Post by Woody Williams on Apr 12, 2006 7:51:07 GMT -5
Text for the Day -- Psalm 137
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By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!’
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
Devotional
----------
This psalm is a cry of pathos for a people in bondage. Jerusalem is
destroyed, the temple is leveled and they are sitting in a strange
land and alien land, Babylon. How can we have joy and sing the songs
of Zion, they ask. They hung up their harps and did not sing. They
were judged and sent into exile to live as lonely strangers. It is
much like that in the loneliness Jesus experienced on the cross as he
suffers our judgment and separation.
Prayer
-------------
Thank you, Lord, that Jesus took on our judgment. Amen
----------
By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’
How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy.
Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites
the day of Jerusalem’s fall,
how they said, ‘Tear it down! Tear it down!
Down to its foundations!’
O daughter Babylon, you devastator!
Happy shall they be who pay you back
what you have done to us!
Happy shall they be who take your little ones
and dash them against the rock!
Devotional
----------
This psalm is a cry of pathos for a people in bondage. Jerusalem is
destroyed, the temple is leveled and they are sitting in a strange
land and alien land, Babylon. How can we have joy and sing the songs
of Zion, they ask. They hung up their harps and did not sing. They
were judged and sent into exile to live as lonely strangers. It is
much like that in the loneliness Jesus experienced on the cross as he
suffers our judgment and separation.
Prayer
-------------
Thank you, Lord, that Jesus took on our judgment. Amen