Psalm 137

September 16, 2021

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

The Point: 

God will destroy every kingdom on earth before He will permit the obliteration of His people.

How do we feel in the recitation of this Psalm? 

Scandals.  Schisms.  Persecutions.  Satanic Attacks.  Practically everyday, these things threaten to blow the church into a million bits. Almost every local church will face this scenario at some point-in the day they take that very serious hit. The hand grenade rolls (in a metaphoric sense), and the entire body is shattered by some horrible scandal.  Or, there is a gradual decline into utter spiritual bankruptcy. Meantime, the enemies of the church screech in morbid delight and mocking scorn.  So there the remainder of the church sits in a stunned malaise, and the only psalm left to sing is this one. It is hardly a song, more a dirge. The sentiment is pure, embittered grief expressed over the condition of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Any true Christian facing the severe apostasy of the Western church led by Rome in the 1480s, or the apostasy of the English church in the 1950s, or the apostasy of the American church in the 2010s would have resonated to this psalm with every fiber of his being. This psalm may apply to a local church situation or to a very large and severe breakdown of an entire faith community.

What does this Psalm say? 

Verse 1-4

Following severe spiritual decline, God’s people find themselves in exile under the persecuting hand of cruel pagans. They find themselves without material sustenance, spiritual vitality, political influence, or a cultural integrity.  Their children seem to be absorbing into the ways of the pagans, by way of their educational and cultural programs. It is a far cry from the glory days of the Davidic kingdom. For the modern Christian, we have come a very long way from the glory days of the 16th-century Reformation. What is described here is the worst of all worlds from the perspective of the lone believer here and there. From this vantage point, there appears to be little hope that God’s people will survive on planet earth. 

The captors seem to be taunting the people of God, asking them for a song. Now that the true faith is “destroyed” and the church is considered completely irrelevant, the world invites us to the last thing to do—join in with the worldly mirth. The world cannot understand why we mourn. While the world is celebrating gay pride, God’s people are mourning, they are humbled and impoverished of spirit (Matt. 5:3ff).  We are cast down as we see our own sin and the abject brokenness of the church.  When we catch a vision for the true state of things at a time when the church is best described as wretched, poor, blind, and naked (Rev. 3:18), then we cry out for God’s mercy. We have no time for gay celebrations and proud festivals while what is needed most is sackcloth and ashes. The world revels in its sins, and cannot see the body is full of sores from head to toe (Isa. 1:6). They carve happy faces into the open sores, and heal the wounds so slightly (Jer. 6:14). Meanwhile God’s people cannot help but face the painful realities in the present, and they mourn.  They mourn the compromise, the weakness, the disunity, the rebellion, the generational apostasy, the worldliness, the persecution from the world, the scandals, the breakdown of faith, the paucity of shepherds, the total absence of any spiritual revival, the depression and psychological torments, the excommunications, the laxity in church discipline, internal treachery, church splits, the rarity of love and peace between brothers, and a hundred other maladies in the church.  The world looks at us and laughs, but we will mourn. 

Verses 5-6

These verses confirm the tremendous value we place upon the church of God. When every one of our friends are disillusioned and jaded by the hypocrisy, the insincerity, the inner turmoil, the church splits, the scandals; and when theological systems are undermining the importance of the visible church everywhere, we will never give up on the body of Christ.  Though our hands may lose their functions and cannot play the instruments, and though our voices be incapable of forming a syllable, we will prefer Jerusalem as our chief joy.  True, we may not realize the joy of the church at this moment in history while we sit in exile, as we watch the enemy do its worst to the unity and integrity of the body. We rather feel sorrow, pity, and a holy indignation at the plight of God’s people. Nevertheless, we are still holding out for our highest joy and expectation—the assembly of genuine faith in relationship with the living Christ, the true manifestation of the love of God in the Christian brotherhood, and the joy that comes with the communion of the Holy Spirit. Though we may only experience this imperfectly here on earth, one day we will see the perfect consummation of this vision in the heavenly Jerusalem. 

Verses 7-9

Now, the psalmist turns his attention to the enemies of the people of God. Primarily, these enemies appear for us in the form of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The church has always had its enemies. From the beginning, Israel was tormented by the Edomites (or the descendants of Esau). It was more than a cultural (or “racial”) difference. The Edomites despised the covenant promises of God and thereby set themselves as arch-enemies of God Himself. When the church faces persecution from the world, they must know that the deep-seated enmity is set against the Creator and their lawful King. That is why Edom is so keen on the utter destruction of Jerusalem.  

Now come some of the most bitter language ever uttered in inspired writings (vs. 8,9). Before rushing to judgment, however, one must be careful not to misinterpret what is being said. Israel’s enemy is Babylon who has brought God’s people into exile. However, it has already been prophesied that this heathen nation will be conquered by King Cyrus of the Medo-Persian empire. With that in mind, the psalmist says, Happy shall these Persians be to take the Babylonian babies and dash their heads against a stone.” Strong words indeed, but it is important to recognize what is not being said. Certainly, the psalmist is not claiming this “rejoicing” for himself or for any of God’s people.  It will be the enemies of the Babylonians that will be happy to destroy the Babylonians—man, woman, and child.  This simply certifies the certainty of the destruction of the Babylonian power, and the tragic nature of that terrible fate. Although God’s people may falter into hypocrisy, synthesis with the world, and ignominy, any and all who lift a finger against the church may be sure they will never get away with it.  

How do we apply this Psalm to our lives? 

Many of us who live in the Western world have experienced something of these sentiments over the last 75 years or so. We have felt the grief of a tattered and torn church amid the elation of the atheists, the humanists, and the progressives who have moved in to dominate the educational, political, and cultural institutions of the day. They call us out to the streets to sing a few carols on Christmas Eve, and they ignore us the rest of the year. 

If the church is our chief joy and our primary commitment, then we ought to mourn a little for the way it is treated in our day.   Church discipline is often disregarded.  Pastors are a despised class, and Sunday preaching bears a fraction of the influence on the congregants as do the movies they watch on Saturday night.  What a tragic condition for what is supposed to be the very body and bride of Christ!  Only one who deeply values the body of Christ can sing a psalm like this with true sentiment. May God help all of us to greatly value the church of the Lord Jesus Christ (who loved that church and gave Himself for it). 

How does this Psalm teach us to worship God? 

These imprecatory psalms introduce a very different sentiment into the church.  It is a love for the church that yields hatred and bitterness towards that which destroys the church.  Should a husband not wish to protect his bride as he watches her being beaten by some hoodlum with a baseball bat, we would be concerned for his apathy.   Wouldn’t we expect a violent, jealous reaction if his wife were subjected to such cruel treatment?  Let us reintroduce these biblical sentiments back into worship. 

Questions:

1. What is the setting for this psalm? 

2. Why are God’s people reticent to sing a song of Zion?  What are they doing instead?

3. Why does Edom want to see the destruction of the people of God? 

4. What nation will come to punish the “Daughter of Babylon?”  What will this nation do to the small children of Babylon?

5. What are the primary enemies to the church today? 

Family Discussion Questions:

1. Why would we sing a psalm like this one in the same spirit in which the psalmist expresses himself? 

2. What is our chief joy or the things we value most on this earth?