Psalm 137
137:1. By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Water-courses were abundant in Babylon, wherein were not only natural streams but artificial canals; it was some slight comfort to be out of the crowd, and to have a little breathing room, and therefore they sat down, as if to rest a while and solace themselves in their sorrow. In little groups they sat down and made common lamentation, mingling their memories and their tears. The rivers were well enough, but, alas, they were the rivers of Babylon, and the ground whereon the sons of Israel sat was foreign soil, and therefore they wept. Those who came to interrupt their quiet were citizens of the destroying city, and their company was not desired. Everything reminded Israel of her banishment from the holy city, her servitude beneath the shadow of the temple of Bel, her helplessness under a cruel enemy; and therefore her sons and daughters sat down in sorrow.
Yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Nothing else could have subdued their brave spirits; but the remembrance of the temple of their God, the palace of their king, and the centre of their national life quite broke them down. Destruction had swept down all their delights. They did not weep when they remembered the cruelties of Babylon; the memory of fierce oppression dried their tears and made their hearts burn with wrath; but when the beloved city of their solemnities came into their minds they could not refrain from floods of tears. So do true believers mourn when they see the church despoiled, and find themselves unable to succor her: we could bear anything better than this. In our times the Babylon of error ravages the city of God, and the hearts of the faithful are grievously wounded as they see truth fallen in the streets, and unbelief rampant among the professed servants of the Lord. Be it ours to weep in secret for the hurt of our Zion: it is the least thing we can do; ours also to sit down and deeply consider what is to be done. Be it ours, in any case, to keep upon our mind and heart the memory of the church of God which is so dear to us. The frivolous may forget, but Zion is graven on our hearts, and her prosperity is our chief desire.
137:2. The drooping branches appeared to weep as we did, and so we gave to them our instruments of music; the willows could as well make melody as we, for we had no mind for music. In the midst of the willows, or in midst of the rivers, or in the midst of Babylon, it matters little which, they hung their harps. Sad indeed is the child of sorrow when he grows weary of his harp, from which in better days he had been able to draw sweet solaces. Music has charms to give unquiet spirits rest; but when the heart is sorely sad it only mocks the grief which flies to it. People put away their instruments of mirth when a heavy cloud darkens their souls.
137:3. For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song. What cruelty to make a people sigh, and then require them to sing! It is indeed “woe to the conquered” when they are forced to sing to increase the triumph of their conquerors.
And they that wasted us required of us mirth. The captives must not only sing but smile, and add merriment to their music. This was wormwood and gall to the true lovers of God and his chosen land.
Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Nothing would serve their turn but a holy hymn, and a tune sacred to the worship of Jehovah. Nothing will content the Babylonian mockers but one of Israel’s psalms when in her happiest days she sang unto the Lord whose mercy endureth forever: this would make rare fun for their persecutors, who would deride their worship and ridicule their faith in Jehovah. In this demand there was an insult to their God as well as a mockery of themselves, and this made it the more intensely cruel. These wanton persecutors had followed the captives into their retirement, and had remarked upon their sorrowful appearance, and there and then they bade the mourners make mirth for them.
137:4. How shall they sing at all? Sing Jehovah’s song among the uncircumcised? With one voice they refuse, but the refusal is humbly worded by being put in the form of a question. If the men of Babylon were wicked enough to suggest the defiling of holy things for the gratification of curiosity, or for the creation of amusement, the men of Zion had not so hardened their hearts as to be willing to please them at such a fearful cost. There are many things which the ungodly could do, and think nothing of the doing thereof, which the gracious cannot venture upon. The question “How can I?” or How shall we? comes of a tender conscience and an inability to sin which is greatly to be cultivated.
137:5. To sing Zion’s songs for the pleasure of Zion’s foes would be to forget the Holy City. Each Jew declares for himself that he will not do this; for the pronoun alters from “we” to I. Individually the captives pledge themselves to fidelity to Jerusalem, and each one asserts that he had sooner forget the art which drew music from his harp-strings than use it for Babel’s delight.
137:6. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. Thus the singers imprecate eternal silence upon their mouths if they forget Jerusalem to gratify Babylon.
If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. The sacred city must ever be first in their thoughts, the queen of their souls; they had sooner be dumb than dishonor her sacred hymns, and give occasion to the oppressor to ridicule her worship. If such the attachment of a banished Jew to his native land, how much more should we love the church of God. How jealous should we be of her honor, how zealous for her prosperity. Never let us find jests in the words of Scripture, or make amusement out of holy things, lest we be guilty of forgetting the Lord and his cause. It is to be feared that many tongues have lost all power to charm the congregations of the saints because they have forgotten the Gospel, and God has forgotten them.
137:7. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem. The case is left in Jehovah’s hands. He is a God of recompenses, and will deal out justice with impartiality. The Edomites ought to have been friendly with the Israelites, from kinship; but there was a deep hatred and cruel spite displayed by them. The elder loved not to serve the younger, and so when Jacob’s day of tribulation came, Esau was ready to take advantage of it. The captive Israelites, being moved by grief to lodge their plaints with God, also added a prayer for his visitation of the nation which meanly sided with their enemies, and even urged the invaders to more than their usual cruelty.
Who said, Rase it, rare it, even to the foundation thereof. They wished to see the last of Jerusalem and the Jewish state; they would have no stone left standing; they desired to see a clean sweep of temple, palace, wall, and habitation. It is horrible for neighbors to be enemies, worse for them to show their enmity in times of great affliction, worst of all for neighbors to egg others on to malicious deeds. Those are responsible for other people’s sins who would use them as the tool of their own enmity. It is a shame for people to incite the wicked to deeds which they are not able to perform themselves. The Chaldeans were ferocious enough without being excited to greater fury; but Edom’s hate was insatiable. Those deserve to be remembered by vengeance who in evil times do not remember mercy; how much more those who take advantage of calamities to wreak revenge upon sufferers. When Jerusalem’s day of restoration comes Edom will be remembered and wiped out of existence.
137:8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed. Or the destroyer: let us accept the word either way, or both ways: the destroyer would be destroyed, and the psalmist in vision saw her as already destroyed. It is usual to speak of a city as a virgin daughter. Babylon was in her prime and beauty, but she was already doomed for her crimes.
Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. The avenger would be fulfilling an honorable calling in overthrowing a power so brutal, so inhuman. Assyrian and Chaldean armies had been boastfully brutal in their conquests; it was meet that their conduct should be measured back into their own hearts. No awards of punishment can be more unanswerable than those which closely follow the law of retaliation, even to the letter. Babylon must fall, as she caused Jerusalem to fall; and her sack and slaughter must be such as she appointed for other cities. The patriot-poet sitting sorrowfully in his exile finds a solace in the prospect of the overthrow of the empress city which holds him in bondage, and he accounts Cyrus right happy to be ordained to such a righteous work. The whole earth would bless the conqueror for ridding the nations of a tyrant. Future generations would call him blessed for enabling people to breathe again, and for once more making liberty possible upon the earth.
We may rest assured that every unrighteous power is doomed to destruction, and that from the throne of God justice will be measured out to all whose law is force, whose rule is selfishness, and whose policy is oppression. Happy is the one who will help in the overthrow of the spiritual Babylon, which, despite its riches and power, is to be destroyed.
137:9. Fierce was the heart of the Jew who had seen his beloved city the scene of such terrific butchery. His heart pronounced a like sentence upon Babylon. She should be scourged with her own whip of wire. The desire for righteous retribution is rather the spirit of the law than of the Gospel; and yet in moments of righteous wrath the old fire will burn; and while justice survives in the human heart it will not lack for fuel among the various tyrannies which still survive. We shall be wise to view this passage as a prophecy. History informs us that it was literally fulfilled: the Babylonian people in their terror agreed to destroy their own offspring, and men thought themselves happy when they had put their own wives and children to the sword. Horrible as was the whole transaction, it is a thing to be glad of if we take a broad view of the world’s welfare; for Babylon, the gigantic robber, had for many a year slaughtered nations without mercy, and her fall was the rising of many people to a freer and safer state. The murder of innocent infants can never be sufficiently deplored, but it was an incident of ancient warfare which the Babylonians had not omitted in their massacres, and therefore they were not spared it themselves. The revenges of providence may be slow, but they are ever sure; neither can they be received with regret by those who see God’s righteous hand in them. A feeling of universal love is admirable, but it must not be divorced from a keen sense of justice.
The captives in Babylon did not make music, but they poured forth their righteous maledictions, and these were far more than they desire, to their own confusion: they will have little enough to make mirth for them, and more than enough to fill them with misery. The execrations of good men are terrible things, for they are not lightly uttered, and they are heard in heaven. But will despots crush virtue beneath their iron heel and never be punished?
The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
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