When someone has lost everything that had been in their family for generations to those who show no compassion or decency, they can become very bitter. If, because of that loss, they become captives and are limited in everything they do to the capricious will of those who took everything they owned, that bitterness becomes deep-seated, and it does not go away. That is what is behind the words of this psalm. Some of the words are so hurtful that “higher critics” reject this psalm and think it should be taken out of the Bible. Some people call the Bible “hate literature” because of passages like this.
Other naïve people scan the pages of the Bible with a jaundiced eye and overlook this psalm as an oddity that is not to be taken seriously. “After all,” they say, “The Bible is just a book with some good teachings in it and some things that are bad.” They do not believe in the Holy Spirit's divine inspiration of the scriptures. Bible-believing Christians take time to look at this unusual historical psalm and consider by whom it was written, where it was written, why it was written, and the circumstances surrounding the writing.
It has to do with the bondage in which the people of Judah found themselves. They had ignored warnings from God through the prophets. They had engaged in idolatry and linked themselves in marriage, business, and religion with the unbelievers around them. The prophecy of seventy years of captivity had come true, and they were captives in Babylon. Apart from a few incidents in which individual believers remained faithful to the Lord in spite of captivity, very little is said about those years of captivity.
Captivity brings heartbreak, remorse, and mourning for the condition in which the captives are found. Captivity for a lifetime generally brings a deep hatred for the captors, but also, in the hearts of those who love God and are caught up in the tragedy of the place where they live, it deepens love for God, as in Daniel and others. Even when others with whom we may be associated have turned aside from obedience to the Lord and commitment to the word of God, it is our responsibility to remain true to the Lord in spite of what others might do and the pressures they put on us to conform to their ways. During those silent years of captivity, there were at least 50,000 who did not forget Zion.
When those people were pressured by their captors, who ridiculed them and their faith in God, to sing the psalms and hymns they had learned, they refused. Instead of singing, they hung their harps on the willow trees by the river where they sat down and cried for what they had done and what they had lost. Dejection brings despair. Despair brings desperation, and desperation brings a deep-seated anger. Guilt brings the weeping of remorse, and it is impossible to sing songs of faith and hope when sorrow has overwhelmed us. When our songs are silenced, we have lost the joy of fellowship with God and others of like precious faith.
The singing of the children of Israel when they had previously come together at Zion would have been majestic and renowned across the Middle East. There was a temple choir of Levites that led the singing in the temple when all the pilgrims came for the seven feasts of Jehovah. Thousands of people singing the psalms in unison would have sent an unmatched volume of praise to God that would not easily be forgotten. Those in exile would have remembered how they began singing the psalms of degrees when they left home to travel to Zion, and as they went, they would have been joined by others going to the same place, singing the same psalms. When all voices were joined together in Zion under the leadership of the choir of Levites, the volume of praise would have been heard all over Mount Zion. That would be a little foretaste of the singing of the saints in heaven when we sing. “Unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.”
It would have been sacrilege to sing the Lord’s song among the idols and idolaters of Babylon. Appropriate singing at appropriate times is a wonderful experience of praise and worship. When the music of Zion becomes a form of entertainment, and the sounds become more important than the words, then it is inappropriate for the Lord’s people to consider that true praise and worship. We lose our song when we have a pessimistic view of life, of the assembly, and of our relationship with God and His people. We lose our song when we allow ourselves to become discouraged by things that are outside our area of responsibility. We lose our song when we sin.
When there is allegiance to the Lord, even in the hard circumstances of life, or when we have been unjustly accused and rejected by people, we can still sing our song, even though it may be sung with tears flowing down our faces. There will be a day of just retribution for those who are enemies of the cross of Christ and of God’s people. But that retribution is God’s prerogative, not ours. His course of action will be appropriate to His divine and sovereign will.
This is a day of grace. The tribulation will follow and will conclude with a day of righteous judgment and justice against those who oppose and hate God and His people. The day in which we live is similar to the day when children were allowed by God to be killed in their innocence before they became responsible for continuing to follow the sins of their fathers. In this country, and worldwide, innocent, defenseless children are being killed before they are even born, and some after. How great is the judgment that will be on those who engaged in such a terrible thing, or even supported it!
PSALM 137 LONGING FOR HOME v.1-3. Sorrow in exile. “We wept…” v.4-6. Love for Jerusalem. “How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” v.7-9. Hatred toward enemies of God. “Edom… Babylon…”