Psalm 137-138

“O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy the one who repays you as you have served us!” (Psalm 137:8, NKJV)

Psalm 137 is considered an imprecatory psalm, meaning that it calls upon God to curse the enemies of Israel. As the Jewish captives were in Babylon, they sung this psalm in hope that God would visit retribution upon the Babylonians. God had used King Nebuchadnezzar as His servant to bring judgment upon His disobedient and idolatrous people. But the Babylonians had gone too far and treated the Jews with utter brutality. They abused the elderly, violated the women, and murdered children and babies. Now the Jews knew that Isaiah had prophesied about Babylon’s ultimate destruction, so they wanted God to act and make their captors suffer the same way they had suffered.

Some people have bleeding hearts and do not believe that wickedness and violence should be responded to with force. But how would they feel if their family members were massacred, raped, or kidnapped?

I like what Charles Spurgeon said about this psalm:

“Let those find fault with it who have never seen their temple burned, their city ruined, their wives ravished, and their children slain; they might not, perhaps, be quite so velvet-mouthed if they had suffered after this fashion.”

We are warned in Scripture not to take personal vengeance on others, but there is nothing wrong with praying that God will judge the evildoer. And in an evil world, there are times when we must take up arms against those who would harm and destroy innocent people. In all these things we pray that justice is served, innocent lives are spared, and God is glorified.