Psalm Meditation 616
Easter
April 8, 2012

Psalm 137
1 By the rivers of Babylon— there we sat down and there we wept when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there we hung up our harps.
3 For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
4 How could we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
6 Let my tongue cling 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's fall, how they said, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Down to its foundations!"
8 O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us!
9 Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock! (NRSV)

Verse 9 is a pretty gruesome image. At the same time, civilized as we claim to be, it is an image that crosses our minds when a wound is still fresh. The desire for revenge burns just as hot today as it ever has. It is easiest when we can see the object of our revenge as totally ‘other,’ one with whom we have absolutely nothing in common. And since the desire for revenge is so strong in us, we will find and perhaps even make ways to see our enemy as non-person. Even though the desire for revenge is present, it doesn’t mean we have to act on it.

With the desire for revenge bubbling just below the surface, the psalmist and the rest of the community are asked to put on a joyful performance for their captors. The Babylonians see the Israelites through the same non-person filter as the Israelites see them. They are not aware of anything but their own desire to be entertained. "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!" is a way to rub Israelite faces in their defeat, asking them to sing happy songs even as they reel from the trauma of being in exile from their homes.

It would be great if we did not have to deal with this type of adversity, on personal or national scale. It seems there will be those who are willing to ignore the personhood of those with whom they disagree for the foreseeable future. There will be those who see just about everything as a conflict between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ ‘Those people’ will be made to look and feel as if they are wrong on every point of disagreement with ‘us.’ God reminds us that, despite our thoughts to the contrary, we are all made in the image of God and the love of God for each of us knows no bounds.

© April 2, 2012