Week 7: Psalm 137

Last week was a pretty average week.  I don't remember a lot of stuff that happened during the week.  There was the normal challenges with the kids at Kansas City Urban Youth, we had our five mile challenge, which was a challenge, and our Friday night movie night.  The one thing that was out of the ordinary was that my parents came down for the weekend.

It was so good to see them.  I gave them a tour of our inner city house and we went to the World War I museum.  After that we went out to eat and did some shopping.  On Sunday we went to church together with a couple of other interns.  We went to Redeemer Fellowship, which we had heard about from Aaron, an Ascent staff.  It was awesome!

The worship team had a folk sound, complete with banjo.  It was very interesting, but refreshing, something different from what I have grown up with.  For two of their songs we sang Psalms, which was just a really cool experience.  The sermon was on Psalm 137, which isn't often a Psalm talked about.  The main focus was on verse 4 which says...

How shall we sing the LORD's song while in a foreign land?

Much of the time then was talking about how hard it is to praise God in the midst of suffering.  The man giving the sermon was very vulnerable in sharing part of his family's suffering.  It reminded me of a teaching we had early this summer of what true worship it.  Ryan taught that true worship is agreeing to God's will in every aspect, even in the midst of challenges or suffering.  This was all really good to hear and had a major impact on my heart.  I think my favorite part however was the very end of Psalm 137.

Oh 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! Psalm 137:8-9

The guy preaching talked about how many churches and theologians do not believe that this belongs in the Bible.  That this prayer right here is not the inspired Word of God.  That is why it is often ignored in churches.  I was so glad then, that he took on the challenge of preaching from this Psalm.  

He said that this is very much inspired by God.  He explained the situation that Israel was in during this time, that they were in captivity and that their captors did these things to the children of Israel.  This prayer then is a cry for justice.  The people of Israel would have remembered the words spoken by the prophets, of how YAHWEH would bring justice to those who persecuted His people.  This is still true for us today.  As we read the book of Revelation we see Jesus as a passionate, loving Judge, who desires to bring justice.  We can be sure that He is going to bring about justice for all the times that we have experienced pain.  

These verses then are a prayer, reminding God of promises that He has made, not because He has forgotten, but for us to acknowledge them and then partnering and agreeing with Him.  It also helps us realize how to sing the LORD'S song in the midst of suffering.

Another huge thing that I took away from these verses is that it encourages us to be real with God.  He already knows what we are going through and what are thoughts are.  He desires us to be real with Him even if that isn't always pretty.  We get so good about putting on faces for those that we see face to face during the day, that we then can't be real with God.  He doesn't care if we are all put together when we come before Him, actually I wonder if He prefers that we aren't, that way we have to acknowledge that we NEED Him!