Psalm 137, verses 1 to 9.
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.
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 be he who repays you with what you have done to us.
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against a rock.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
According to city records, 28.8% of Cambridge residents were born in a foreign country.
And 12% of Cambridge residents didn't live in Massachusetts a year ago.
So it's kind of crazy stats, right?
And so 1 in 10 Cambridge residents, more than that, you meet,
were out-of-state or out-of-country transplants.
And so this is a city that's familiar with homesickness,
feeling out of place, just not feeling like you belong.
And so that sense of being distressed by the distance from loved ones
and from things that are familiar to you and longing for home.
And Psalm 137 really is about that.
It's about longing for home, but in a much more significant way,
because they're not only away, you know, for a time, their home's been destroyed.
And it teaches us overall that as exiles in worldly Babylon,
that we should long for the heavenly Jerusalem.
I think that's the main point of this psalm.
So first we see in verses 1 to 6 our remembrance of Jerusalem.
And then in verses 7 to 9, God's remembrance of Jerusalem.
So let's look at our remembrance of Jerusalem beginning in verse 1.
It begins by putting Babylon and Zion side by side,
which kind of highlights the sense of loss and separation.
So it says,
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.
So this psalm, we know from this verse that was written after the Babylonian exile in 586 BC.
God's people are by the waters, which sounds pleasant and nourishing,
but actually is not because when you get to the word Babylon.
It's by the waters of Babylon.
This is not where God's people should be, but that's where they are.
And there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion, the city of Jerusalem,
which has been reduced to rubbles,
and it survives only now in people's memory of the past.
And it's verses 2 to 3 continue that sad tale.
It says,
On the willows there we hung up our liars,
for there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors mirth,
saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
So the phrase,
On the willows there,
also communicates the sense of kind of being out of place,
because the word willows,
it says in the footnote in the ESV,
can be translated poplars.
I don't know if that's how you say the name of the tree, poplars.
Is that right?
Poplars,
so it's not the kind of willow tree in like the Boston Garden.
It's a poplar that's like a type of a willow kind of,
and it's the Euphrates poplar.
It's popularly known.
It's a type of tree that grows by rivers.
So like the rivers of Tigris and Euphrates, right?
Tigris and Euphrates in Babylon.
So it's a tree that's widespread popular,
known in Babylon.
And so, again,
that's a reminder that they're not where they're supposed to be.
On the willows there,
there we hung up our liars.
For there are captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors mirth,
saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
So this contrast of words kind of highlight
the cruelty of Israel's exile, right?
They demand songs of mirth
while tormenting them, right?
They demand, you know,
what is it here?
They demand songs
when they're keeping them captive.
But this cannot be, right?
And you can notice,
you might notice the repetition of the word there
in verses one to three.
By the waters of Babylon there,
and then there by the willows in verse three.
These are songs of Zion
that cannot be sung there.
It can only be sung
when you are in God's land
where God's promises are fulfilled
because they are God's songs.
And that's what verse four says.
How shall we sing the Lord's song
in a foreign land?
The Lord's song,
which speak of the joy
that's found in the presence of God alone,
the mirth of fulfillment
of the promises of God.
Like, how can that be sung
in a foreign land?
And so the psalmist kind of makes a vow
saying that he would lose his skill.
He won't be able to play his instrument
or he wouldn't be able to sing at all
if he forgets Jerusalem.
So he says, verses five to six,
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.
So the first section, verses one to six,
begins and ends with the mention of remembering,
remembering Zion,
remembering Jerusalem.
No matter how long this exile lasts,
God's people are never to forget
where their true home is,
where God's promises are.
And this is true for us as well,
even though we're not part of the nation of Israel,
we're not Jewish.
And it's 1 Peter chapter one, verse one,
Peter addresses the church,
the Christians as elect exiles.
1 Peter 5, verse 13,
he calls the church,
she who is at Babylon.
Because the Old Testament nation of Babylon,
because of the Babylonian exile,
becomes this symbol or a type
of the center of worldly power and influence.
So in the New Testament,
Babylon gets used that way symbolically.
So then all Christians are those who are in exile in Babylon,
right?
According to the way Peter treats.
So we are those exiles that Psalm 137,
in a sense,
here is talking about.
So as exiles in worldly Babylon,
then we should also long for the heavenly Jerusalem.
That's the main point of this passage.
As Hebrews 12 and Revelation 21 speak of,
the heavenly Jerusalem is our home.
And we should be anticipating that,
longing for that,
and waiting for that.
And say,
as the psalmist says in verse six,
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.
It's a wonderful phrase, right?
Above my highest joy.
What is your highest joy,
right,
in life,
right?
Our longing for God,
our longing for His abode,
His home,
should be above our highest joy,
right?
So is God being united with God,
being in His presence,
being in awe of His glory,
worshiping before His throne,
is that above your highest joy?
Because if we are so satisfied
by the joys of this worldly Babylon,
so much so that we do not long
for this heavenly Jerusalem,
then that's a sign that we have forgotten
the city of God.
And we are to remember.
That's the exhortation of that passage.
And if verses one to six
is about our remembrance,
verses seven to nine
is about God's remembrance.
It's a prayer for God's remembrance
of Jerusalem.
So let's read it together.
Verses seven to nine.
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.
Blessed shall he be
who takes your little ones
and dashes them
against the rock.
This verse recalls
not only what the Babylonians did,
but also what the Edomites did.
So Edomites were
the descendants of Esau,
right?
So they're technically brothers.
But in Obadiah,
the prophet just rails
against the Edomites
because when Babylonians
were ransacking Jerusalem,
the Edomites just watched idly by
and let them have at it.
And so Obadiah is a denunciation of,
the whole book is a denunciation of Edom.
It says,
In that day,
Obadiah 8 to 11,
declares the Lord,
Will I not destroy
the wise men of Edom,
those of understanding
in the mountains of Esau?
Your warriors, Teman,
will be terrified
and everyone in Esau's mountains
will be cut down
in the slaughter.
Because of the violence
against your brother, Jacob,
you will be covered with shame.
You will be destroyed forever.
On the day you stood aloof
while strangers
carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem.
You were like one of them.
So this is a prayer
for divine vengeance
which explains
its shocking violence.
And it's not,
and it's,
there's some,
it's,
we shouldn't take the
expression strictly,
literally here
because it mentions
daughters of Jerusalem
and then it mentions
the little ones.
So it's referring
not to like,
let's go kill the babies.
It's referring to
the future generations
of Edom, right?
And the word,
word Edom,
the,
if you look at
1 Kings 14,
7,
one of the prominent
cities of Edom
was Sila
or it's the,
it's in Greek Petra.
You've probably heard of it,
right?
It means rock.
So 1 Kings 14,
7 says,
Amaziah,
king of,
Amaziah,
king of Judah,
struck down 10,000
Edomites in the
valley of Saul
and took Sila
by storm,
right?
So he talks about
that as a,
and so here,
may your,
blessed shall it be
who takes your little ones
and dashes them
against the rock.
So it's literally saying
like dash them
against the city itself,
dash them against it,
that may Edom
be destroyed to its core.
That's kind of what it's,
that,
what that image is.
And,
and it's a,
it's a,
it is a,
you know,
it's,
I think it makes us
uncomfortable,
I think we're honest with it
to talk about verses
like this.
But I think
people understand
when they are,
victim of,
of grave injustice,
that this,
that there's something
about justice
that is necessary,
right?
So for example,
like,
even with,
I mean,
when you see,
for example,
nowadays,
let's say instances of,
you know,
racist kind of killings,
right?
Let's say there's a,
and,
and when people see that
and they're upset by that,
what do they do?
They call for murder charges,
right?
They want the guy
jailed for life
or in death row.
They want the guy's head,
right?
Because they're angry
and they believe
that's what justice demands.
So people,
when they're actually
really angry
and feel like
they've been victimized,
that's what they long for.
They long for justice.
And so there's a,
P.D. James
in her mystery novel,
Original Sin,
develops a character
who says this
to her Jewish colleague,
if I had a God,
I'd like him to be intelligent,
cheerful,
and amusing.
So this is a person saying,
well,
I want God to be just,
you know,
fun,
entertaining,
just to be a good companion.
And then the Jewish colleague
responds,
I doubt whether you'd find him
much of a comfort
when they herded you
into the gas chambers.
You might prefer
a God of vengeance.
And that's what
this justice is,
right?
It's when,
because you don't just look
at one side
of God's justice
and wrath.
You have to look at
what is engendering that
because it's God's love
for his people
that makes him
break out in wrath
toward the oppressors
of his people,
right?
So justice is also
a flip side of love.
You can't have one
without the other.
And here,
he's not calling for,
you know,
personal vengeance
and retaliation.
The psalmist,
he's praying that God
would take vengeance,
right?
And he's praying that God
would remember his people.
And so I don't think
this is contradictory
with the Christian ethic
of love your enemies,
you know,
turn the other cheek.
It's because those are
the principles of personal
ethics and loving our enemies,
right?
But that's not,
doesn't change
the fact that God
is going to bring justice
and he's going to bring
justice against his enemies.
And these are pictures
of Edom and Babylon
are representatives
of those who oppose
God himself,
not just us
and personally
his people.
And ultimately,
you know,
this psalm too
is fulfilled
in what Jesus
has done
because we see
the fierceness
of God's wrath
toward injustice
on the cross
where Jesus
is crucified,
right?
That's the,
we were enemies
of God.
We had,
we had fought
against him
and yet he loved us
and he poured out
his wrath
on his son
instead
on the cross
and it's through
that he brings about,
he inaugurates
the kingdom of God,
right?
He begins
the kingdom of God
in a sense
or he ushers
in the kingdom of God
so that it breaks
into our own lives
and it's not fulfilled yet,
fully fulfilled yet.
So we live in this
already but not yet
period,
intervening period
between Jesus'
second,
first coming
and second coming
and so because
we're there,
we experience
some of this
kingdom joy
and mirth
but not the fullness
of it
and so
we are still
suffering,
we are still
experiencing injustice
and we are to long,
instead of being
satisfied in worldly Babylon,
long for heavenly Jerusalem,
continue to
in our lives
and so that's what
this psalm is about.