... in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Amen. Through the prayers of our
holy Fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things,
Treasury of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us
from every impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy
Immortal, have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the
beginning, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Psalm 137:1-9[1]
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down.
Yes, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hung our harps on the willows in the middle
of it: for there, those who carried us away captive required of us a song. Those who wasted us [required of us] mirth, [saying],
“Sing us the songs of Zion.”
How shall we sing the Lord’s song in an alien land? If
I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget. If I do not remember you, let my tongue cling
to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, Lord, the
children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who said, “Raze, raze, to its
foundation.”
O daughter Babylon, who are to be
destroyed, blessed [is he], who rewards
you as you have served us. Blessed [shall he be], who takes and dashes your
little ones against the stones.[2] [3]
[1]
Truly, there is a Psalm for every season and emotion of man. The Psalms of David are set around 1000
BC. This Psalm is set after 586 BC,
after the Babylonian Captivity and Exile.
The psalmist is bathed in anger, bitterness, and grief. He is able to see and understand the promise
of God to Solomon, that God answers all prayer directed to Him, and His Temple
in Jerusalem, on Mount Zion: so he prays accordingly. However, Solomon’s Temple is destroyed, it
seems like the end of the world to this psalmist, and he is not yet able to
grasp that there is, and always was, a heavenly Jerusalem, a heavenly Zion, and
a heavenly Temple, far greater than Solomon’s Temple. So he clings to his earthly memory through
his tears of anger, bitterness, and grief.
In such a state the psalmist lashes out at all around him. This is a normal part of the grieving
process. In fact we see several aspects
of the grieving process in play here: anger (obviously), denial (he can’t quite
face the fact that the Temple and everything in it is gone), negotiation (“let
my tongue”, etc.), depression (“how shall we sing”, etc.). The only thing missing is acceptance: the
psalmist cannot yet see God’s grace and mercy in his misery, and he cannot yet
embrace his captivity as a blessing from God.
So the fact that the psalmist lashes out is to be expected: he utters a
wicked and terrifying oath. “Blessed
[shall he be], who takes and dashes your little ones against the stones.”
Before we judge the psalmist harshly, or even at all, perhaps
we should consider some harsh realities.
The psalmist has witnessed living babies being killed by
hammering them against rocks. There are
people who have witnessed firsthand Dresden, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Oklahoma City,
or New York. These are terrible soul
scarring experiences: these witnesses will never fully recover. It seems as if everything except breath
itself has been take away from them: they wait, only to die, and thus, at last,
forget.
In grief, the psalmist says things that (s)he would not say or
mean, were (s)he in a better, more recovered frame of mind. The psalmist would be able to embrace the
reality, knowing that “what men intended for evil, God intended for good.” Knowing, (s)he would eventually be able to
forgive. Knowing, we come to realize
that these terrible tragedies are not driven by mere human will; but rather by
demonic forces far beyond human power.
Grief often takes years for recovery. We all experience grief at some time or
other: all of us die, all of us see death.
We hope for patience and understanding as we struggle with grief. It’s not something we will just snap out of:
we have to endure the experience and its raging gamut of emotions. We should extend the same patience and
understanding to this poor psalmist.
The real beauty of this Psalm is found in the psalmist’s naked
honesty: (s)he is just being honest with God.
Would to God that our prayer would achieve such honesty. This is a Psalm for grief.
In spite of all these things, we must see a strong note of the
consummation of the kingdom in this Psalm.
“We wrestle not against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12).” Our adversary is Satan, who deceives and manipulates
the leaders of this world. Consequently,
taking vengeance is forbidden to us. On
the other hand, the judgment of Yahweh is coming upon this world. In Christ, we will participate in that judgment. “Blessed [shall he be], who takes and dashes
your little ones against the stones.”
Blessed is Christ, Who brings the final and just judgment. In the Consummation, all anguish, bitterness, and sorrow will be swallowed up in victory. ΙΣ ΧΣ ΝΙΚΑ!
[2] Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45; 5:25, 30; 7:4, 11, 18, 22, 26-27
[3] If you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations,
please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish. No rights are reserved. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
