Psalm 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6 (6ab)

“By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137:1)

Most psalms are cherished by Christians; this one is not. Its closing verses strike us as unimaginable cruelty. This corporate prayer psalm is clearly set in the Babylonian exile. We must understand what was at stake here for the exiled people of Judah. Deportation by the Babylonians was cruel: Judah lost not only a homeland but also the temple where their God had revealed himself, the king through whom God exercised his rule, and the land through which God blessed his people. Both their existence as a people and their faith in God were jeopardized. Christians may have difficulty identifying with such a localized religion (see esp. v. 4), but at this point of Yahweh’s progressive revelation, place was very much tied to people—God’s people.

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