I’m currently working on a larger work on the book of Psalms, as it is a fascinating piece of literature. It’s really an anthology, and because of that, it contains so many ideas. It’s one of the few Hebrew works that is still regularly used within Christian services, which really speaks to it’s reach.
When looking at Psalms, we have to remember that portions of it are lamentations, that they are an expression, often spontaneous expression, of grief that overcomes the writer.
In Psalms 137, we see someone who most likely just was just deported from their home by the Babylonians. They are exiled, their temple destroyed, their world turned upside down. All of that pain is still fresh in their minds, and they are trying to find a way to deal with it.
The Israelites had just lost a war with the Babylonians, and they would have seen vast destruction. Jerusalem would have been looted and razed, much of the population massacred. And now we have those same captors mocking their captives, ordering them to sing their Zion songs.
This is the response that one found. In all of their anguish, then end their lament with a curse, I hope what you did to us will be repaid to you. Happy who seizes and smashes your infants against the rock.
There is no moral justification for this concluding line, but I think we can understand it in a historical context. It’s something uttered while overcome by emotions because of a travesty. It’s something said when one is filled with pain.
I think passages like this have there place. It shows a human side. Who hasn’t, in a time of pain and anguish, wished for revenge? It’s the same sentiment we see often by conquered peoples. The wish is terrible, but it’s human.
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