Daily Bible Reading Sunday 27th October 2024
by William Moody
Psalms 137–138
How Shall We Sing the Lord’s Song?
137:1 By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows1 there
we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors
required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the LORD’s song
in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget its skill!
6 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!
7 Remember, O LORD, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem,
how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare,
down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed,
blessed shall he be who repays you
with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!
Give Thanks to the Lord
Of David.
138:1 I give you thanks, O LORD, with my whole heart;
before the gods I sing your praise;
2 I bow down toward your holy temple
and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness,
for you have exalted above all things
your name and your word.2
3 On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased.3
4 All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O LORD,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,
5 and they shall sing of the ways of the LORD,
for great is the glory of the LORD.
6 For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly,
but the haughty he knows from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies,
and your right hand delivers me.
8 The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.Footnotes
[1] 137:2
Or poplars
[2] 138:2Or you have exalted your word above all your name
[3] 138:3Hebrew you made me bold in my soul with strength (ESV)
Psalm 137 was written during the exile in Babylon. The people are in great anguish (v1), as they remember Jerusalem (Zion), which they have been forcibly taken away from. Their captors are mocking them, calling on them to sing (v3), but they have no heart for praise having been moved from the Promised Land (v4).
To go on as if things were okay, they see as a betrayal of Jerusalem (v5-6). There minds can not forget the terrible destruction of Jerusalem, which the Edomites played their part in (v7). They call on God to punish both the Edomites and the Babylonians (v8-9).
As we think to apply this Psalm to our lives, it reminds us that there can be times when we feel so broken there is not tune of praise in our hearts. This can be due to terrible circumstances of days of what are called the darkness of the soul. Like the writer of this Psalm, in those occasions, all we can do is to unburden ourselves before the Lord.
Some of these dark situations can be not because of any fault of our own, but others can be because of our sin, as in the case of the exile of the people of Jerusalem. At such times repentance has to be part of our praying.
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