Jim Parker
Member
Meditation on Psalm 137 – A psalm of lament of the people in three parts
There is a generally held view that the Psalms are songs of praise that will lift us up into the presence and joy of the Lord. Many of the Psalms are like that. But some are laments; the pouring out of the heart of the writer to God without holding back anything about his condition. God will not be shocked or offended. He foresaw all of the calamity and all of the suffering that will afflict mankind until the end of the age so he will not be surprised if you cry out to Him in you sorrow, your fear, your anguish or even in your bitterness of heart as did Hanna, the mother of Samuel.
Psalm 137 was written to bring to the Lord the anguish and bitterness of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people into a defiled, pagan land where all connection with the Lord through the Temple at Jerusalem was lost. The temple had been destroyed. The sacrifices could not be offered. The sins of the people could not be covered by the blood of sacrifices offered at God’s altar. There was no way to atone for their sins and, therefore, no path back to the blessed estate of being in covenant with the Lord.
They were slaves in Babylon with no sign of hope far from the Jerusalem and from the presence of the Lord there where He put His name. (Deut 12:5)
1. The emptiness of the loss of what was loved
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors, a song of joy,
Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?
The words of the songs of joy and praise of the Lord are hollow and empty in a strange land where we are slaves to a strange people. Having forfeited the connection with the Almighty, there is nothing left to be joyful about; there is no cause for songs of praise. Our captors laugh at us when we sing of the mighty hand of our God. “Where is your god?” they mockingly ask. “Call on him now to deliver you, that ‘Lord great and mighty in battle.’ Come! Show us his great power; ask him to deliver you from our hands.”
Their grief and suffering prefigures the words of Jesus at the hour of His crucifixion, when He cried out, “My God, Why have you forsaken me?” as His enemies mocked, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” and “He saved others; let him save himself!”
To His disciples, frightened, scattered, in hiding, this horrific event made the previous three glorious years seem to be a memory of generations ago, a dream.
To those today who suffer profound loss of loved ones, of cultures, and even nations, the blessed past seems to have come and gone in an afternoon. How could it be gone so quickly? Why only yesterday we were lovers, we were friends, we were comrades in arms, we were … It seems like only a moment ago. Or was it a hundred years ago? I can’t tell which and I can’t sing a song of praise and joy for what is no more amid such emptiness.
Now there are the taunts of our oppressors …. and the hollowness of despair.
How could it have come to this? Why did this happen to us? To me?
2. The longing for the blessedness of the former life, which is so suddenly gone
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
We cling to our memories and hold them safe in our hearts where no cruel oppressor can defile them. We remember our time of blessedness and joy and hope and keep them as a lamp to dispel the darkness of our emptiness and hopelessness. They are our connection with, not just the pleasant recollection of joyful times, but with reality and sanity in the midst of chaos.
Our memories are our connection to truth and they must be cherished. If we never regain anything of what was lost, we must, with urgency, tell our children and our children’s children of the blessed estate in which we were privileged to have dwelt in the days when we served the Lord, so that, perhaps, the Lord will have mercy on some future generation and restore the joy of His presence. And memories keep alive the hope that we will meet again on the other side with those who are lost to us in this world.
3. The bitterness arising from the cruelty of enemies and the violence they inflicted upon a defenseless people
Remember, O LORD what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell,
how they said, "Raze it, raze it! Down to its foundations!"
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
Happy shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Is there anything that we should withhold from the Lord from among our deepest from among our deepest wounds or even our bitter hatred toward those who so delighted in inflicting those wounds? Should we keep some things to ourselves, hiding them deep within and nurturing them in the hope of a day when we are able to wreak vengeance upon those who so despitefully abused us?
Heb 12:14-15 (NKJV) Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
The bitterness and intense desire for revenge felt by the writer was real. He deeply wanted those who inflicted so much pain and suffering upon the Jews to feel that same intensity of suffering that they felt. Let the Edomites hear their enemies shouting mockery at them as their homes and futures are burned to the ground.
Let the Babylonians experience the horror of their infants being smashed against the rocks by laughing, mocking, enemy soldiers who have no regard for anything they held to be sacred.
The writer does not hesitate to tell God of his rage and bitterness and it is right and proper to do so. The hatred and bitterness is real. But man, if he holds this bitter root inside, will become hateful and bitter and his hatred and bitterness will contaminate everyone around him. Man is not equipped to harbor such violence within him; it will poison him and make him poisonous to all who come near.
God will not be shocked by our explicit description of our horror, hatred, anger and bitterness. It is a perfectly normal, human, reaction to outrageous and inhuman behavior. And if we “give” it to Him; if we will freely confess to God that we intensely feel these emotions, God will not become bitter; but we may once again be made sweet. If we allow God, He is able to bring us to the point where we can forgive and even love our enemy who so hideously abused us.
We may also even be able to say. “Forgive the Father; they don’t know what they’re doing.”
And mean it.
I'm working on it but I'm not there yet.
Jim Parker
There is a generally held view that the Psalms are songs of praise that will lift us up into the presence and joy of the Lord. Many of the Psalms are like that. But some are laments; the pouring out of the heart of the writer to God without holding back anything about his condition. God will not be shocked or offended. He foresaw all of the calamity and all of the suffering that will afflict mankind until the end of the age so he will not be surprised if you cry out to Him in you sorrow, your fear, your anguish or even in your bitterness of heart as did Hanna, the mother of Samuel.
Psalm 137 was written to bring to the Lord the anguish and bitterness of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the people into a defiled, pagan land where all connection with the Lord through the Temple at Jerusalem was lost. The temple had been destroyed. The sacrifices could not be offered. The sins of the people could not be covered by the blood of sacrifices offered at God’s altar. There was no way to atone for their sins and, therefore, no path back to the blessed estate of being in covenant with the Lord.
They were slaves in Babylon with no sign of hope far from the Jerusalem and from the presence of the Lord there where He put His name. (Deut 12:5)
1. The emptiness of the loss of what was loved
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors, a song of joy,
Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How shall we sing the LORD's song in a foreign land?
The words of the songs of joy and praise of the Lord are hollow and empty in a strange land where we are slaves to a strange people. Having forfeited the connection with the Almighty, there is nothing left to be joyful about; there is no cause for songs of praise. Our captors laugh at us when we sing of the mighty hand of our God. “Where is your god?” they mockingly ask. “Call on him now to deliver you, that ‘Lord great and mighty in battle.’ Come! Show us his great power; ask him to deliver you from our hands.”
Their grief and suffering prefigures the words of Jesus at the hour of His crucifixion, when He cried out, “My God, Why have you forsaken me?” as His enemies mocked, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” and “He saved others; let him save himself!”
To His disciples, frightened, scattered, in hiding, this horrific event made the previous three glorious years seem to be a memory of generations ago, a dream.
To those today who suffer profound loss of loved ones, of cultures, and even nations, the blessed past seems to have come and gone in an afternoon. How could it be gone so quickly? Why only yesterday we were lovers, we were friends, we were comrades in arms, we were … It seems like only a moment ago. Or was it a hundred years ago? I can’t tell which and I can’t sing a song of praise and joy for what is no more amid such emptiness.
Now there are the taunts of our oppressors …. and the hollowness of despair.
How could it have come to this? Why did this happen to us? To me?
2. The longing for the blessedness of the former life, which is so suddenly gone
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
We cling to our memories and hold them safe in our hearts where no cruel oppressor can defile them. We remember our time of blessedness and joy and hope and keep them as a lamp to dispel the darkness of our emptiness and hopelessness. They are our connection with, not just the pleasant recollection of joyful times, but with reality and sanity in the midst of chaos.
Our memories are our connection to truth and they must be cherished. If we never regain anything of what was lost, we must, with urgency, tell our children and our children’s children of the blessed estate in which we were privileged to have dwelt in the days when we served the Lord, so that, perhaps, the Lord will have mercy on some future generation and restore the joy of His presence. And memories keep alive the hope that we will meet again on the other side with those who are lost to us in this world.
3. The bitterness arising from the cruelty of enemies and the violence they inflicted upon a defenseless people
Remember, O LORD what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell,
how they said, "Raze it, raze it! Down to its foundations!"
O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
Happy shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Is there anything that we should withhold from the Lord from among our deepest from among our deepest wounds or even our bitter hatred toward those who so delighted in inflicting those wounds? Should we keep some things to ourselves, hiding them deep within and nurturing them in the hope of a day when we are able to wreak vengeance upon those who so despitefully abused us?
Heb 12:14-15 (NKJV) Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
The bitterness and intense desire for revenge felt by the writer was real. He deeply wanted those who inflicted so much pain and suffering upon the Jews to feel that same intensity of suffering that they felt. Let the Edomites hear their enemies shouting mockery at them as their homes and futures are burned to the ground.
Let the Babylonians experience the horror of their infants being smashed against the rocks by laughing, mocking, enemy soldiers who have no regard for anything they held to be sacred.
The writer does not hesitate to tell God of his rage and bitterness and it is right and proper to do so. The hatred and bitterness is real. But man, if he holds this bitter root inside, will become hateful and bitter and his hatred and bitterness will contaminate everyone around him. Man is not equipped to harbor such violence within him; it will poison him and make him poisonous to all who come near.
God will not be shocked by our explicit description of our horror, hatred, anger and bitterness. It is a perfectly normal, human, reaction to outrageous and inhuman behavior. And if we “give” it to Him; if we will freely confess to God that we intensely feel these emotions, God will not become bitter; but we may once again be made sweet. If we allow God, He is able to bring us to the point where we can forgive and even love our enemy who so hideously abused us.
We may also even be able to say. “Forgive the Father; they don’t know what they’re doing.”
And mean it.
I'm working on it but I'm not there yet.
Jim Parker
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