➡️ Picture this: You’re exiled in enemy territory, forced to leave everything behind — your home, your place of worship, your whole way of life.
🏺 That’s what went down with the ancient Israelites in Babylon.
😢 They’re sitting by the rivers, completely devastated, thinking about their home in Zion (Jerusalem).
😔 But it gets worse . . .. Their captors are actually mocking them, like “Hey, perform for us! Sing those songs from your homeland!”
🎵 But imagine trying to sing your favorite hymns while being held captive.
💔 The Israelites are like, “How can we even think about music when everything’s been taken from us?”
🙏 So they make this intense promise: “If I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand lose its ability to play music, let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth.”
✨ They’re basically saying they’d rather lose their artistic abilities than forget who they are — God’s chosen people.
⛪ But here’s the thing — Jerusalem isn’t just about a physical place. It represents something bigger: the community of believers, what we’d call the church today.
⚔️ The psalm takes a dark turn at the end, talking about revenge and violence against Babylon.
🕊️ But read between the lines — it’s actually a metaphor for how evil and oppression don’t get the final word.
✝️ This points to Jesus ultimately defeating our real enemies: sin, death, and the devil through his suffering and death on the cross.
Contributor Adam DeGroot is pastor at Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.
#higherthings #lcms #lutheran #psalm137
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