#DailyDevotion We Weep Now By The Waters Of Babylon As We Wait For The New Jerusalem
Psalm 137 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept as we thought of Zion. 2There we hung our lyres on the poplars.
This psalm we can see took place during Judah’s exile in Babylon. The people of Judah had rebelled against the LORD and worshiped other gods. The LORD sent the Babylonians to punish them by tearing down their city and the temple which had been defiled. It would seem by the prophets, the Babylonians went further and were more vicious than the LORD told them to be to His people. Those who were left were taken off to Babylon to serve the Babylonians for 70 years. They wept by the rivers of Babylon as they thought of their once beautiful city. Having nothing to sing about, they hung up their lyres on the poplars. It’s hard to sing when you’re weeping.
3Those who hold us captive there asked us for a song, and those who mocked us wanted us to be cheerful — “Sing us a song of Zion!” 4How could we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?
The Babylonians obviously wanted to rub it in. They ask their captives to sing a song of Zion. I’m sure they had some nice songs about their city on the hill. Now verse 4 seems to equate Zion with the LORD. Any song about Zion would include the One who protected it, until now. This seems awfully ominous to me the state of Christianity. If the exiles who were there because they worshiped other gods and lived as though the LORD wasn’t the Living God could have still sung songs during that time about Zion and the LORD, what does it say about Christianity which sings about our LORD Jesus Christ, yet does not live as if it trust His promises and still lives and acts like the world it lives amongst?
5If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither and my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I don’t remember you, if I don’t put Jerusalem above my highest joy!
The psalmist calls a curse upon himself if he forgets Jerusalem and doesn’t place it above his highest joy. Jerusalem is being identified here with the LORD again. For Jerusalem can only be thought of as such if the LORD dwells within her. At this time, since it fell, He was not there. But, the psalmist does have the promise his descendants will return one day. Then the LORD will inhabit it again. We as Christians look to the New Jerusalem when the LORD comes, conquers all our enemies and ushers us into His eternal kingdom.
7LORD, keep in mind what the people of Edom did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, “Down with it, down with it, to its very foundation!” 8O people of Babylon who destroy, happy is he who pays you back with the same treatment you gave us! 9Happy is he who grabs your little children and dashes them against a rock!
I imagine a lot of us may have a hard time singing or praying these verses. For context, the Edomites, Israel’s brother, sang as the Babylonians destroyed the temple. They had no mercy on their relations. He prays the same would come upon them. The Babylonians were merciless as they conquered Judah, overcame Jerusalem and its inhabitants. The Judahites children were treated no better. What they are singing here is the vengeance the LORD had prophesied to them as to what He would do to them in the future. We as Christians may look somewhat in horror as we know, those who reject Jesus and mistreat His people, they and their unbelieving children will fare no better on the day the LORD Jesus returns. It will be the holy angels from above who cannot bear anything unholy who will wreck the LORD’s vengeance upon them. We pray for their conversion and share the Gospel with them so they may escape it.
Almighty God and Father, we long for the New Jerusalem where You and Jesus are our temple. Grant we may bring salvation to those around us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.