The Lord’s Day
March 20, 2011
Living by Faith in the Present Age and the Completion of God’s
Redemptive Purpose in History
Psalm 37
Introduction:
In what is called by some the Third Balkan War, extending from 1991 to the present, approximately 2.5 million people have been internally displaced. This means that they had to flee their homes and possessions to save life. These peoples look longingly back to their former lives morning their losses which may never be regained.
One phrase describes this drawn out Balkan conflict: mutual ethnic cleansing. Nationalism was the god from the political idol factory that moved people to do unmentionable violence. There is no shortage of ways and means that demonic humans can conceive to destroy an ethnic group.
The cutting edge of ethnic hatred split families apart, separating mothers and their children and husbands from their wives. In a patrilineal society, children take the ethnicity of the father. I met an 18 year old boy in Belgrade who wept as he told me that he had not seen his mother in 10 years. They lived just 120 miles apart, but were separated by the impassible chasms of the irrationality of racism and the idolatry of nationalism.
The Siege of Sarajevo is the longest siege in the history of modern warfare, spanning nearly 4 years. 18,000 Serb soldiers with heavy artillery took positions on the hills surrounding the city. Due to snipers, people buried their dead in secret in narrow passage ways between buildings. The disorientation caused by the stress of living under years of siege manifested itself by some people walking in the streets, daring the snipers. One resident said that as she walked outside the place on her head would begin to itch where she imagined the bullet was going to hit.
War and all of its accompanying atrocities are the precursors of the judgment of God that is coming on the present age. War, pestilence, and famine are God’s messengers to the world announcing that men must repent or perish tragically. In the catastrophes of the ages, God is accomplishing His redemptive purpose in the world.
I give this illustration from modern warfare to aid us to feel, at least, some of the emotion of Psalm 137. Many struggle with the seeming harshness of its imprecations. The struggle is due in part to not having experienced the unspeakable atrocities of siege. Think of Zedekiah whose sons were slain before him and then his eyes gouged out of his head as if in some way to intensify his losses.
Some may wrestle with imprecatory psalms because of their view of the holiness of God and by necessity a skewed view of evil and wickedness. Still others may object that such imprecations are contrary to the teachings of Jesus. We must learn the difference between personal revenge and vengeance. Jesus warned against seeking personal revenge, which the OT also warns against (Lev. 19:18; Prov. 25:21-22). Psalm 137 does not call for personal revenge but for the God’s judgment.
Curse and covenant go hand in hand (Gen 12:3 “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you.). Jesus pronounced curses (Matt. 23:23-33). Paul cursed those who preach another gospel (Gal. 1:8-9). The martyrs call for God’s judgment (Rev. 6:9-11). In Revelation 22:12, Jesus is coming to repay everyone for what he has done.
While the psalm lacks a superscription, it seems to have been written by one of the exiles taken from the Southern kingdom to Babylon. The ultimate siege that led to the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was horrific. Such faith defying terror was imprinted in the minds of the exiles, especially in hearts of the faithful.
Psalm 37 is a community lament. It comes from the community of God’s people, His covenant people, who were trying to make theological sense of their situation. In other words, Psalm 37 is the voice of faith crying out when present experience and the pagan world mock the faithful.
The basic assumption of popular Israelite theology in the centuries leading to the exile was that God would never allow any nation to conquer Israel, take Jerusalem, and destroy the Temple. In direct opposition to such presumption masquerading as faith, God sent his the writing prophets—Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, and Jeremiah.
Ignoring the warnings of God prophets, the people of the SK by and large continues to listen the health wealth, peace and safety prophets of the day. In 605 they became vassal to Babylon. Still unwilling to repent, in 597, Babylon took King Jehoiachin and others captive to Babylon. Still hardened in rebellion, Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem ultimately destroying the city and the temple in 586 B.C. They took yet more Israelites captive.
In the grand scheme of things, not many captives were taken to Babylon, but those who were taken were the best and the brightest of the SK. Common folk, those deemed useless to Babylon, were left in the land. This means that the faithful along with the faithless were taken to Babylon. God had a redemptive mission for the faithful in captivity. Think of Ezekiel and Daniel.
The idea of exile raised all kinds of theological problems. It essentially raised the same problems that Jesus as Messiah raised. It raised the same issue that the NT mandate to evangelize all nations raised. Had God cast off His people? Does God keep His promises? The promise of land to Abraham and his descendents anticipated the restoration of paradise; it symbolized the consummation of God’s redemptive purposes (NICOT, Robertson p. 1).
With the loss of the land, the symbol of redemption, God appears to be unfaithful or unable to keep His promises. The writing prophets defend God’s faithfulness to His promises and show what it means to have vital faith in God and His goodness and His work of redemption in circumstances that defy all of our previous thought about God.
The prophets compel us to be big picture people. Since the dawn of creation, God has been working out His redemptive purposes to bring glory to Himself by saving sinners. We call this outworking of God’s plan in history redemptive history. The story of the Bible is redemptive history.
In the grand drama of redemptive history, God brings nations to the stage of world history in their rise and fall to secure the good of His people and accomplish His redemptive purposes. He brought Assyria to power to discipline the NK and keep Manasseh in check. When Josiah came to the throne, Assyria weakened, and Babylon had not yet gained international prestige. After Josiah’s death, Babylon’s rise and fall parallels the 70 years captivity. When God is ready to put his people back in the land, he brings Darius and later Cyrus to power.
You can see such a theological understand emerge in the prophets. Habakkuk complained that God was doing nothing about the injustice of His day. God’s reply is: Look among the nation, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told (Hab. 1:5). What was God doing which was so unbelievable? He was doing the very thing that the popular theology of the day said was uncharacteristic of God. He was raising up the Chaldeans to judge His people and preserve His remnant. God is accomplishing His work of redemption through the Chaldeans. How often we despise, question, and malign God’s redemptive work.
There is compatibility between God’s promises and faithfulness and national and person tragedy in His work of redemption. God’s ultimate scheme of redemption would narrow to 1 faithful Israelite. The remnant would be reduced to 1 man, who would suffer and die and be raised and reign to complete God’s redemptive plan. God guides history to His redemptive goal that will be consummated in the resurrection of the dead and the marriage of heaven and earth in the KOG.
The ministry of the prophets prepared the faithful for captivity. They gained a theological perspective that would enable them to live faithfully in captivity. This is what we see in Psalm 137. If Book 1 of the Psalter show the establishment of the Davidic kingdom, Book 2 the transfer, Book 3 the fall of the Davidic dynasty, Books 4 and 5 show how to live by faith in the absence of the Davidic King. Psalm 137 is about living by faith in this present age that contradicts everything we hold to be true. This psalm shows the community of faith how to live in a strange land by faith in God’s redemptive purpose.
Vv1-3 The Lament of Faith
The psalm appears to have been written from the perspective of the community looking back on their experience in captivity (the past tense verbs). The psalm is surrounded by psalms of praise and thanksgiving. Often God’s people find themselves in circumstances that take the perspective of better days to see the wisdom and love of God’s purpose.
This community of exiles were settled (sat or dwelled) by the rivers of Babylon. For many of the exiles, life in Babylon was good. Jeremiah sent the exiles a letter:
It said: This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: \"Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.\" (Jer. 29:3ff.
They prospered. Babylonian captivity was not at all like Egyptian slavery. In fact, most of the exiles never returned to the land. Yet, when the faithful remembered Zion, they wept.
Zion is used of Jerusalem, the temple mount, and the entire nation. Here the psalmist uses it in a covenantal sense. The songs of Zion (v.3) and the Lord’s song (v 4) are used synonymously. These are the joyful songs of God’s covenant faithfulness, the loving kindness of God in redeeming, protecting, and reigning over His people.
Their tormentors taunted them demanding of them songs of joy, the songs of Zion. This is like saying, Where is your God now? Sing the songs of His great salvation. Let’s see your joy, now! As a result, they hung their harps in the trees.
Vv4-6 A Confession of Faith
Reflecting on their circumstances and the mocking of their captors, the faithful ask, How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a foreign land? See the struggle of faith in their question. Faith finds the answer. Faith says there is no incompatibility between our circumstances and God’s loving-kindness. Faith lays hold of God’s redeeming purpose and hangs on through the doubts and fears of living in a strange land.
Listen to the confession of faith in the form of self-imprecations in verses 5-6. If I don’t remember Zion, let me forget how to play the harp. If Jerusalem is not my greatest joy, let me lose my ability to sing.
There is no distinction in these verses between love for God and faith in God and love for Zion. It is not that Zion is God. It is not that God is only in Zion. It is that Zion symbolizes the rule and reign of God. God reigns over all circumstances for the good of his people. Remembering is the language of faith, trust, and loyalty. No matter what the circumstance God is their only and all-sufficient hope.
Vv7-9 Faith in the Completion of God’s Redemptive Plan
Faith in future deliverance is expressed in the form of imprecations against Edom and Babylon. Some people want to criticize the curses found in some of the psalms. The curses are not expressions personal vindictiveness, but confessions of faith in the Word and character of God, who will right every wrong. In the final analysis, no difference exists between these imprecations and our prayers for the Kingdom to come.
As the faithful, remember (v.6) as an expression of faithfulness, so the LORD remembers as an expression of covenant faithfulness. The LORD is called on to remember Edom for aiding Jerusalem’s enemies. Foundations refer to more than walls and buildings. The foundations that Edom hated was God’s established order in creation, in His rule, and in His election of a people to Himself (EBC, v.5 p. 829). God’s rule cannot be overthrown. Obadiah cried against Edom for his crime.
On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gates and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were like one of them.
You should not look down on your brother in the day of his misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast so much in the day of their trouble. You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble. \"The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head. (Obad 1:11-15 NIV)
The strength of the imprecation increases in relation to Babylon. Not only will God judge Babylon, but Babylon’s destroyer will be blessed. In the strongest language, the psalmist expresses his desire for wrongs to be righted and leaves repayment with God. One commentator said, It is an act of profound faith to entrust one’s most precious hatreds to God, knowing that they will be taken seriously (EBC vol. 5. p. 829-30).
Retribution is a central truth of Scripture. God will execute judgment, and it will be fitting. Babylon would receive what they had given. Jeremiah had said as much: For a destroyer has come upon her, upon Babylon; her warriors are taken; their bows are broken in pieces, for the LORD is a God of recompense; He will surely repay (Jer. 51:56).
Psalm 137 aids us as the community faith to live by faith in the loving-kindness of God no matter what circumstances in which we find ourselves. We believe that God is accomplishing His redemptive purpose in the church. He is redeeming us.
As God’s people, we will find ourselves in circumstances in which we struggle to believe in the redemptive promises and purposes of God.
The psalmist seems to write looking back on his experience in captivity and
forward to God’s setting all things right. We find ourselves living in this very awkward in between time. The Kingdom is here, and it is coming. God rules in our hearts, and the time is coming when His righteous cause will be established in the earth.
At times we will find ourselves in circumstances that will take better days to give us a perspective of God’s wisdom and love. Some losses are so great, and some are so devastating that we may never be able to fully come to terms with them. The faithful went to Babylon with the unfaithful. This psalm comes from the faithful not the unfaithful. It is the faithful who are fighting for faith, not the unfaithful. We are compelled in the present age to live by faith. We must lay hold of Christ by faith, register our complaint, and confess that we have no one else to whom to turn and no other hope.
We are pilgrims; we are strangers in this age. We can never come to terms with this world. God is weaning us off this world. Adoniram Judson said, if I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated sufferings. God is teaching us to hope only in Him. We seem to have the mistaken idea that if we could understand the purpose of trials we would feel better. God is working redemptively in our lives. Understanding is not going to help. Trusting that God loves us and keeps His promises will sustain us, and nothing else.
As God’s people, our highest joy must be Christ.
People who live by faith will have Christ as their highest joy. If He is not our highest joy, we have become idolaters. Our lives will be filled with one disappointing event after another. The present age is passing away. As Jeremiah said, build your houses, plant your gardens, marry, have children, seek the prosperity of the city where you live, but never think that it is permanent. Don’t get too attached. If Christ is not your highest joy, everything in life will be messed up.
Colossians 3:1-3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Ultimately, not much matters in this world. Job came to this realization and fell on his face and worshipped, saying Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed by the name of the Lord (1:21). Not much matters, but what matters really matters. When you are leaving this world, you can’t take a house or car or bank account with you. All that matters is whom you have loved. Love God supremely and love people appropriately.
We must fight for our highest joy to be Christ. We must fight to love Him. At least, part of the fight is carried on in our corporate worship. We gather and preach and sing and pray and build each other up. We are fighting for joy. Pray about your affections. Pray about our corporate affection for Christ.
How can we sing the songs of God’s great redemptive work in our behalf in a strange land? We can’t help but sing redemption’s song. The reason we sing is because God is our highest joy. We can’t help but preach. We can’t help but pray.
Much of our preaching and singing is about another world. We must live for another world, not this one. When we are happy, sick, grieved, dieing—whatever is happening in life—we gather to sing, preach, and pray. What will help is live here is living for there. We don’t need a sermon on how to have a happier life, better job, better marriage, be successful, or be your best you. Setting our affection on Christ orders our world here in every aspect of life.
As God’s people, we trust that He will right every wrong.
This psalm teaches us to lay aside our wrath, malice, anger, and bitterness.
Judgment, the righting of all wrongs, is the most necessary thing in the universe. The present age, like Edom, tears at the very foundations of God’s righteous rule. At the moment, we battle evil and wickedness in the world with the gospel of Christ and warnings of judgment to come. In the campaign in which we find our selves, the righteous suffer along with the wicked. In fact, the wicked oppress the righteousness.
God can never save His people without also destroying their enemies. John the Baptist preached of Jesus, His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear the threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire (Mt. 3:12).
Hear Jesus sing this Psalm in the congregation of His people. He would bear the curse for His people on the cross. So He stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. He stopped mid-sentence and closed the scroll and declared that the Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. The very next phrase in the text is and the day of vengeance of our God. He is the “blessed” one of Psalm 137 to whom repayment, ultimately, is committed.
Hear afresh the words of Jesus. Like those in the synagogue at Nazareth 2000 years ago, we are in the happy place of mid-sentence. This in your hearing is the acceptable year of the Lord or the year of the Lord’s favor.
The day of vengeance of our God is coming. Babylon in Scripture has come to represent the world in opposition to God, and, by virtue of opposition to God, opposition to God’s people. One day that messenger from heaven whose glory will make the earth bright will descend and shout, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! (Rev. 18:1-2). The church at that moment will cry out Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just (Rev. 19:1).