Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Psalm 137:8-9 and other thoughts

While shooting the proverbial bull with a dude from church, he brought up Psalm 137:8-9 and asked me for my thoughts on the text(our topic of conversation revolved around whether or not man is justified in asking for the wrath of God on subjects that piss us off.) The text of this passage states:

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.


Upon the first reading of this I thought, somebody must have been taking a few too many nips out of the new wine when he decided to scribble this psalm down. Since all scripture is inspired by God I thought I would take a closer look at this to determine contextually how this fits.
Thankfully, Al Gore's beautiful invention of the internet has allowed me to research this more thoroughly.
First and foremost, this verse was a prophecy that was later fulfilled in Isaiah 13:16 where it states,
"There in infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses will be plundered and wives ravished."


Second, in a historic context, this was the way wars were fought back in the day. The old saying goes "Kick ass and takes names." Back then I believe that saying would fall under the category of " kick ass and don't take any names or women or children..." It was simply the way babylonians fought. In light of this, it was in the Psalmist's vision that what was exacted on them(Israel), was exactly what was going to be exacted on Babylon.

Last, this verse doesn't say to pray to God for the destruction of our enemies, as this psalm was a prophetic psalm. What it does show is that God's justice endures forever, and He does not forget those who have defiled His Name.


My next thought is quick one...I will blog on it later but due to the scourge of ADHD that plagues our society I will be brief.
I was flipping through Jonah the other day...I couldn't help but think how many of us are called on a mission and we duck and run. Here's a newsflash: every Christian is on a mission from God for Jesus. Whether you are old or young, rich or poor you are on mission....I'll expand on this later, but for now enjoy the day or night.
One more thought... is it fair to say that Hosea was a Pimp for Jesus:)




















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