Studies in the Psalms - Psalm 137

Psalm 137, unlike a great many of the psalms, is not a psalm of praise. It is one of those psalms that causes difficulty to those who won’t take the effort to study and learn what it is all about. As in all of scripture, there is an historical meaning found in its context, but there is also a spiritual lesson or message for the New Testament Christian. The Bible is a like a mine; it requires effort to dig into it and find the treasures. With that being said, this morning let us look into Psalm 137.

Psalm 137:1-3
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, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

The historical setting of this psalm finds the psalmist in the period of time at the end of the Babylonian captivity. As we read, there was sorrow and weeping over the treatment of the Jews in Babylon. If the treatment they had received wasn’t bad enough, they were mocked by their captors and told to sing their songs. But they just couldn’t sing. Maybe you have been there. Maybe you’ve gone to church in such pain and sorrow, that you just couldn’t get yourself to sing.

Psalm 137:4-6
How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?  If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!  Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

How could God allow His people to be so badly treated? Maybe you ask God the same thing. “Why God? Why do you have me in this place? A place so painful I cannot even muster up a song.” Again, we need to understand the context here. Israel was under the hand of God’s discipline and that is why they had fallen into captivity. This principle does not change when God saves you. Read His Word.

Hebrews 12:6
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.

When Jesus died on the cross, He didn’t die so we could now sin with impunity. He died to set us free from sin.

Psalm 137:7-8
Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, 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!

The psalm now becomes imprecatory in nature. The psalmist is prying for God’s hand of discipline to come down on the Edomites, the enemy of God’s people, who wanted the Jews destroyed. Again, the historical context reminds us that this is happening in the age of the law, not in the age of grace, where we now reside. Though God used Babylon as his agent of discipline to His people, they went too far. This explains the most difficult verse in this psalm.

Psalm 137:9
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

The psalmist had possibly witnessed the Babylonian cruelty first hand. He most likely saw his own baby yanked from the hands of his wife and then saw that soldier bash its little head against a rock. That is a horrible picture, isn’t it? Had we seen that happen to our child, we might be so broken, that we would want revenge and we might want that soldier to see how that feels. So, that is what came out of his mouth in this psalm.

Where does this leave us as we read God’s Word and come upon this? First of all, we ought to step back and understand that right here in America, we have a legal industry that, though they don’t use rocks, kills babies every single day. Do the research and you will find that abortion procedures are every bit as violent as the methods of the Babylonians.

So, where is the treasure here? The treasure for us as Christians is that, first of all, we live in an age of grace. We, like the Babylonians, are heathen, pagans without Christ as our savior. Secondly, we can find grace instead of the eye for an eye law of those days. But it also means we can give grace to those who persecute us. Jesus changed everything when He came. Listen to His Words, as to how we, unlike the psalmist, are to respond to our enemies.

Matthew 5:38-44
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.  And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.  “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

This psalm requires deep study and even deeper thought. We must seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance as we walk through our Bibles. But the lessons aren’t all that hard to see. We have a God who is both loving and who is just. He will handle the discipline. He will judge those who reject Him. He will avenge those who attack His people. In the end, Jesus will judge and administer the justice we desire. Until, then? We love our enemies and we pray for them. We shine the light of Christ in the hopes of them being saved. But we wait on God and let Him be God.