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1:30Raise it, raise it to its very foundation. O daughter of Babylon, you are to be destroyed. Happy the one who repays you as you have served us. Happy the one who takes and dashes the little ones against the rock. Blessed be the reading of God's word being deceived. Well, here we go. Right off the bat, there are two narratives on what to do with this verse, with this verse, this song. Two ways of looking at it. I had a pleasure of being able, while during this last week, if you were not aware, I was in California with a number of chaplains. One of them was a Jewish rabbi. And the topic of this text came up. I had to talk to him about it. And there's quite an astounding thing I discovered.

2:32Not every Jew is practicing, but most of your conservative Jews, every single weekday, recite this song in its entirety. He didn't actually know the number right off the bat, although they used the same numbering system. When I mentioned the first line, he immediately was able to give it back to me. It's part of a blessing given after every meal. This is part of what they do during the weekdays to remember God. Funny enough, during weekends, specifically, they recite a different psalm during the same time of day as it was the actor in the Hill Psalm 126. It's quite poignant and beautiful when you get to looking at what all is involved there, and I won't digress into it, but it is beautiful nonetheless. They cherish this psalm, one of the most recited in the entire Psalter for a Jew.

3:37Charles Scurgeon, with echo that from a Christian perspective, says that this is one of his favorites, so beautiful that were it not inspired, it would be on the top-tier list of the most beautiful poetry ever to exist. It's quite an outlook from this psalm, quite a way to look at it, because there is an alternative narrative, an alternative way to look at this. The Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, sometime roughly during Vatican II, I don't remember if it was exactly concurrent with it, but nonetheless, they decided that the last two, specifically the last two verses here, along with a great number of the regulatory songs throughout the Psalter, were just too much. They were removed from the entire liturgy, the liturgy that is used. It's called the brevary, or abbreviary, that they would be praying through, that the people from the Catholic Church would be praying through as a prayer to God.

4:42And if they remove these verses as part of the official liturgy, it's just it's taxing, it's psychologically damaging, it's too much. Testing, one, two, three. Starting from the very beginning. Sorry, y'all have probably been waving at me this whole time. I was sitting there ignoring you. Okay, so I don't know how much y'all heard, but we'll crack on anyway. All right. You're loud and clear. Good. All right, so the Roman Catholics removed these verses. They had a problem with it.

5:27And C.S. Lewis, many of us, a high regard for, nonetheless, no one man is right on everything, and this is one he got quite wrong, quite a doozy. He has a book, Reflections on the Psalms, in which, talking about these Psalms and this one in particular, he says that there's one Psalm that's really bad, and there's one that's worse. The worst psalm of all, and then the one that's worst, which makes this the worst psalm in his estimation.

6:00He considers it to be an example of what not to think, what not to do, what not to say. It is an example of the evils of humanity. And again, go read his book if you want to get more clarity and context, but I'm not taking that out of context. That's exactly how he sees it. Two different ways of looking at this psalm, and I hope by the end of tonight, you will agree with me that this is not only God's word, but a beautiful word and one that we should all consider carefully. So we're going to look at it, and I'm going to look at this as a narrative. It is poetry. It is a specific type of poetry, but it is telling a story. In fact, I heard it said, I didn't look through every psalm to verify, but I heard it said this is the only psalm that gives us a specific place at a specific time in which it is written. It is very closely tied to historical narrative of what is going on with the people of Israel. So we're going to look at it in a chronological fashion. Not that I'm not going to consider all of the beautiful poetry and what that says, but as a way of looking at it, I want you to follow with me where the people of this psalm came from, where they are, and where they are going. And therein, I hope to understand the main points seen in this and how more importantly we can apply it to our lives. Where they came from. The first four verses I'd like you to see in the text specifically. You can look at this very largely as who it is written to, who the speakers are speaking to, because it's going to change as we go through this psalm. The beginning verses, notice they are speaking to each other, or the author is speaking to his people. He's talking to Jews. He's speaking to the people of Israel, Judah, specifically, those exiled with him.

8:15By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down together. We wept. We remembered. We hung. There are those who carried us away captive, asked of us a song, and I could go on. They are speaking to each other, reminding each other, the author to his people, the people together. And that is where it starts. In so doing, when they are speaking thus, what is it that they are doing? First, they're speaking of Zion. And I've become immensely fascinated with this particular word. I have not had time to do as deep a study as I would like.

8:58Interesting fact, though. I don't want to make too much of it, but interesting fact nonetheless. Outside of the Psalter, the word Zion is only used twice before being in the context of the exile. Once when David takes over Jerusalem, once when Solomon moves the ark into the temple, and then outside of Psalms, you are right, SmackDab, and Isaiah and thereafter. It is a word that has tremendous import, but in every context and in all the ways that it is used, it is used of God in relation to his people. God in relation to his people through the place of Jerusalem, God in relation to his people, the people in the place of Jerusalem, and God in relation to the promises and covenant made therein. It is used throughout history, of the past, the present, and the future, but nonetheless it is encompassing of many of these promises and the relationship there. It is not simply and only a geographic space. It encompasses the promises and the relationship. It is a very full word. And in case that was not clear enough, there's another word that absolutely is. In many of your Bibles, you'll see it capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. Some of your Bibles will just say, Yahweh, or the many other ways you could pronounce that. This is the covenant name of God. This is the name of God in relation to his people. A God who has made promises, who has made expectations clear. Again, relationship being first and foremost in the name. When they are speaking to each other and they are saying, when we remember Zion, and when they speak of Zion, and when they sing the Lord's song, they are remembering the entirety of their identity, where they came from and who they are. So let's talk about that a little bit. Let's understand that context that they would have had when they were making this discussion, when they were remembering everything therein. First of all, Jerusalem, the place they came from, is the promised land, first inhabited by the Canaanites.

11:32Now, the Canaanites, we're told a good bit about, the Jebusites being the specific branch in the city. And we're told in Leviticus chapter 18, everything that they were, everything that they did, is exactly what the Israelites are not to be, are not to do. It's quite a list, if you go back and look at it, and it's quite horrendous as well, among which you Will see that they offered their children to the idols, Molech in particular. They sacrificed their children, and God calls the people of Israel to remember this and to not be that way. That's the history, the influence when they came into this land that they would have remembered, and the beginning of the law, Leviticus, the giving of the law, the identity of who Yahweh is, differentiating them, making them different from this people.

12:37And then they came in, and by God's order, because they would not turn, they were exterminated. Because they would not heed the commandments of God, the Canaanites, Israel was the chosen tool by which the Canaanites were removed. Story doesn't end there. Consequences, death, and then Israel and Judah, specifically in the south. You see, it wasn't very long before these people and these practices that they were told to be different from, Manasseh, went and did the exact same things, exact same things, and in fact, worse. And I give you the references. If you go back and look, you see this story. King Manasseh not only led the people, he offered his own children in particular, his own children to the same idol. And it says that he led Israel as their king. He led them in that way. And because of that, in 21 of 2 Kings, you see a promise made. They would, because they didn't heed the promise of God, the warnings given them, because instead they went the same route as the Canaanites. There was a promise made. And what do you think that promise was?

14:13Well, we get it. And it's in our text. We see it. And it was foreseen, or prophesied rather, in Jeremiah. The consequences, again, death. And I want you to note, I highlighted a couple of verses. Note just how closely this ties into our text. Not only will they be killed and lose their children, there will be silence in Israel. There will be silence in Jerusalem. They will no longer be making merry, singing songs and being happy. You see, they were warned, and they continued. And the consequences were realized. And in our text, they're told, sing us the songs of Zion, and they cannot do it. Not even a matter of choice. God has made it such.

15:15That's where they have come from. But now that's their journey. What about our journey? I would like to propose to you before we get on a high horse that this is our society. This is our people. You see, I enjoy history. I enjoy learning about history, and I think there's a reason to do so so that we don't make mistakes the same way. In our Bibles, we have a history. In our Bibles, we have warnings, and we have not been heeding those warnings.

16:01We have abortion. We've been talking about this for some time in our churches. We've been seeing this for some time in our country. Sometimes we forget that things continue, not just that what we've been talking about. I found it fascinating how quickly we forget. In 2019, the governor of Virginia talked about allowing babies to die on an operating table of exposure. You don't hear about that anymore. Funny thing, I went back and I looked at some modern, current 2024 medical research journals.

16:39They put it in very clinical terms. They put things in very nuanced ways. This idea, and if you'd be interested, I'd give you citations afterwards, but this idea of, if I can word it right, neonatal non-resuscitation. I worked in a hospital for a little while, and there's, you know, if you'd like, you can get non-resuscitation orders saying that I don't want to be resuscitated in case of something goes wrong with me. And then we start applying that to babies.

17:20And then we start saying stuff in these papers about the parental autonomy in our medical papers. And we start talking about the born fetus. And slowly the bar starts changing. We're still talking, and as horrendous as abortion is, suddenly, we're talking about born-alive babies here. And they've already left us in the dust with the things that they're discussing. And they're discussing it in scientific medical journals and papers. I'd encourage you to keep your eyes open. We are far down. This road.

18:02If we look otherwise, we look at this minor attracted persons, a phrase that has become popular now, which just means pedophiles. By the way, lest you hear me wrong, the church I grew up in, we had a convicted sex offender who is adopted by and embraced by our church. Repentance is real. Our church is able to embrace people who have genuinely repented. But a person who is actively living this life, a person who is actively attacking our young ones, and then we call that fine and we make up nice cliché little remarks about how to describe it, that is not fine.

18:51And that is walking down exactly the path that we see walked here. And then I challenge you, because then we're tempted, and some of us may have been faced with some of these things, but for the rest of us who haven't, have you ever, as a parent or a sibling, have you ever caused one of our little ones to stumble? Be very careful. It's easy to cast stones at other people, and then you start realizing just how low that bar is. The fact is, sin is real, and sin is where we come from. Sin is Our story as a society and as individuals. But see, there's a thing with this. As they're remembering where they fell from, they're remembering the fall, but in order to fall from some place, there has to be a place from which you fell.

19:51In order to have committed these atrocities, in order to have sinned and then recognized that, you have to recognize also the calling. And they recognize in Jerusalem, in Zion, in the Lord, they also recognize the calling that he has placed on them. They recognize the sin in which they fell, but they also recognize the place from which they fell, the calling. And that is a calling we all also have. We have all been called. We have all been called to answer. Jesus has extended that call.

20:31And most of us in this room, as Christians, have accepted that call as Christians. And as such, I would ask you, do you remember to which you have been called? Do you remember that to which you have been missioned? You have sin, you have where we came from, but you also have where we are called to go. And we're going to look at Just that, because then you have where they are. You see, in the next couple of verses, we look at a shift. We suddenly see them changing the audience. Look at verses five and six. If I forget you, O Jerusalem, they're no longer reminding each other.

21:25If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. If I do not remember you, you see, they had forgotten, but they will forget no more. They are dedicated at this point in the here and now, currently. They are paying the price they knew would have to be paid. And but now, because of that, because of where they are, they are brought back to the face of God and they will not forget. They are dedicating themselves again.

22:05They will not allow themselves to be distracted. They will not be again tempted to forget. And that is where they are dedicating themselves in these two verses here. I'd like to look just a second at an illustration that it kind of caught me a little bit. My kids in homeschooling are going through the story. Shackleton. And there's an interesting tidbit in Shackleton's journey. As they're, if you're not familiar, it's the Endurance, it's a trip to Antarctica. And the ship gets caught in ice, and the men have to make a trek out of the ice-bound ship to Elephant Island to where they will seek a rescue. They have a couple boats, they have food, and they have a couple of other necessary navigation items, etc. They're dumping extra clothes, they are dumping extra rations, they are dumping everything not absolutely vital and necessary for life. One thing they keep that you would not expect is a banjo.

23:17They're dumping food, but they keep a banjo. Why? Why would they do this? What is the idea behind it? Because Shackleton decided this was necessary for survival. Morale. And how did they use it, though? They use it to escape. While they were on the island, on Elephant Island, a few of the men take one of the boats out for help. The man with the banjo stays behind, and he starts putting on shows, and he's playing musical numbers. By one account, he only knew six musical numbers, so I don't know. They might have gotten a little tired of the same show over and over. But for one day a week, this show was their escape to forget where they were in the dire straits they were in. But notice in our text, they have their instruments, they know the songs, they have an opportunity to escape, to get away from their predicament. They could sing their songs of mirth, their joyous songs, and forget everything about what happened back at Jerusalem. They could forget who they were, assimilate, accept their defeat, become Babylonians. Did they do this? No. They live in the land. They grow their crops. And yet they decided what is the most important thing. Is it to be happy and forget our pain?

24:53Or is it to remember because of this, who are we? Who is our God? Why are we here? And where are we going when it is over? And they would commit to memory everything, so much so that we get the synagogue and the Talmudic traditions, and some of which is bad, but nonetheless, the ideas of which is committing everything. And we see all of this, the opposite of the shackle. And Banjo. Their journey, our journey. They chose to remember. They chose like a love song. And I thought this, I was actually thinking of a number of different songs and chose not to bring up any in particular, but how many of them this is the case? By the way, and I'll get up in a soapbox for just a second. We can know good without the necessity of evil, because I can know God, and we did in the Garden of Eden. So I want to first of all make this clear. We don't need evil in order to know good. However, how often is it not the case that because of who we are as fickle humans, we get a little dose of reality, we get the just reward for what we have done, and it is only after that that we learn lessons the hard way.

26:34Well, they have learned their lessons, they have walked this journey, and they are chilling us here. They're choosing to remember. So, our question is: where is your desire? Is your desire to remember the Lord or to take the easy out? Is your desire to stay focused no matter the pain? Or is it to go and just try to forget it and escape it? To go sing happy songs? When you're reminded of the painful lesson, where are you going to go? Is your desire the Lord, first and foremost?

27:20And then where are they going? Because that's where we are going. In the last couple verses, and perhaps the climax of this verse that we usually see, we see a people who recognize, as I've already said, the prophecies. You see, they recognize where they are going, but also where the people around them are going. And they address the matter as such. Again, a shift in the audience. Remember, O Lord. So first they speak as reminders to themselves, and then they speak to Jerusalem, and then they speak to the Lord.

28:07Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom. And then in verse 8, the last shift, O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed. So they speak to the Lord, and then they speak to Babylon. And in doing so, what are they looking for? They're looking for. Expected judgment. They have experienced the judgment. They have realized their error. And now the people that they see around them that are also guilty of the same thing that they have done, they expect the same judgment on them. And we see that judgment. In Daniel chapter 5, if you go back, you'll see that when it says that Babylon, who are to be destroyed, we see that they will be, in fact, destroyed. We see that this will come to pass. In Esther, you'll see the same thing again, not just with the Babylonians, but the Persians after them, by the way, through the hand of a Canaanite. People who are bloodthirsty, people who are not caring for the innocent, people who continue to rebel and continue this pattern that we see. And then we notice something. And I'd like to call your attention. Not only are they calling for destruction, not only are they calling for justice, but when they do so, in the last little bit in verse 8, O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed. Now, Babylon is going to be destroyed. That much is certain. At this point, the prophecies have already been given. We already have in their completely. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. All this has been written and has been preached, and they know it to be true, and yet they speak. Babylon calls for a song, and they get a song. It's not a song of mirth, but it is a song. They get it. Psalm 137. This is a psalm. It is meant to be sung. It is meant to be heard, understood, and remembered.

30:28And they give it specifically in the end to Babylon. Now, we've been reading a whole lot about Babylon in Revelation: a place, a people, an idea, a collective ideology of Antichrist. Babylon, the very real empire, was the epitome of evil. It is a real place that would come to symbolize evil in a sense. And I was explaining this to one person. I don't remember who I was talking to at the time. But it's kind of like Hitler we refer to. Hitler was a real person at a real place who did real things, who has come to epitomize evil. He is the word we use. Nazis, the word we use to describe as an adjective almost for evil. So Babylon, given in our scriptures.

31:30So we have choice that we've been looking at for some time. But I want you to see something. While Babylon itself is doomed, there's at least one small hint here. See, Babylon's children will be killed in the same way that every nation before them who went against God, their children were killed. There was a cycle of sin and death, sin and the consequences. There's at least one thing I want you to see. In Acts chapter 2, there's this very small phrase, and residents of Mesopotamia, these are the folks that are listening to Peter.

32:19There was no Babylon at the time of Peter's speaking. There was no Persia at the time of Peter's speaking. There was nothing out there, in fact, except for bands of broken people. It was a province that Rome would fight over for the entirety of its existence. But there were people from that broken land present when Peter would preach and they would hear. And we can presume, perhaps, that some of them would be among those that just a few verses later would accept.

32:56And Mark, Idumia is the Edomites. Largely as a nation eradicated, gone, completely subsumed within Israel. And yet, when Jesus came to preach, some of those who would hear him were of that exact line. You see, there's a warning given, a warning given to the very real people to make a very real response. And it seems, some perhaps did. And then we are left with a question. Their journey, our journey. You see, everything here is a pattern of history, can be seen with us. The sin, the nation that is unrepentant, the nation that is ultimately as part of the Babylonian heart, the anti-Christian heart, the anti-Christ heart, will be punished. It will be done. And we live in this nation.

34:04We may not be of the world, but we do live here. And the question is: with that, what are we going to do? We have a hard word, and we are to preach that hard word. They received the word, they were to respond to the word, they declared the Word, we are to declare the word. See, and I, during this time that I was in California, there's a whole lot to do about counseling, and I'm really hoping to get into this ACBC thing. I'm seeing more and more how important it is to me personally, but in any case, they like to tell us how to counsel. And the biggest thing is the most important thing when you're counseling someone is make sure when they leave your office, they are happy. That's the most important thing. Right?

35:05Is that what our text is saying? Does our text say, O Babylonians, you are a rough crowd, but if you search, you'll find the inner spark. Is that what it says there? I don't think so. It's a hard word, a word that the Israelites had to learn themselves. A word that we, as people who have come from sin, everybody in here, if you are saved, came from a broken place of sin. And if you have learned that, if you have seen that in your life, then you've got to tell that to people who are coming from a broken place of sin.

35:55And when you have done so, you must hold on to it and remember it no more. Matter what you cannot allow it to become second place or third place or before long, okay, yes, there's some things in the Bible, but happy. That's not what we are called to. That's not the life we are called to live, and that's not the message we are called to speak, nor the one we see here. And by the way, when these hard-hearted people from a background of sin repent, then what is our action to be? They are our brother or sister. Because then they're no longer those living that life. Then they move. Then they are the ones we are speaking to, telling them, you came from a broken place. You, like me, are traveling in a broken place. But now we repent. Now with me, remember the truth. Now you are with me. We speak to each other. We, family. We, the people of the covenant. We, the people of God. We, together. You see, suddenly you change. You are either the broken one who has repented, or you are the one who's about to get hammered upside the head because you have not repented. It's one or the other. If you're on the one side, you are my brother or sister. And if you're on the other, I'm telling you the hard truth in love that maybe you can become my brother or sister.

37:41So, my conclusion for us: they walked a journey. We see this journey in our text. Hopefully, you see it with me. It was a hard journey, it was a hard path to walk. They were crushed because of their sin, but then they repented. Christ was crushed for our sins. So, you don't need to take that on. Christ has died for us. The penalty for sin is death. Death will always be the result of sin. And there is only one answer. And if there's anyone in this room tonight that is under that penalty, who is being crushed by the weight of that penalty, I say, why?

38:37You have an opportunity and a warning right now to accept a God who loves you, who has said, Yes, this is the penalty, and I sent my Son Jesus Christ to take that for you. And if you will repent, then that penalty is taken. That's the question. You see their journey. You see where they went, where they were when this was written, and where they are going. What is our journey? Let's pray. Dear Lord, I pray that for someone in this room, this cycle will be broken.

39:33The cycle of sin and death will be ended, that they will come to you in repentance. Lord, for those of us who have so come, I pray that you will give us the strength to comfort one another, to remember you above every distraction, pleasurable thing, and that you will give us an eye for the opportunities around us to tell people the truth. That those in our community will be reached by Emmanuel, that we will be a tool, that we will be fervent, that we will not rest knowing that others are headed down this journey.

40:31I pray this in Jesus' name.