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Psalm 137 - The Most Difficult Psalm · Tabernacle Talk - A Bible Study Podcast with Pastor Bryon Self

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  Welcome to Tabernacle Talk. Tabernacle talk is a Bible study
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  podcast brought from Tabernacle Baptist Church in Essex, MD.
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  I'm your host, Brian Self. We hope this podcast encourages
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  you to know Christ, grow in his word, and show his love to
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  others. Let's dive right in.
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  Welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. I got to be honest with you
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  guys. We are in Psalm 137 today and
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  this is probably one of the rawest, one of the most
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  startling and affronting Psalms. It it might be just straight up
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  the most affronting Psalm that we will read through and one of
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  the hardest portions of of Scripture to understand.
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  And thankfully, that is actually by the Lord's great goodness to
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  us that most of ourselves, never, most of us will never
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  find ourselves in the kind of horrid, A traumatic position
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  that these people writing this particular Psalm found
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  themselves in. All all, I want to frame this
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  Psalm correctly for us because in reading through it, you can
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  come to some incorrect conclusions about about God,
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  about proper emotional state and a whole ton of other things.
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  So Psalm 137 is written by the people of Israel living in
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  Babylon as captives. That is warfare was waged
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  against the southern Kingdom of Judah and after centuries of God
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  attempting to have a relationship with His people
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  after centuries of prophets preaching the right way to live
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  in relationship with God and with each other and the children
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  of Israel's consistent refusal to listen to the the Word, the
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  message of God, God finally said all right, you guys came from
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  Babylon initially with Abraham, you know, coming out of ur of
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  the Chaldeans, which was another name for the Babylonians, the
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  Chaldeans. And so he says you want to you
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  want to be just like all of the nations around you Fine, I will
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  give you back to the nations for 70 years.
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  And so Israel had earned this. This was what they God had had
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  instituted at the very start of the nation of Israel that this
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  was these were the terms of the agreement.
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  So you can read Deuteronomy, honestly, I think it's from 20,
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  chapter 28 through chapter 34, all deal with various aspects of
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  this. The blessings and curses.
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  The blessings that would happen as Israel followed the the law
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  of God and as they lived in right relationship with God and
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  with each other. Or on the other hand, the curses
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  that would come, the actual physical difficulties they would
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  encounter if they were to reject God's word and were to simply,
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  if you will choose on their own what was right and what was
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  wrong and what they should and shouldn't do.
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  So Israel had earned their exiling, but just because God
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  said this is the natural consequence of your actions did
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  not mean that God had any desire for the the death, the
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  devastation that was waged. And in fact, we're told in the
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  book of Habakkuk, yeah, that's right.
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  We're told in the book of Habakkuk that God would actually
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  bring justice on to Babylon for the wicked ways in which they
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  dealt with Israel and with Judah and with the other nations.
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  That their violence and corruption, their immorality,
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  their greed were all an offense to a holy God.
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  And though he would use them to bring justice to his people,
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  that they would be justly punished for their evil that
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  they committed over the course of generations.
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  The the murder and ritual sacrifice of children, constant
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  oppression of the the foreigners, the widows, the
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  orphans, etcetera. That even though God used
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  Babylon to punish Israel for their sin, God also said Babylon
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  will be punished and they will receive what they have a levied
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  out onto the other nations. You might go like man that that
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  seems like a very hard truth, like a a hard thing to process.
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  I want to encourage you. In what other way would we want
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  God to work? In what other way would we
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  expect God to work? Very very often when God wants
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  to judge a nation, he does so by means of other fallen nations
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  that it is humans. We would read in, in the book of
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  Daniel amongst several others of the prophets, nations prompted
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  by the demonic overseers of those nations that they are
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  prompted towards greed, sexual immorality and violence like
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  those. Those are par for the course.
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  That is what nations run by this world.
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  That is what they run to. And we can see that even in our
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  nation that so often greed, violence and sexual immorality
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  are the way of the world. It's those things that people
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  always want to have a reason for why it is OK.
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  People always want to have a reason for.
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  No, no, no, no, listen, it's just it's prosperity.
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  It's great, You know, all of these people are consenting
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  adults. They can do whatever they want.
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  This is just a lot of fun to watch or man, I, I just love,
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  you know, really getting seeing someone get theirs.
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  And that is not a biblical, that's not a godly mindset to
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  have. So let me kind of bring it down
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  back to where this Psalm is at. So these people, formerly of the
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  southern Kingdom of Judah, experienced the loss of their
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  homeland, the destruction of their place of worship of God,
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  though they were not worshipping him very well at that point in
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  time. They lost family members, as
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  we'll see here. They even lost some of their own
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  children as a result of this warfare that occurred.
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  They had extended family like tribes, nations, the the Kingdom
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  of Edom, like we learned in the book of Obadiah.
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  And you can look up that one, that one book, Tabernacle talk
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  episode on Obadiah, we learned about how Edom joined in in the
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  destruction of Jerusalem and of the southern Kingdom of Judah.
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  That instead of them saying, hey, we have familial history
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  together, Jacob and Esau, instead they went, oh man, we
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  can take advantage of this and we can experience financial gain
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  if we join in with Babylon in the destroying, in the sacking
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  of Jerusalem. And so here betrayal, the loss,
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  the loss of children, the loss of a place of worship, the loss
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  of a homeland being, if you will, kidnapped and taken 1000
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  miles away into the heart of the country that destroyed your
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  country. That's the mindset that these
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  riders are operating from. So if you have any more
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  questions on that, even as we go through, I'll, I'll try and
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  clarify a couple of the things as we read through the passage
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  now. But if you have any questions,
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  if, if you have something, you're like, man, Brian, I'm
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  really struggling with this aspect of it or I don't
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  understand about, you know, this portion of, of, of what you're
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  saying or about, you know, God's justice.
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  I absolutely 1,000,000% cannot promise that I will have answers
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  for all of your questions. But I think it's valuable for us
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  to know we can have questions. And that's good.
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  And certainly because of how startling and how unlike the
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  rest of Scripture, in particular verse 9 of this passage is, I
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  think it invites us into the, the, the questioning mindset
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  that it's meant to spark in as both shock and horror and grief
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  and a desire for God's justice, as well as what it means to look
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  at and to pray for the justice of God and what really our, our
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  hearts desire is. So it's OK to ask questions, ask
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  questions, ask me questions if you have any.
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  But that is a part of the point of this Psalm, that it is
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  uniquely meant to shock you. So be aware of that.
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  Let's read through now. I am almost 10 minutes in.
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  I recognize that, but I had to lay that groundwork for you
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  before we read this Psalm. Verse #1 Psalm 137 by the rivers
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  of Babylon. There we sat down and wept when
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  we remembered Zion. There we hung up our liars on
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  the Poplar trees, for our captors there asked us for
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  songs, and our tormentors for rejoicing.
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  Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
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  How can we sing Yahweh's song on foreign soil?
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  If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget it.
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  Skill may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth.
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  If I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my
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  greatest joy. Remember Yahweh, what the
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  Edomite said that day at Jerusalem.
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  Destroy it, Destroy it down to its foundations.
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  Daughter Babylon doomed to destruction.
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  Happy is the one who pays you back what you have done to us.
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  Happy is he who takes your little ones and dashes them
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  against the rocks. OK, what in the world do we make
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  of this Psalm? Well, first let's look at verses
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  one through 3 says by the rivers of Babylon.
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  There we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion here in a
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  land of captivity, a land where there is no ancestry, a land
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  where there is simply just grief at everything that was lost.
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  They remembered Zion, Jerusalem, where the temple was, where kind
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  of the the seat of authority in the southern Kingdom of Judah
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  was. And he just weep for the loss of
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  what was. Can I tell you, God is not
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  ashamed, or he does not reject your tears, and you're weeping
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  over what was. That is normal.
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  And here, even from Psalm 137, we can rejoice that our God
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  expects us to weep over things that we have lost.
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  And that's totally OK. And Jesus who cried at the tomb
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  of Lazarus before raising him from the dead is OK with us
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  weeping over our losses. Verse number two there we hung
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  up our liars. This is like like harps on the
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  Poplar trees as opposed to the olive and Cypress trees that you
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  would find in Israel. It's these liars would be used
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  to sing songs of happiness and joy.
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  And so they say we have no that there's no happiness that is
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  found here in this place. And we hang them on trees that
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  are unfamiliar. And I don't even recognize this
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  land that we are now in. In verse 3, it says for our
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  captors, they are asked us for songs and our tormentors for
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  rejoicing sing us one of the songs of Zion.
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  Here in an attempt to be cruel, there is these captors and
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  tormentors that are telling the children of Israel sing one of
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  the songs of Zion, like sing songs about God, about Yahweh,
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  about the temple, or about Jerusalem.
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  You can think many of the songs of ascent that there might even
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  be here this call to sing songs of the journey going to
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  Jerusalem. And you can think of many of the
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  Psalms that we looked at. You know Psalm 133 is like the
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  do of hormone falling on the mountains of Zion for there
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  Yahweh has appointed the blessing life forever more or
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  you can look at Psalm 128 may always bless you from Zion so
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  that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of
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  your life and we'll see your children's children different
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  things like that. And so here the turn of Israel
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  go. How in the world can we sing
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  these songs about Jerusalem and about the temple and our worship
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  together and the joy of being part of the community of Israel
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  when Israel is no more and we've been scattered and shattered all
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  across the Babylonian empire? Now verse #4 how can we sing
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  Yahweh's song on foreign soil? Now the, the, the point of this
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  is when I don't experience the active goodness of God, it is, I
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  assume it to be goodness. How in the world can I continue
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  to, to praise him, to sing about him, especially when it's for a
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  gimmick. Here the gimmick is for my
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  tormentors who just want to hear like exotic music from another
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  land. And they say, how in the world
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  can we sing that song? But can I also tell you,
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  Scripture calls us foreigners and immigrants in this land on
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  planet earth. We are foreigners.
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  We are not from here. We are, if you will.
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  We're from the Father, and we are going to return to the
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  Father one day. And so in that sense, we can
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  sing the Lord's songs. We can sing the songs of Yahweh
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  on foreign soil because all soil ultimately belongs to God.
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  But here that's not the point of this particular Psalm.
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  This Psalm is saying we have grief, We have sorrow that this
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  isn't the way that we thought things were supposed to go.
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  Verse #5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand
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  forget its skill. Here they're saying I don't want
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  to forget this place of worship and joy and unity that I had
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  with the other believers. And so may I forget how to play
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  the harp. If I forget Jerusalem, And then
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  verse 6, may my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth.
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  If I don't remember you, if I don't exalt Jerusalem as my
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  greatest joy, like if I'm not thrilled about this place of
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  God's worship, may my mouth be incapable of even speaking or
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  singing. Can I ask you for your life,
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  what are you passionate about? Are you passionate about the
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  place where God is worshipped together each and every week?
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  Are you passionate about the praise of God coming out of your
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  mouth, or about an exaltation of where God is worshipped?
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  Certainly God is the object of our worship.
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  It's not a place, it's not a location, it's not a building,
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  but are you telling anyone else where they can worship the Lord
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  with you? Are you placing an importance on
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  where you can worship the Lord? Then verses 7 through 9, as it
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  ends, hears the prayer in the heart of these captives,
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  tormented exiles. They say, God, we want you to
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  basically give an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth exact on
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  our tormentors and enemies and persecutors what they have put
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  out on to us here. It's not a picture of cruelty
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  inherently. Like it's not OK God, they took
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  us from our home and nothing else.
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  So would you take away their arms and their legs?
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  No, this is God. This is what they put out on to
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  us. And so God, we ask that you
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  would throw it back on to them, that they would receive in
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  accordance with what they put out on to others.
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  They say, remember Yahweh in verse 7, what the Edomite said
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  that day at Jerusalem. Destroy it.
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  Destroy it down to its foundations.
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  And Obadiah would echo the heart of verse #7 that's really all
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  that Obadiah is about is Edom. You should have like, loved and
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  cared for Jerusalem and like, they are your, you know,
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  distantly related family. And yet you took the opportunity
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  to be cruel and harmful to them and to be exploitative.
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  And so God is going to judge you for that.
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  Can I tell you even today, don't cheer on exploitative, harmful,
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  cruel practices by nations. And, and I got to tell you, this
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  is a very, very common thing nowadays.
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  And it tends to flip from side to side on what like cruel
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  actions people deem worthy of judgment.
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  That if you're looking at one group of people, they might say,
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  OK, well, you don't understand all of the things that have
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  happened in the Middle East and the group that is currently in
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  charge. And I actually don't know if
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  I'll get, you know, throttled views by algorithms and whatever
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  if I mention the specific locations.
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  But just think in the Middle East, this place that that
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  scripture is written in, on both sides, you can hear these cruel
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  practices, these cruel things that are done to women and
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  children are OK because. And then there's a bunch of
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  reasons given why or you can look, you know, all across our
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  world and people from opposite sides will be arguing why it's
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  OK for their side to be cruel and for the other side to not be
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  cruel. Like the other side shouldn't be
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  able to do this, but our side is totally fine and justified in
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  doing so. That's not a biblical mindset.
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  The biblical mindset is to say, yes, nations and governments are
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  are violent and and oppressive. Like that's the only tools that
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  they have. Is to be able to use the sword
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  or you know, that's what it was called back in Bible times.
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  Now we can say the guns or the missiles or the bombs or the
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  tanks, but the government has the sword and they have the
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  ability to take away your financial possessions.
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  So if you will that there's physical oppression or, or
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  military oppression, there's financial oppression and there
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  is a a physical or a personal oppression of being able to jail
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  or imprison or sometimes even kill people.
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  And so that's the only tools that the government has.
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  And so it's for that very reason that we look forward to the King
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  of Kings and the Lord of Lords and the Prince of Peace, who
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  when he comes, there is once and for all judgment that occurs
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  that it is good, that it is right in every single way, that
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  it is proportionate to the evil that has been levied out against
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  a holy God. And so we say, Even so come
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  quickly, Lord Jesus, that we don't worship or love what
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  government does and how it accomplishes its actions.
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  It is a if you will. It is a necessary evil.
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  The the human governments of man are a necessary evil for the
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  moment. But we do not love the sword for
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  its power. We don't love financial
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  oppression on its own. These are strictly means to an
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  end and they're so often misused.
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  So don't hear love, Edom and it's actions that it's doing.
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  You could say, well, listen, you don't understand.
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  Israel had been sacrificing children for hundreds of years
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  and so they deserved all of the, you know, oppression from Edom
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  and from Babylon. God would argue with that.
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  You could say, you know, Babylon was just bringing justice,
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  quote, UN quote against Israel. Well, I think Scripture would
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  actually tell us that that's not true either.
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  That though Israel needed justice and God utilized Babylon
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  to bring justice on to them, that Babylon did so in a way
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  that was overly heavy-handed. They did so in a way that was
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  evil in the sight of God, and that as a result demanded God's
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  justice being brought on to them, that they would receive
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  cruelty for the cruelty that had been that they had exemplified
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  on others, the the evil that they had expended on to others.
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  Verse #8 Daughter Babylon doomed to destruction.
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  Again read Habakkuk. Happy is the one who pays you
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  back for what you have done to us, that there is this blessing.
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  So think of Psalm 1. Blessed happy is the man that
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  does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly here happy is the
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  one who pays you back for what you have done to us.
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  And then verse 9 is the specific example of this.
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  This is the most emotionally raw statement in all of the Psalms,
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  especially any of the imprecatory Psalms are are
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  pronouncing physical curses against someone else as a result
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  of what they have done. Happy is he who takes your
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  little ones and dashes them against the rocks.
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  This would have very sadly been a regular habit for armies back
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  in those times because it was the most like demoralizing and
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  awful and disheartening thing you could possibly imagine that
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  children would be killed in front of their parents.
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  And there's almost this mindset of what in the world can you do?
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  Because I have taken away the thing that is most dear to you.
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  I've taken away your future. I've taken away your love
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  through murdering them in front of you.
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  And so hear this hard cry from the Israelites is I want I want
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  someone to make you hurt in the way that I have hurt.
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  And if you have ever experienced that emotion, I want you to know
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  that God sees you, that he hears you, that he understands your
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  heart cry. He is, even if you will, given
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  you language in Scripture by which you can know that you are
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  not just this awful person, or you're not all alone in thinking
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  this way, but remembering what what Jesus brought into the
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  equation and remembering that God's Son was himself killed in
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  an incredibly gruesome way by the kingdoms of man, by Rome and
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  by Israel. That he was delivered to be
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  crucified by Israel after they plucked out his beard, after
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  they spat on him, after they hit him.
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  They delivered him to the Romans, who whipped him
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  repeatedly, who scourged him, who placed the crown of thorns
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  in his head so that he was totally unrecognizable, that his
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  back was horribly ripped open again and again and again.
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  That's up to Calvary. That he had to be nailed into
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  the cross. That he suffocated and bled out
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  for hours on end before he died, after being marked, after having
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  his clothing being gambled for by the soldiers that sat at the
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  foot of the cross. That after he died his side was
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  stabbed by a spear. Reinforcing like making certain
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  that Jesus really was dead. God's Son experienced that and
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  God's prayer when we did that to his Son was Father forgive them
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  because they do not know what they are doing.
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  So we can hold these truths in tandem to say there is a Psalm
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  137. God bring justice on evil doers.
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  May they receive the rotten fruit that they have sown for
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  others. And we remember that our God
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  will just while good, is also the one who has forgiven us of
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  the ultimate crime, of the ultimate insult of putting Jesus
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  on that cross by our sin. We needed an eternal Savior to
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  pay the cost for our ultimate transgression and sin against an
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  infinite holy God. And because Jesus was punished
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  on our behalf, we do not get what we deserve.
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  So even as we pray for God's justice, may we always remember
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  God. You have forgiven me.
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  I can forgive others and God, even as I forgive others, I can
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  still pray for your justice because you will do what is
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  right either through the punishment met on Jesus which
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  was ultimate, it was perfect, it was complete, or the judgement
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  will be met on those that refuse to accept the punishment that
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  was met out on Jesus. What do we make of this man?
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  We we pray, we ask the Lord show us our hearts.
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  Maybe we need to be praying for God's justice and vengeance on
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  evil. Maybe for some of us, we focus
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  too much on the justice and the vengeance and we haven't
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  extended the heart forgiveness that Jesus extends.
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  However, God has spoken to you even through this episode, man,
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  I I hope that it is transformative for the way that
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  you think and the way that you process want to encourage you
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  don't put your faith in the kingdoms of man.
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  They are junk. Put your faith in the Kingdom of
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  God, in that king who will never lose his Kingdom as a result of
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  unrighteousness. No, he is the king that will
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  deal with all unrighteousness and so we can hope in and
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  believe in him. Thank you for tuning in.
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  I know it was both a long and a hard episode, but I hope that it
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  challenged you in some ways. Love to hear from you if you
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  have any thoughts, but looking forward to next episode and
• 29:15
  Psalm 138.