Psalm 137 The No Song Song

Sermon Intro

Outlines are available online for all services.

Schaefer about Psalm 137, “the composition is a gem. It expresses unbridled emotion, from melancholy to nostalgia to rage.”

Genre

As to genre, it is a community lament, expressing the sorrow of the Judeans while they were in Babylonian captivity and their resolve not to forget their beloved Jerusalem.

It belongs also among the Zion songs (Pss. 46; 47; 48; 76; 84; 87; 122; and 137).

It also gets labeled an imprecatory Psalm, as you will see at the end.

Connects to Psalm 136: is a witness to the fact that God remembered Israel in their “low estate” and freed them from their enemies (136:23–24). Psalm 136:23–24 “23 Who remembered us in our low estate: for his mercy endureth for ever: 24 And hath redeemed us from our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

NEW WORD: The "inclusio" is that "rhetorical device that has a repeating composition in which the author returns to the point where he began"

The occurrence of “Babylon” in verses 1 and 8 marks an inclusio, insisting that the psalmist can no more forget Babylon than he can forget Jerusalem.

But the two cities stand at opposite ends of his memory spectrum and represent life’s two emotional extremes (“we wept” and “songs of joy”)

Contention / relevance to life

Personal growth:

Realization the affections of the heart matter just as much, even more, than the thoughts of the mind.

Christian life is more than knowing the right doctrines, but the heart embrace of the truth of the person who makes the truth true.

Facts may not care about your feelings but Jesus does.

Naturally a debater. Some are naturally campaigners. Think what I think or feel what I feel.

Jesus deserves and demands our affections. Matthew 10:37 “37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

The up and down is common.

David Psalm 51:12 “12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.”

Paul Romans 7:24 “24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

Assurance I find in my misery. I do not want to stay here. There is more available. My turmoil testifies to what could be.

The Christian says, 'Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water.. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. - CS Lewis

Brief Outline / exegetical or the “what” outline

1. The lament (1–4)

a. In Babylon: The memory of Zion with tears (137:1)

b. In Babylon: The memory of harps on poplar trees (137:2)

c. In Babylon: The memory of scornful captors (137:3)

d. In Babylon: The memory of the Lord’s songs “on heathen soil” (137:4)

2. The oaths (137:5–6)

a. The first oath: Never to forget Jerusalem (137:5)

b. The second oath (a curse): Never to fail to make Jerusalem his highest joy (137:6)

3. The family betrayal and two negative “beatitudes” (137:7–9)

a. The Edomite betrayal (137:7)

b. The first negative “beatitude”: Happy is the one who repays Babylon for what they did to Jerusalem (137:8)

c. The second negative “beatitude”: Happy is the one who dashes Babylon’s infants against the rocks (137:9)

This poem is a beautiful example of opposing memories that play against one another.

The Psalmist moves between two locations, Babylon and Jerusalem/Zion.

At one moment he sees the rivers of Babylon, and rivers of tears, harps hanging on poplar trees, taunting captors, conflicting loyalties, family betrayal, infants dashed to pieces.

At another moment the poet’s mind flashes with Jerusalem’s images but evoking the strongest joy and the deepest thoughts of retribution.

But still no music, for Babylon’s strange sights have muffled Jerusalem’s familiar tunes. / the No Song - Song

Buckle up. We are about to take a ride.

Psalm 137 (KJV)

1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

4 How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?

5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

6 If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

7 Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.

9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Record of Pain

What has happened? Israel has been sent into exile because of her own sin.

Psalm 137:1–3 “1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. 2 We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. 3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

Possibly hung the harps to hide them.

Request to play for them. Mockery.

Judgment begins in the house of God.

And the judgment which is recorded in the first verses of this psalm is not ultimately against the nations, it's against God's own people, and they are experiencing a crippling and enormous pain because of a deserved judgment.

What do we learn from that? We learn something about the dreadfulness of sin.

“There must be something exceedingly dreadful in sin else so sad consequences could not flow from it in time and eternity. This world has always been under the government of the kindest being in the universe. And so when we see sin punished like this, we must be witnessing just judgment against something that is dreadful at a magnitude beyond our capacity of explanation.” - William Plummer

What should it do? It should press us to confess our own sin.

When Daniel is in captivity because of the sins that sent Israel into Babylon and he stumbles across the scroll of Jeremiah and he finds out the depths of God's plan of judgment against Israel for their sin, what is his response? Daniel 9:1–6 “1 In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; 2 In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem. 3 And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes: 4 And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments; 5 We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments: 6 Neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets, which spake in thy name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.”

2 Chronicles 7:14 “14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

Remembrance of Blessings taken for Granted

Psalm 137:1 “1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.”

Israel did not value the blessings of God when they had them.

The enemy now wants to torment them with the memory. Psalm 137:3 “3 For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

Transition: All this should cause us to confess sin and turn to God

The question of “how?”

Psalm 137:4 “4 How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land?”

Michael Jinkins / In the House of the Lord, reminds us that God can handle our struggles: The psalms of lament open us to the greatness of a God who not only can hear, but also can handle our pain, our self-pity, our blame, and our fear, who can respond to our anger, our disillusionment in the midst of oppression and persecution, under the boot of tyranny and our sense of God-forsakenness in the face of life’s most profound alienations and exiles.

These psalms give us permission—even encouragement—to lay out our struggles, even if they are with God himself.

A few examples:

Psalm 22:1 “1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?”

Psalm 44:23-24 “23 Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? arise, cast us not off for ever. 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?”

Psalm 80:12 “12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?”

Psalm 88:14 “14 LORD, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me?”

Psalm 13:1-2 “1 How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? 2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?”

Psalm 74:10 “10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?”

Psalm 94:3 “3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?”

These heartfelt questions have been in your Bible all along, but somehow they’ve been easy to miss.

Complaint moves to an accusation of active disinterest.

Another way it is asked in the Psalms is Psalm 10:1 “1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?”

It’s not just that God is standing far away. Now the problem is the feeling that God is hiding himself.

The word “hiding” can mean secret, hidden, and concealed. But it also can have more emotional meanings, such as withdrawn, ignoring, and pretending to be one thing while actually being another.

Does this make you at all uncomfortable?

It should. The psalmist is basically telling God that he feels as if God is not being God-like.

If you are comfortable with this, then you probably don’t understand what is said here.

The psalmist is deeply struggling, and not just with his pain; he’s struggling with God.

Injustice is one thing, but God’s lack of intervention is a deeper pain—one that creates complaint.

Complaint gives voice to our hard questions.

Life is filled with a variety of suffering.

Sorrow could enter your life because of unfulfilled longings, loneliness, an ailing body, or an unfair supervisor at work. It could come in the form of a job loss, financial struggles, a broken engagement, or ongoing conflict in a marriage.

Lament speaks into all the sorrows of life—no matter how small or big.

The longer we live, the more pain we see.

God could intervene, but there are times—many times—when he chooses not to. That’s the tension of complaint.

Harsh ending

This Psalm is full of emotion. The ending is not the words of a person who had lost control of their thoughts and emotions.

Imprecatory prayers are difficult. Glad I do not address them often. [Chart]

Major imprecatory Psalms include Psalm 69 and Psalm 109, while Psalms 5, 6, 11, 12, 35, 37, 40, 52, 54, 56, 57, 58, 59, 79, 83, 94, 137, 139 and 143 are also considered imprecatory.

One explanation says the curses are actually the words of the enemy. This would help in one area but is problematic in others. We will see an example of how Peter does not quote these verses in that way.

Important to remember. This prayer ceases to be personal vengeance as he turns all his wishes over to the LORD in a prayer, thereby leaving it to the LORD to deal in justice with his adversary.

The difference in an imprecatory prayer is similar to the difference of murder and the killing that is part of a just war between nations.

David was well known, even praised, for being a non-vindictive, long-suffering, and merciful man.

We have only to think of the two occasions when David could have killed his archenemy King Saul if he had wanted to (1 Sam. 24, 26).

David did not even think of killing Saul. 1 Sam 24:10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that the Lord had delivered thee to day into mine hand in the cave: and some bade me kill thee: but mine eye spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth mine hand against my lord; for he is the Lord’s anointed.

All the imprecatory psalms have the intent of Romans 12:19 Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Prayer to be avenged

The New Testament forbids believers to take their own vengeance – it does not tell them to despair of future judgment.

There is no discernible difference between the prayer of the Psalmist in Psalm 137 and the prayer of the martyrs in Revelation 6:10 “10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?”

Conclusion

Remember what I said at the beginning “ “the Psalm is a gem. It expresses unbridled emotion, from melancholy to nostalgia to rage.”

As you experience the consequences of sin you may be experiencing every emotion

You feel forsaken.

You feel anger to the cause of the sin

You desire a day when the tormenters are tormented.

You are asking how you will sing in a strange land.

Confess sin, pray to God, and patiently wait for the day your song returns.