SUMMER IN THE PSALMS: Psalm 137

Chris McCurley: It was eighteen thirty-five when a revolution began. You see, at the time these people did not realize that this revolution that was about to happen was going to go down in history. You see, before the state of Texas became part of the United States, back then they were a part of Mexico. The Mexican government had made some changes that Texas was not very thrilled with. So in October of eighteen thirty-five, they decided that they were going to split apart from Mexico. For months they went back and forth, soldiers fighting, with lots of lives being lost. On February 23rd, 1836, residents of San Antonio de Bear, which is now considered San Antonio today, received an alarming message. You see, a messenger came into town and he said, Brace for it. The Mexican general Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana and his army were going to come in and they were going to take over the city of San Antonio. Naturally, the residents were panicked. So, what they did is they gathered up their stuff and they started fleeing. Historians even recount that there were some who were fleeing the city who could look up and see a hill, maybe a mile and a half away, and just see a sea of Mexican soldiers. And so Santa Ana continued to push into the city. In the middle of San Antonio, this is the important part, there sat a Catholic mission. It was established around the 17th century. We know it today as an Alamo. This was a place of safety. It was a place of refuge. And what Santa what wow, I can't pronounce his name. Santa Anna did is he came in and he sieged it. For 13 days from February 23rd all the way to March 6th. The Texan soldiers could get no supplies. And then on March 6th, what happened? Was Santa Ana pushed into the Alamo and took it down? The Texans put up a hard fight, but they just could not keep up. They were outmatched, they were outnumbered, and they suffered a brutal loss. Even Davy Crockett, who came from this very state to come help the Texans, lost his life in this battle. I wonder if that's how Judah felt. As Judah was in the promised land, I want you to consider 2 Kings 24. Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamudel, the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah, and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord according to all that Jehoiakim had done. Here's where we're at this morning. We are looking at Judah, and we are looking through the kings of Judah, and Zedekiah is reigning. He was not a good king. He did so much evil. So continue reading. For because of the anger of the Lord, because Zedekiah was doing wrong, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence, and Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. So the Lord is mad at Zedekiah, and he cannot stand what he's doing. So the Lord literally casts them, the people of Judah, out from his presence. Keep going into chapter 25. And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar. King of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem and laid siege to it, and they built siege works all around it. So we are in a very similar situation to what the Texans were going through. The Babylonian army has come, and they have sieged the city of Jerusalem, and they're going to take it captive. Continue in verse 2. So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. This was a really long time. This was not thirteen days. On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate, between the two walls, by the king's garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city, and they went in the direction of the Arabah. Keep reading, stick with me. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Ribla, and they passed sentence on him. They slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, and took him to Babylon. This morning what we are going to do is we're going to be studying Psalm 137. If you would be in your Bibles there, we're going to put it up on the screen, but I would encourage you to look for yourself. What's happening in Psalm 137 is exactly this. The king has been slaughtered, the city of Babylon has been besieged, and now Judah is brought into Babylonian captivity. I want to remind you before we look at the text that at the beginning of this series, somewhere in the Psalms, Chris reminded us of two things that I want to bring up this morning. The first one is: as you enter the songs, you see God's story sung back to you in poetry. I stole that line from him, don't tell him I did that. This is a crucial part of God's story. We see God's chosen people in this promised land that have rebelled against God, that have sinned, and now they are brought into Babylonian captivity. The Psalms can be divided into four different things: Messiah, Torah, Temple, and Kingdom of God. This morning, the Psalm we are going to look at, Psalm 137, is known as a psalm that deals with the kingdom of God. What we're going to do is we're going to break This Psalm into three sections, and then I have some applications for you as we consider our walk with Jesus. Let's begin this morning. Psalm 137, beginning in verse 1. By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Here's where Judah is at. Judah has messed up. They have done so much wrong. They have rebelled against God. Now they're in captivity, and this is their state. It doesn't talk about that Judah was sad. Literally, this is how it went. By the rivers of Babylon, we sat down and we wept, we cried over and over because we are in a place we don't know where we've been, we have been brought captive, and we have lost all hope. You notice verse 2, it talks about on the willows there we hung up our lyres. Israel Israel, Judah has given up. They have hung up their liars there, and they've said, We can't do this. Anymore. Verse 3 gives us the reason why. These Babylonian captors they wanted songs, and scholars are debating whether or not this was a curiosity of Zion. I think it was a mockery. As Judah is in captivity, Babylon is looking at these people and they're saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. Sing us one of the songs of your homeland that you are not in any longer. Some of you might have seen the movie Odyssey. One I'm not gonna spoil that movie, by the way, so brace for it. But one of the things they reminded us about was that during the Trojan War, when Homer was writing his book, one of the things he recounted was that in order to remember the Trojan War, they would sing songs and they would pass these down orally for generations to remember those accounts. This is what Judah has been doing. They've been saying for for years, they have said, sing us one of the Psalm 48, 1-3. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God. His holy mountain, beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth. Mount Zion in the far north, the city of the great king. Within her citadels, God has made himself known as a fortress. And then the other psalm. Psalm 87, 1-3. On the holy mount stands the city that he, the Lord, Founded. The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. This psalm begins with lament, with tears, with sadness. Babylon has been put into captivity. They are being mocked, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. But I want you to notice their reaction. Verse 4. Judah is being tormented, they respond. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy. I love Judah's reaction here. Because as they are being tormented, Judah's going to stand up for what is right. Yes, they have messed up and they have done wrong, but when they're being mocked saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion, they're saying, How can we do this in a foreign land? We have been put into captivity and we are not going to be mocked. We are not going to sing the Lord's song that is holy and that is reverent. We are not going to do it in a way that we are going to be mocked. Verse 4 introduces us to this remnant because there are people who have just left God and yet there is still this group that wants to follow God, that wants to obey him. And they just want to go home. Notice how it continues. If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. We're going to see two metaphors in this passage. The first one is pretty common. Let my right hand forget its skill. Let me be useless. If I forget about the city that we were in that the Lord gave to us, if I forget about that, let me be useless and have no purpose anymore. The second metaphor. May not be as common, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth. This phrase is seen in some other passage. We'll consider Job 29. And what's going on as Job is writing this, he is talking about before his suffering, when he would walk into the kingdom. Notice how it reads: Job 29 and verse 10. The voice of the nobles was hushed. And their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. These nobles were stunned as Job walked into the city. And then Ezekiel 3 and 26. And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house. When we look at let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, it literally means, let me speak no longer. Let me be mute for the rest of the days. And this is what the psalmist is saying. If I forget the holy city that we dwelt in, that we sang songs about for all the time, let me be useless and let me just be quiet. This passage of scripture ends with: If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let me put it above my highest joy. The psalmist is saying here that whatever may happen, whatever may come in my presence, let me keep Jerusalem up here and everything else below. The psalmist knows where his priorities are at. And even though they are in captivity, this psalmist and his people, they just want to go home. Let them put Jerusalem above my highest joys. And then notice how this Psalm ends. Verse 7. Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites, the day of Jerusalem, how they said, Lay it bare, lay it bare down to its foundations. O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed. Blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us. Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock. This is some pretty vivid imagery, isn't it? What the psalmist is doing is he is talking about Edom, how he teased how Edom was going to bring Jerusalem down, how they said, lay it bare down to its foundations. We know what happened, right? Think about what the prophet Obadiah said. It's a very short book, but he talks about the destruction that's going to happen to Edom. Will I not on that day, declares the Lord, destroy the wise men out of Edom and understanding out of Mount Esau? And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Temon, so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter because of the violence done to your brother Jacob. Shame shall cover you, and you shall be cut off. Cut off forever. On the day that you stood aloof, on the day that strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them. The prophet Obadiah told Edom, because what you have done to Jerusalem, because you have come into my holy city and you have done so much harm, what the Lord is going to do is going to cause you even greater harm. Because the Lord's city is not going to be messed with. What the psalmist says here to close this chapter, he talks about how Edom said, lay it bare. Babylon is doing the exact same thing. They think they've got it figured out. They think we've got the Lord's people. They are in captivity. And yet the psalmist says, No. The psalmist holds out hope. He says, Blessed shall he be who causes destruction to Babylon. Blessed shall he be who dashes the infant against the rock. Again, look over that vivid imagery for now, and just here's what I want you to know from that verse. It's going to be a really bad day for Babylon. But the psalmist is holding out hope. This remnant that is making sure they have not forgotten Jerusalem. Knows that one day the Lord is going to bring them back. Because when it talks about blessed is the one who is going to bring this destruction to Babylon, I can only imagine that it can be inferred that this psalmist is talking about the Lord, that whoever brings destruction to Babylon, it is going to come through the hand of the Lord. So what the psalmist is saying here very plainly is that we've gotten ourselves in this situation. But help me not to forget Jerusalem and to stand strong. Now that we have looked at this psalm together, let's go to the next slide if we can. Next one. We're good. I want to give you three applications and then the lesson will be yours. Thank you, A.B. guys. The first one: it is okay to let it out. Think about the beginning of the psalm for a minute. A lot of people, when you read this psalm, they might think about it as a lament, as a psalm of mourning, that Israel Israel, I did it again, that Judah has been put into this situation that they don't want to be in. But this psalm shows us that it's okay to let it out. In your grief, in your mistakes, in your sorrow, in your shame, in your guilt. It's okay to let it up. You see, there is a time and place for it. It's not good for us to get caught up in our sorrows and shame. But sometimes we've got things boiled in that are inside of us that we have just bottled them up and we need to get them out. Even when we messed up, think about it. We talked about at the beginning of this lesson. Judah messed up and did wrong. They got themselves into captivity, and yet the Lord still allowed them to mourn. Consider what 1 Peter 5 says. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. In your sorrow and your mourning and your shame, the Lord cares for us this morning. He wants to hear our cries and our pleas. He wants to bear the burden so that we don't have to bear anymore. What a blessing that is. That the Lord, even in our mistakes and our sorrow, can handle our griefs. It's okay to let it out. And then the second application for you: remember where we're headed. Do you remember when Judah was in a foreign land, they knew they weren't home. And they talked about the city that we came from, let us not forget it and put us above our highest joy. When we think about heaven for a minute. The eternal inheritance that we have for those who are in Christ, who live a life of obedience to him. This is where we're headed. The Bible literally describes heaven. It talks about in Revelation 21 as a new heavens and a new earth, and it calls it a new Jerusalem. We are going to a land where there is no sorrow, where there is no sadness, and we get to be with King Jesus on his throne forever. That's where we're going. But until we get there, right now we're in a foreign land. I appreciate the song that Austin led. This world truly is not our home. We have a home that is greater. I want you to consider Philippians chapter three and verse twenty, because what Paul is doing is he is writing to the church in Philippi and he says to conclude chapter three, but our citizenship for Christians is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things. To ourselves. For those of us who are in Christ, us as Christians, remember where we're headed. We're going home. And then the third application for you: don't lose hope. Give me a few more minutes. Here's what I want you to understand from this: that as we are going through this world with all of its trials and tribulations and joys and good things, Don't lose hope. I don't know what your situation is this morning. I don't know what you were going through this past week when you walked through those doors. But I do know this. The Lord cares for us. He wants us to have a home in heaven with him. We as Christians, our entire walk is based on hope. Hebrews 11:1 talks about that faith is the substance of things, you know it, hoped for. This is our hope in Christ Jesus. That whatever we may be going through, whatever things might have taken us captive, we get to go to heaven, and that brings us hope. Paul would say in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, as we, as Paul is talking about, he wants the gospel of grace to be spread to every individual. He says, so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the Things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. Can I tell us this morning that the things that are unseen are eternal? We get to be in heaven forever. You remember how I told you about the Texans? How they lost the how they lost the battle of the Alamo? What I didn't tell you is that a few survivors actually escaped. They were able to make it out. And what they did is they went to other bases in Texas and they brought report about what happened to the Alamo. This riled up Texas. They were furious. They could not believe what had happened to their own people. And so a month later, in April, the Texan soldiers saw Santa Ana and his army on the San Jacino River. And they were going to ambush him. And as they were charging him, as they were going towards Santa Ana, they cried out, Remember the Alamo. Remember what happened to our people. They went and they stood strong for what they believed in. And us as Christians this morning, this is our mission statement. When I was practicing this, I said, This is our mission statement. Remember the Alamo. No, remember Jerusalem. Remember heaven. Remember where we are going. That's our home. That's what I look forward to. But until we get there, let's remember the hope that we have in Christ Jesus. Let's remember that no matter what may happen, we've got a land that is getting there this morning. What we're going to do is we're going to offer an invitation. And again, I don't know what situation you may be going through this morning, but here's what I do know. In the two months that I have been here, that I have gotten to know some wonderful people, that I have gotten to be a part of a church that cares about souls, that wants each and every one of us to go to heaven. There's some really great people here. I've loved getting to know y'all. I have loved getting to know the relate to make relationships with you all. And I love you all this morning. But if you are here and you are struggling, if you are here and you've just lost your hope, what we're going to do is offer an invitation. And maybe it's the case that you need to be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins. Maybe it's the case that you need prayers of this congregation. Whatever it may be this morning, I hope you'll make the right decision. Won't you come while together we stand and while we sing?

Hebrews 11:1 2 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention