Read: Psalm 137
O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (Psalm 137:8-9, NRSV).
Before you back away from this text in horror, pause for a minute to think about what’s behind it. And before you wish you could somehow cut it out of the canon, consider what it asks of you. Finally, bear in mind the awful possibility that you might need it someday.
Now, let’s look at all of these suggestions one at a time.
What’s behind this outburst? The first clue comes from the opening of the psalm, which is unusual for the specificity of its context. Most psalms are hard to pin down historically, but this one is clearly a psalm that was written “by the rivers of Babylon.” In other words, it was written by someone who had experienced the trauma and disillusionment that came when the Babylonian army swooped into Judah in 587 BCE. This was written by someone who had seen the Temple burned, the land lost, and scores of friends and relatives murdered. (So much for God’s promises to Abraham….)This was written by someone who had been carted off into a strange land to wait and wonder if God was even paying attention.
The second clue as to what brought this on is in the words, “Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!” What’s been done, specifically? The next verse offers another clue. Imagine reading it with this inflection: “Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!” That’s right. These are the words of someone who has witnessed their children dashed against the rocks.
Suddenly, this psalm doesn’t seem so repugnant. Or perhaps it is, but we are beginning to understand why someone would scream it. We might scream it, too, if we had experienced what they had.
Now let’s consider what this psalm asks of us. At the very least, I think it’s an invitation to stand beside people who have suffered such atrocities. Unfortunately, war crimes are still being committed. While we may be tempted to run away, this psalm asks us to stay—to stand beside those who suffer and listen to their lament. Even more, it invites us to do whatever we can to put a stop to such horrors.
Finally—though it pushes us to think about the unthinkable—we need to bear in mind the awful possibility that we might need words like this someday. God forbid we should, but the very fact that this cry from the heart of darkness is part of Scripture implies that these words are not off limits. They are not pretty, but they are permitted. We can say them, and God can handle them.
The last half of Psalm 137 will never win any popularity contexts. But before we cut it from the canon, we need to imagine ourselves standing beside the person who wrote it. Because it is with Bible study as it is with real estate; the three most important words are location, location, location.
Ponder: Do you hear v. 8 as a cry for vengeance or a cry for justice? What’s the difference?
Pray: Give us the courage to stand beside those who suffer, merciful God. And when we suffer, give others the courage to stand beside us.