early days of the Jewish people’s history when they came out of Egypt until this day when the Babylonians conquered the nation, the Edomites had regularly fought against them. Obviously the Edomites did not regard kinship with the people of Judah and Israelites, as they joined in with the Babylonians in destroying the Jews. Here these “cousins” of the Jewish people were gleefully rejoicing when Jerusalem was destroyed.
The psalm concludes with some very harsh verses, where the author wishes the destruction and death of the Babylonians, who have taken his people captive (vs. 8-9). He cries out for judgment, asking God to treat the Babylonians the way they had treated them. These verses represent an imprecatory psalm at its strongest. The author calls on God to destroy his and God’s enemies. The author doesn’t take matters into his own hands, but asks God to take care of the matter. He was invoking God’s wrath and judgment against His enemies. This did happen, as God destroyed Babylon and its offspring for their proud assault against Him and His people. The Medes and the Persians conquered the Babylonian Kingdom in 539 BC.
None of this would have had to happen to the Hebrew people if they would have remained faithful to Yahweh, obeyed His law, and worshipped only Him. The Babylonian captivity and the cruel treatment they received at their captors hands was God’s judgment upon them for their sins. The results of sin are difficult to bear. For many generations the Jewish people had refused to follow and obey God. God had sent dozens of prophets and preachers to urge them to return to Him, and worship only Him, but they wouldn’t. If there is one lesson that we must all learn from this psalm, it is that there is an awful price to pay for persistent and willful sin.
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