Despair in Psalm 137 Longs for Justice

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” Psalm 137:1

The Bible is wonderfully transparent. No sugar-coating. Psalm 137 was written about the Babylonian exile. God’s people were captive. Broken, they sat down and wept by the waters of Babylon. Facing loss honestly is apparently the appropriate journey of choice for all who seek to walk in transparency.

“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!’” Psalm 137:2-3

Captivity wasn’t enough. The Babylonians added humiliation to God’s people. In dejection, they hung their lyres on willows. Those lyres were meant for God’s praise. They must have felt abandoned. Don’t miss the significance of this story. They were totally defeated and dejected. They even put down their instruments of worship.

Be warned: You’re not above putting down your instrument of worship.

The Babylonians forced them to sing. The psalmist calls the Babylonians tormentors. Their tormentors forced them to happily sing songs from Zion. Humiliating.

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Psalm 137:4

The psalmist doesn’t think it possible to sing songs of praise in a land not their own. Despair seems to be at hand. But then he is emboldened. He realizes he cannot forget Jerusalem any more than his right hand could forget its skill. He must remain loyal. He even seeks to threaten a curse upon himself. If he refuses to remember Jerusalem, he says in verse five, “Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth…” He vows to place Jerusalem above his highest joy.

And you, too, can choose to worship even in the humiliation of loss.

I cannot help but digress. In a time of deepest woe, brought on by the pain of loss, it’s good to remember there are high joys. Life holds a spectrum of lows and highs. Jerry Sittser, in A Grace Revealed, reminds us that circumstances are but scene and setting. Circumstances are neutral. They are props in God’s story. You get to choose your response.

Yet, the psalmist’s love and joy for Jerusalem is higher than his highest joy.

“Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, ‘Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!’” Psalm 137:7

The psalmist utilizes legal terms at this point. He implores the judge of all the earth to remember the mistreatment of the Edomites. Again, circumstances are but scene and setting—highs and lows. And this is an extreme low. The Edomites are seeking to lay bare Israel to the very foundation. Babylon is doomed to destruction. God will repay. Restitution will be made for what has been done to God’s people.

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

Statements like dashing little ones against a rock seem so out of place in God’s word. And yet, here it is in this psalm. The psalmist is apparently seeking an eye for an eye. Their little ones have been dashed against rocks, and so he is acknowledging by faith that God will prevail. The Levitical law states such.

“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. …If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.” Leviticus 24:17, 19-20

If you’re experiencing loss, this is a good time to realize that God’s people were not defenseless against the Babylonians. God is not mocked. His Bride will not be humiliated. All will be made right. A marriage feast is approaching.

In your torment—whatever pain and loss you bear—sing songs that the church sings to the Bridegroom. And stand firm upon the foundation of our just God.