Psalm 137
"The Silent Night of the Old Covenant"
This is a dark night. Very dark. God's people of the Old Covenant had reached
a point that no Christian today, I'm sure, ever expects to experience.
Their faith, their walk with the Lord, had been reduced to only a memory.
The praise of their souls to silence. Their only thoughts, hopeless bitterness.
The glorious treasure of untold victories erased by sweeping and devastating
defeat:
Verses 1- "By the rivers
of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion."
The night Jesus was born was a night of hope. It was a beginning. This
is an end, and this next line just makes me cringe:
Verse 2- "We hanged our
harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."
Satan wants you and I today
to hang up our harps of praise to the Lord and go "silent." This passage
and others tell us that the Old Covenant ended in defeat. Their praise
and walk came to an end.
Verse 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."
It was more than just being captive, carried away, and taunted. God's
people knew, deep down, that they had done all this to themselves, and
that God had allowed it, because of their disobedience. That was what stung
so badly. That is what silenced them.
Verse 4- "How shall we sing
the Lord's song in a strange land?
The long-dreaded curse that
was part of their Covenant with God finally had come:
Deuteronomy 11:26-28- "Behold
I set before you this day (This is God speaking to them through Moses
and the Law.)
a blessing and a curse; A blessing if you obey the commandments
of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if you
will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out
of the way which I commanded you this day, to go after other gods, which
ye have not known."
This Psalm ends with their responses to being cursed. The first is somewhat
pitiful:
Verse 5-6- "If I forget
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. 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."
That may sound holy enough,
but what they say next reveals much, maybe too much for our tastes, about
what they had become through unbelief, selfishness, and bitterness:
Verse 7-9- "Remember. O
Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it,
rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art
to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served
us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against
the stones."
Beloved, when we study the entire Bible, God makes us look at some
unpleasant and difficult things. The Bible is not a story book. It's not
meant to entertain or tantalize. It's real. And nothing is so frightening
as what is real. Yet, I want to make something very clear here. I do not
condemn the Israelites of that day. They were not so different from you
or me. If we do not obey our New Covenant commandments (to love God with
our whole hearts and our neighbors (even our enemies!) as ourselves) we
can wind up defeated, bitter, and obsessed with vengeance. I've seen it
in others. I've seen in the Church today. And, sadly, I've flirted with
it myself in my own Christian life and ministry. O, yes, God has a curse
for me too. I am no better than they were, and I know it, beloved! But
just when I arrive at my Babylon, just when I'm reaching out to hang up
my harp for good, help arrives!
You see, you and I live under a better Covenant than the one the people
in this Psalm had (see Hebrews 8:6). It's not better because we are any
better. We are not. But we have better leadership. We have Christ. He's
better than Abraham (see John 8:56-58), Moses (see Hebrews 3:1-3), Joshua
(see Hebrews 4:8), David (see Matt 22:42-45), Solomon or Jonah (see Luke
11:31-32). And WHEN we FOLLOW and OBEY Him, we are superior, too. At least,
that is what Christ has said of us:
Luke 7:28- "For I say unto
you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet
than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater
than he."
The New Covenant is a miracle.
It's the greatest news. OUR leader is not just a man influenced by God.
He is God. God with us! God taking all the curse for us! If you are in
Babylon today, beloved, just take His hand and walk out.