Psalm 137:9 - A Hard Beatitude

[This sermon was originally given at Steinmann Mennonite Church on June 16th, 2013]


Happy is he who seizes your children and dashes them against the rocks

How's that for a fathers' day scripture?


I know it looks like I'm crazy,
Why on earth would I pick this psalm as the focus for today's worship service?

Usually when this passage is read in a church service, the last lines of the song are not read.

"Blessed is he who seizes your children and dashes them against the rocks"

Technically this counts as a beatitude, since it starts with the "blessed is he" phrase.

But it's not one of the beatitudes we usually read

Especially as Mennonites we focus on texts like the one we read earlier about loving your enemy, and praying for those who persecute you, and just ignore all of the talk in Deuteronomy when the Israelites are commanded

"in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you." (Deut 20:15-17)

We latch on to the passages about peace, non-violence and love, but then we ignore the passages about genocide, hate and anger.

But they are both in the text, both part of our scriptures, both part of the word of God. I would argue that a passage such as psalm 137 isn't as anti-good news as we would think it is.

 The Summer Series is about Beaches, Boats and Gardens. These are usually nice places to be, sailing on the lake, growing plants, or laying around and catching some rays as you paradoxically kill skin cells to give your skin a "healthy tone"
But not all stories by the beach are happy stories.


The year is 587 BC, Babylon and Edom have joined forces and have destroyed Jerusalem. This is the third time Babylon has defeated Judah, and Nebuchadnezzar is sick of dealing with these rebellious Jews so when his General broke through the wall, Nebuchadnezzar has ordered that Jerusalem be destroyed. All of the ruling class was imprisoned, and taken back to Babylon where they are going to spend the rest of their years working as servants of the emperor.

In this foreign land, between the Tigris and the Euphrates there were a series of canals. It was there the people of Judah. On a beach, in Babylon, sat down and wept.

Jerusalem was pillaged, the temple that Solomon built destroyed, and its treasures taken to Babylon, the people are afraid, life sucks right now. And then their Babylonian captors demand songs from them. The prisoners don't want to sing. How can they sing?

The Babylonians asked for songs of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem is in ruins,
Songs of Jerusalem, like Psalm 48 would sound like a sick joke.

"Walk about Zion, go around her,
number her towers,
consider well her ramparts,
go through her citadels
that you may tell the next generation
that this is God,
our God forever and ever.He will guide us forever."

Her towers are heaps of rubble and her ramparts are piles of stone. There's nothing to look at but some burning citadels.
The Generation that we are supposed to teach that this is God, has been killed.
This City's glory was supposed to proclaim Yahweh's greatness.
If the city God lives in and supposedly protects is destroyed can that God still guide us?
With their world falling apart, Judah's people asked how can we sing?
How can we sing when our Babylonian captors demand a song?
That's cruelty, they know Jerusalem is destroyed. They are taunting us.

Can we even worship a God in a foreign land? Can we sing when everything we know is gone?

The Psalmist’s answer to his own question is yes. Yes we can.

"If I forget you, oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you.
If I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy."

If they ever want to sing again, they need to remember Jerusalem, these memories offer hope in the midst of the pain and devastation caused by the exile.

But they also offer anger. As they remember what happened in Jerusalem, they ask God to remember Edom.
Babylon's Allies in the campaign were the Edomites, a tribe living to the southeast. They are the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother, the People of Judah saw them as distant cousins, so the fact that they have sided with Babylon hurts even more. As Babylon breaks through the walls of Jerusalem, the city's inhabitants could hear the Edomites chanting "Lay it bear, lay it bare, down to its foundations!"
And so, they plea with God to remember what Edom and Babylon did.They want God to punish the people that hurt them. Yes, even to the point of killing all of the children.

Babylon would have done this to them during the destruction of Jerusalem. By killing their children, wiping out a large chunk of the next generation, Babylon ensures that Judah won't give them problems for several more decades. Judah can't rise up against them for many years because there is no one to rise.

So when Psalm 137 says Blessed is the one who dashes your children   against the rocks. You can hear the pain and anger of a mother whose child has been ripped from her arms.

And who wants revenge

It might be hard to understand how there can be any sort of message of hope from a text like this, but there is:

1st of all, they are turning to God.
In the Ancient Near East, when two countries fought, it was understood that up above, in the sky the gods of the different sides were in combat as well. Whichever god won, would determine who would win the battle. Judah had been defeated. Normally that would mean that their God would be "dead" or at the very least weaker than the Babylonian Gods. God's temple is after all destroyed, how can God live without a temple? But even then, at the rivers of Babylon, the people of Judah are turning back to God; are realizing that God is still in control even when life isn't going their way.


Secondly this exile helped reshape their Identity. Because they were worried that they would lose their identity, they took a lot of their Oral traditions and wrote them down to make sure that they were not forgotten. With their homeland destroyed, the Hebrew Scriptures, the law and prophets became more important because it bound them together. Even psalms like this bound their Identity together. They knew that they can't forget what happened, that they couldn't forget Jerusalem because if they did, then they would forget themselves
 In Babylon they developed the Synagogue, places where they could gather and worship God, though without the traditional sacrifice which was only allowed in the temple. Synagogues became so popular that when they were allowed to return home, they took the synagogue with them.
It is interesting that in later years, when there weren't enough Jews to sustain a synagogue in a community, they would meet by the river, and remember God.

Thirdly, this psalm lets us know that it's okay to be angry. Their home was destroyed, and many people were killed. Of course they are going to be angry! Of course they want revenge! And it's okay to bring these feelings to God.

The People of Judah ask God for judgment against their enemies. Yes psalms like this are extremely alarming. This helps what is called Catharsis, and allows them to release emotions.


Within the Mennonite Church there is a long history suffering.
When the first Anabaptists in Switzerland decided to adult baptize, the authorities and state churches persecuted them, ever since then, Mennonites have been persecuted for the fact that we try to be different than the world around us. Persecution has spurred us on as a movement.
Part of what helped us continue moving is the theology of suffering that we've developed. We look at scriptures that say "blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matt 5:11-12)
And we looked at what we experienced, and we think wow, we must be blessed. Look at all of this persecution!
Or we look at Paul when he writes

Romans 5:3-4
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Eventually we take this idea of righteous suffering and extend it from suffering because of our faith, to all forms of suffering. Because we are suffering we think we are being virtuous. We think we just need to make it through, and everything will be alright in the end.

Because of this theology of suffering and perseverance, we then think that any feelings to the contrary are bad. When someone harms us, and we get angry, we immediately feel shame that we felt that way. We think we are bad Mennonites, we think that we are bad Christians.

But it's not that easy. God made us with the ability to feel, and so when we feel Angry because we've suffered, that is a God given feeling pushing us to work towards justice and when we want to see the people who have hurt us suffer, we need to remember that it's okay to experience those feelings.
God is always on the side of the poor, the oppressed, and the abused. He promises: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matt11:28)

This Psalm is a voice for every person who has suffered abuse, oppression and violence. It expresses the pain we feel, and it tells us it is okay to feel angry

This Psalm shows us what to do with that anger. Instead of going and killing a bunch of Babylonians, we see a couple things:
The fact that we even have this psalm is testament to the importance of expressing these feelings. The arts are a good way of expressing pain. How many people find healing through expressing their feelings in painting, journaling, or singing?

Every time country singer Taylor Swift breaks up with a boyfriend we get a new hit single. Not just because they make for good stories, but because it is a way for her to get her feelings out, to express them and get back to doing what she loves: making music
 But besides just expressing these feelings, we are shown who we should direct these feelings to:
God.

We get to go before God, the maker of the universe and tell God about the hurt we are experiencing, and know that God is listening and cares about it.

Recently at a Mass, Pope Francis said "The Lord hears us, He listens to our complaints. Think of the great men [like job and Jeremiah] they complained and even cursed, not to the Lord, but to the situation, right? It is only human"

This complaining to God, allows them to then go and do the right thing, even in the face of oppression.

John Howard Yoder, the theologian, says that

We live in a world dominated by power structures.
Originally power structures were a good thing, they provide order and prevent chaos, and still do to a large extent
But because humanity is fallen, our power structures have broken, and now they also oppress.
The strong lord it over the weak
The 1 percent oppress the 99
The Abuser blames the victim

The principalities and powers now control and oppress us.
But that's not the end of the story.
Jesus came to earth, and lived a life that while structured by the powers of law and traditions, they could not control Jesus' response. Because of his actions, the power structures in place, the civil and religious authorities had him killed, but in doing so he showed it's possible to live out Matthew five
Jesus loved his enemies, dying for their sinsJesus prayed for those that persecuted him, while on the cross he said "Father forgive them for they don't know what they do"

But then after the power structures had killed him, Jesus completely defeated them. Not even death, the ultimate Power could hold him
He didn't stay dead!
Jesus rose again, and he invites us to live lives that are free from oppression.

We are told to be free, but we know that even if this doesn't happen, we are not forgotten. God is there for us even in the midst of suffering.
We can seek justice
This is how we can walk the extra mile even though our feet get blisters
This is how we love our enemies even when we are killed

Because when this happens to us, we can turn to God and express our anger. Knowing that we are listened to by the only one that matters.


 So while a text like the Psalm 137 might seem hard to understand, and difficult to fit within our Pacifist understandings, they can still bring important messages about God's freeing work in the world, one where the victim's voice, is heard.