Psalm 137
Notes
Transcript
When Sin Exiles You from God
Psalm 137
Psalm 137 is a vivid picture of the soul wrenching despair that God’s people felt as they were in captivity.
Psalm 136 and 137 being back to back is a crazy roller coaster of emotions.
Psalms 136 is exuberant and joyful in praise for their deliverance from captivity.
Psalm 137 is mournful, every line being alive with pain. ( as Derick Kidner says in his book on Psalms).
This Psalm expresses the pain and agony of being in exile.
Most likely written at the end of the exile, Psalm 137 is both a lament psalm and an imprecatory psalm.
It both mourns and curses.
This Psalm in a broader and more applicable context expresses the painful consequences of sin.
Because the children of Judah would not repent from their sin, but kept going back to their sin of Idolatry, they faced one of the worst situations in their nations history.
When we stay in our sin we can expect God to chasten us.
And when we are chastened our song often is lost, we can no longer sing the happy songs of salvation we once enjoyed, this is one of the pictures in this Psalm.
So what do we do when Sin separates us from God?
Of course by this statement we do not speak of a separation regarding salvation, but in our own hearts, we do not feel the same joy and peace we once did.
What can we do?
When a father chastens his child, the child longs to have that closeness back, and hugs the father after his chastisement is over.
What can we do to take those steps to remember what we have lost?
I. Mourn and Remember What Was Lost
I. Mourn and Remember What Was Lost
When sin has snuck in or been invited into the heart of the Child of God…the first step of repentance is to realize and mourn over that lost relationship.
In verses 1-4 we see how they longed to have what they once had.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion.
2 We hanged our harps Upon the willows in the midst thereof.
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.
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land?
They lost something precious:
A. They Lost Their Sanctuary
A. They Lost Their Sanctuary
They sat down by the river and wept when they remembered Zion.
Zion was the place of worship.
The place where they could connect with God had been destroyed.
Zion had been a place of Security, the walls around her brought a feeling safety to their hearts, but now someone had broken through.
Where once they sat within the walls feeling secure, now they sit by the riverside open and exposed.
When we choose to dwell in sin, we close our open heart toward God.
Our connection feels closed, it feels far away.
Our security feels gone…we feel open and vulnerable.
Although that is completely us, never God.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Once the people of Judah repented of their sin, and once the time of their exile was through, God restored them.
It is important for us to note right here that Not all of those from Judah who were living at the end of captivity returned to their homeland.
The majority of the Jews were settled and content in their new home.
They never fully repented and no longer longed to live in the joy of God’s presence.
How sad it is when there are those who never understand the importance of repentance and going back to their walk with God.
They had lost their Sanctuary, but did not see the need to get it back.
We need God’s presence in that sanctuary, it protects us from many harms!
When we walk away from that protection we open our selves up to harm.
I remember when I was in fifth grade I had a teacher in our Christian School that made an extra bulletin board in the back of the classroom that the students could decorate once every few weeks.
My time to decorate it was coming up, and we were challenged to try to think up an image and wording that would, like a parable, would connect an earthly story to a heavenly meaning.
I found an image in a coloring book of a little cartoon mouse hiding under a mushroom during a rainstorm.
So figured out how I could blow that image up with a overhead projector and trace it onto a poster board, then color it in and write “God’s Will” on the mushroom.
I then figured out how I could cut out raindrops out of construction paper and I wrote different sins, and attacks from Satan on the raindrops so that I could place them around the sky.
I believe the verse I had chosen was from Psalm 32:7, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble...”
That image has stuck in my mind ever since then.
God’s great desire is to protect us, but when we step out of His Will we open ourselves us to attack.
But not only had they lost their sanctuary, but...
B. They Lost Their Song
B. They Lost Their Song
2 We hanged our harps Upon the willows in the midst thereof.
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.
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land?
These exiles lost all desire for music due to God’s judgement.
They hung their harps on the trees and sat and mourned.
The Babylonian captors wanted to hear their songs that they had heard about full of joy and excitement, but their response was, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”
Their spirits were crushed, and they longed for the day when they could sing like they once did with freedom and joy.
When we sin, and when we continue in sin, refusing to confess and make it right with God, we lose the same things - the security and the song in our hearts.
So often when I look out as we sing on Sundays I can see who has the joy of the Lord and who doesn’t.
I long for everyone to have this joy and peace and security that is available to us.
But when we continue under sin, whether bitterness, pride, or whatever it may be…we will never have the freedom to sing like we once did.
This is one of the consequences of sin in our lives.
There is something between our hearts and our Savior.
I have often likened the channels of blessings to a water pipe that allows the blessings of God to flow.
But if uncleanness gets in, or mud builds up from our unconfessed sin, we need to go to the Lord and confess, and that confession acts as a rotor-rooter scraping all the mud and junk and cleaning the pipe so that the pure water can once again flow.
Keep your heart pure, and clean before Him and receive the blessings of living in His presence.
If you find yourself under a form of exile yourself…You realize you have lost your sanctuary and your song…Confess, bear through the appointed time of the exile, and allow God to bring you back to fellowship with Him.
The first step is to “Mourn and Remember What Was Lost”
II. Cling to Your Remembrance
II. Cling to Your Remembrance
5 If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning.
6 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.
Throughout the pain and suffering of being in exile, the Psalmist didn’t want to forget What was lost.
Clinging to that thought would help them to make it through.
It urged their heart to push through, we can see the seriousness in his heart.
Rather than forgetting the goodness of God, and of their home, He would rather experience:
A. A Paralyzed Hand
A. A Paralyzed Hand
he says, “Let my right hadn forget her cunning (or skill).”
Obviously a skilled and talented harpist, as he spoke of hanging his harp upon the tree, and the Babylonians sought for him to play and sing for them.
He says he would rather never play again than to lose the remembrance of that which He lost.
I think only someone who plays an instrument can truly understand this depth and this loss.
When I sit to play the piano, especially when I’m alone, I pour my heart and soul out on that piano…it may not always sound good…but it is a way to pray, to praise, to express what I am feeling to God unlike any other.
For a skilled harpist, not just to hang up his harp until he is back, but to say I would rather loose my skill than to forget God’s blessings (Zion).
Years of exhausting practice were a small price to pay for Him to be able to play once again in the presence of God.
He said he would rather have a Paralyzed hand, but also he said he would rather have
B. A Paralyzed Tongue
B. A Paralyzed Tongue
6 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.
He would rather have a paralyzed mouth than to lose the importance of God, and His holy city!
He says if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.
The reference seems to be the incredible joy he received from singing to the Lord.
Singing is an incredible joy.
It is a gift from God.
To be able to stand, whether it is in your kitchen while doing dishes, or in a church full of people, to sing to the Lord is a thrilling and wonderful opportunity and joy.
But the Psalmist says he would rather lose his ability to sing, if He did not keep the Joy of Jerusalem (presence of God) first and foremost in His heart.
Singing does not always equal worship, however worship very often involves singing.
When I was in college, I remember asking the Lord to help me develop my singing voice.
I had been told that I had a great voice for harmony and groups, but I didn’t really have a solo voice.
I received great joy from singing in groups and creating harmony that would bring joy, but I longed to express myself alone.
I asked the Lord to help me be able to sing a solo.
Not too long after that I ended up needing to leave college and found myself at a church in Santa Maria, CA.
They were having a special patriotic service where the mayor, and a couple of other officials would attend.
The pastor wanted the choir to sing the song by John W. Peterson, the Red, White and Blue.
That song called for a soloist to sing some very high notes and hold it for an ungodly number of beats.
In the practice, the pastor had everyone sing along, and when it came to that note, I was the only one that kept singing…although I couldn’t hold the note.
I got the solo whether I wanted it or not.
It was terrifying, my very first solo, in front of a packed crowd including politicians.
I wanted to back out, especially on that day, but God took me back in my mind to that night on my bunk bed, in the dorm at college when I asked God to help my voice mature to where I could sing a solo for Him.
I promised Him that night never to use my voice for the world, but if He would enable me I would sing when I could for Him!
I survived the solo.
I still don’t have the greatest voice out there for sure!
I could never make it in Nashville or anywhere else…But I can make it in church!
But it is all for nought, If I get wrapped up in the joy of singing, and lose why I’m singing in the first place!
The Psalmist would rather lose his ability to play, and lose his voice forever, rather than lose what it is all about!
The Presence of God!
Mourn and Remember What Was Lost
Cling to Your Remembrance
III. Trust God for Justice
III. Trust God for Justice
7 Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
8 O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee As thou hast served us.
9 Happy shall he be, that taketh And dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
Even though the people of Judah were receiving the justice that they deserved for their sin, The tools of this justice went farther than decency required.
Here the Psalmist talks about the Edomites taunting God’s people as they were taken captive, adding insult to injury.
Crying out of the Babylonians to tear down the city completely, crying out, “rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.”
The excessiveness of their cruelty is the reason the Psalmist cries for the Lord to remember them in judgement.
Even the prophets had prophesied that God’s judgment would fall on Edom because of their acts against Israel.
The Psalmist then turns to the Babylonians for their cruelty and asks God for justice.
They will be destroyed, and the Lord will justly judge them because of how they treated His people…even praying God’s blessing on the enemy of Babylon who would destroy them.
Verse 9 is hard to read, but the Psalmist is asking for God’s blessing on the enemy who would dash the little ones against he stones.
Someone said, “This is perhaps the most painful imprecation (curse) in the Book of Psalms. To the exiled psalmist, those who had ravaged the Holy Land deserved no better.”
He desired perfect justice for those who had slaughtered and enslaved God’s people.
That they receive exactly what they themselves had done.
There is no doubt that the memories of what the Babylonians had done in Jerusalem was very fresh in this Psalmist mind.
And in that pain, he asks God for justice.
Warren Wiersbe says, “They had abused the elderly, they murdered the babies and children, they violated the women, and they killed promiscuously. Though these practice may have been a normal part of ancient warfare, Babylon went to he extreme in their inhumanity.”
The ancient nation of Babylon is a picture of the entire world system that is against God.
They can reach unimaginable cruelty against God’s People, but when we find ourselves in these situations, even if it were our sins that brought us there…we must trust God for justice.
Far worse is ahead under the reign of the antichrist in the end times.
Although I believe we will be with the Lord in the air, there will be some who trust in Christ and refuse the mark of the Beast.
And they will suffer for the Lord greatly, and cruelly.
But when Christ returns to earth, He will execute justice and destroy all ungodliness and evil in the world.
And Babylon will fall under the mighty hand of God, just as they did many years ago!
Until then, when you find yourself in an exile because of your sin, confess your sin, Mourn and remember what you have lost — then cling to that remembrance — then trust God for Justice.