A Better Way to Be Angry
Sorry for the long delay in posts. Holidays, vacation... etc.
Today I want to look at Psalm 137. It contains perhaps one of the most difficult passages to interpret as the Word of God in all of Scripture. The Psalm is a lament by the Exiles of Israel living in Babylon having been taken captive and watched their city destroyed. Context is important because of how this Psalm ends.
Psalm 137:1–9 (ESV) By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 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!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! 9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
Verse 9 is hard to read, I get it. But consider a few facts:
1. This is the only place in all the Psalms where we see a deliberate heart for vengeance against one's enemies. If you consider the Psalms to be a song/prayer book of Israel, that's a very low percentage.
2. The Psalmist is talking of equal treatment. When nations marauded in the ancient world, they took the babies of their conquests and dashed them against the rocks. It was vicious and cruel and the image was still fresh in the Psalmist's mind. He's not asking for it to happen. He's expressing the fact that it will happen. He believes in a God of justice.
3. Notice the Psalmist is not hoping to be the one to take vengeance. In that way he is living scripturally leaving such action in the hands of God.
Just this week the news reported a madman taking vengeance against a media outlet in France in the name of Islam. The world is rightly disconcerted. The alleged offense was trifle to say the least but it cost 12 lives. How very sad. Yet, how different from what we read in Psalm 137. The Psalmist does not hope to take vengeance, he knows God is in charge of that. The Psalmist does not take action, he takes his anger to God in prayer. The Psalmist is keenly aware that his place is in the courts of God's city to declare God's praises, yet he is still very human struggling with real human issues and so he expresses it.
We should be thankful. Because every one of us will struggle with anger and hatred. How we handle it makes all the difference. The Psalmist took his case to God and let it all out. In the end God did take care of his enemies as Babylon is a footnote in history. We can "be angry and sin not" as Paul said. This Psalm may be difficult to read, but it's a better way to handle anger than many of the alternatives we see and hear about today.
Today I want to look at Psalm 137. It contains perhaps one of the most difficult passages to interpret as the Word of God in all of Scripture. The Psalm is a lament by the Exiles of Israel living in Babylon having been taken captive and watched their city destroyed. Context is important because of how this Psalm ends.
Psalm 137:1–9 (ESV) By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres. 3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! 6 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!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us! 9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
Verse 9 is hard to read, I get it. But consider a few facts:
1. This is the only place in all the Psalms where we see a deliberate heart for vengeance against one's enemies. If you consider the Psalms to be a song/prayer book of Israel, that's a very low percentage.
2. The Psalmist is talking of equal treatment. When nations marauded in the ancient world, they took the babies of their conquests and dashed them against the rocks. It was vicious and cruel and the image was still fresh in the Psalmist's mind. He's not asking for it to happen. He's expressing the fact that it will happen. He believes in a God of justice.
3. Notice the Psalmist is not hoping to be the one to take vengeance. In that way he is living scripturally leaving such action in the hands of God.
Just this week the news reported a madman taking vengeance against a media outlet in France in the name of Islam. The world is rightly disconcerted. The alleged offense was trifle to say the least but it cost 12 lives. How very sad. Yet, how different from what we read in Psalm 137. The Psalmist does not hope to take vengeance, he knows God is in charge of that. The Psalmist does not take action, he takes his anger to God in prayer. The Psalmist is keenly aware that his place is in the courts of God's city to declare God's praises, yet he is still very human struggling with real human issues and so he expresses it.
We should be thankful. Because every one of us will struggle with anger and hatred. How we handle it makes all the difference. The Psalmist took his case to God and let it all out. In the end God did take care of his enemies as Babylon is a footnote in history. We can "be angry and sin not" as Paul said. This Psalm may be difficult to read, but it's a better way to handle anger than many of the alternatives we see and hear about today.
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