Well, let us turn to God's Word
in the Psalm that we read, Psalm 137. The Psalm really came to
me last evening. I was taking a service for the
friends at Clifton Chapel in Bedfordshire, and the deacon
there chooses the hymns. and the first hymn that we sang
was 330 of Lady's Lovely Hymn that is so evidently based upon
the words of the 137th psalm. Looking at the psalm, I felt
it would be appropriate for us to consider for a while, I thought
how applicable it is to us in these present days with the pandemic
and the lockdown, although it does seem that matters are improving
and there will be some release, we trust, a week on the Lord's
Day. How striking the words are when
we consider how the psalm begins, by the rivers of Babylon. There
we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion, a remembrance
of Zion, that spiritual Zion, the church of the living gods,
that assembling together of the saints. Do we really, or have
we ever entered into the significance of the words with which this
particular psalm opens? And we often say that the days
are strange days, and they are. And as strange those days must
have been, to the children of Israel. As they put that question
in verse four, how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange
land? These are strange days in which
we're living. God's judgments are very much
abroad. And as we've said so many times,
when that judgment begins, we remember it always begins at
the house of God. And so every time we come together
in this strange fashion, as we have these virtual services,
we're thankful, we're thankful that the Lord does mingle his
mercies with his judgments. That awful judgment upon us is
mitigated in that sense, but it's not what we're accustomed
to, it's not what we find to be the instruction and the direction
that we have here in the Word of God with regards to our worship. But when we come to this psalm,
we have to recognize that it is in fact an imprecatory psalm. The final verses are very striking. Verse 7 Remember I wrote the
children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem who said, raise it,
raise it, even to the foundation thereof. When Jerusalem fell,
when the armies of Nebuchadnezzar came and laid siege to the holy
city, there were the Edomites rejoicing in the destruction
of Jerusalem and the laying of the temple of the Lord, raising
it to the ground. And there the psalmist prays
against the Edomites. And then again at verse eight,
the daughter of Babylon. You are to be destroyed. Happy
shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy
shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. All this is very much an imprecatory
psalm. What do we mean by that? Well,
to imprecate is to invoke or to call down. especially to invoke
God's curse upon a people. And so the theme I want to take
up tonight in a sense is that of a psalm of imprecation. This is what we have in Psalm
137, a psalm of imprecation. And two things, I want us to
consider the difficulty of such a psalm, the difficulty of imprecation,
and then secondly, to think about the necessity of imprecation. And I do have a text, if you
want a text to centre upon, it's the words that we have here in
verses 5 and 6. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the root of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Those are the words of the
text here, Psalm 137, verses five and six. First of all, to
say something with regards to the difficulty of implication. And it's not the only psalm that
uses such language as we find here in these last three verses. We have something very similar
at the end of the 139th psalm, here at verse 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked,
O God. Depart from me therefore, ye
bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, but
hate thee. And am not I grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them. With perfect hatred
I count them mine enemies. What remarkable words are those
of David. And we might well ask the question,
how are such words, the words of a man in prayer, such as those
that we have at the end of the 139th Psalm, and the words that
we have here at the end of Psalm 137, how are such words to be
reconciled with Christ's teaching? whilst he was here upon the earth.
Think of the language that the Lord Jesus uses in the Sermon
on the Mount. And there at the end of Matthew
chapter 5, look at the words that are spoken there. Matthew chapter 5, let me just
get this right. Let's go to this chapter. Verse 45. Verse 43 rather. He hath heard
that it had been said, Thou shalt Love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy, but as I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them
that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them
which despitefully use you and persecute you. That ye may be
the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his
Son to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on
the just and on the unjust. For if he loved them which love
you, what reward have you? do not even the publicans the
same. And if ye salute your brethren
only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so.
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. There are the words then of the
Lord Jesus Christ which seem to be very different to what
we have here in in the Psalms 137 and 139. And
of course, not surprisingly, what the Lord himself teaches
is then echoed later by his own apostles. We find both Paul and
Peter giving exhortations in line with those words that I've
just read from Christ's Sermon on the Mount in Romans chapter
14. Paul writes, Bless them which
persecute you. Bless and curse not. Verse 20,
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give
him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. And then again, in 1 Peter, chapter
3 and verse 9, Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for
railing, but contrary wise blessings. knowing that ye are thereunto
called that ye should inherit a blessing. The language then
that we find there in the New Testament is very different to
what we have here in the Old Testament Scriptures. And yet
we have to recognize that the Word of God is one. There's no
contradiction really anywhere in Holy Scripture. There is a
reason for these differences. And what is it? Well, in the
Old Testament, we have to recognize that God's kingdom, although
a spiritual kingdom because God's kingdom is always a spiritual
kingdom, yet there in the Old Testament, it is clearly related
to the physical world. Take a chapter like Deuteronomy
28, which speaks of God's blessings and God's curses. If you read
through that long chapter, you'll see that the blessings that God
promises where there is obedience are very much temporal blessings. And the curses which will be
the result of disobedience are temporal curses. In the Old Testament, There is that that is temporal
and physical about the people of God and the dealings of God
with his people and with their enemies. But when we come to
the New Testament we observe this difference that Christ's
kingdom is not only spiritual in its nature, but there in the
New Testament it is also spiritual in its very form. What does the
Lord say to Pontius Pilate? My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight? And again, the apostles reflect
that teaching of the Lord. Paul in Romans 14, 17, the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, With regards to these psalms,
these imprecatory psalms, I find the language of Isaac Watts in
the preface that he wrote to his psalm paraphrases to be very
helpful. This is what Watts says he is seeking to do
in those paraphrases. He is putting the psalms of the
Old Testament into a Christian dress. And he says this, where
the Psalmist uses sharp invectives against his personal enemies,
I have endeavored to turn the edge of them against our spiritual
adversaries, sin, Satan, and temptation. And I feel in many
ways that is the key whereby we can rightly understand and
interpret these verses at the end of the 137th and the end
of the 139th Psalm. We have to recognize that there
is some difficulty, and I know that some find these verses very
hard to accept. In fact, I've even heard of some
who profess themselves to be evangelical who will dismiss
such verses as if they're not really part of Holy Scripture.
Well, we cannot do that. We have to seek to understand
the significance of them, even the importance of them. And so
secondly, I want to try to say something with regards to the
necessity of imprecation. And here we come to the words
that I announced as our text, verses five and six. If I forget
thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I
do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of
my mouth. If I prefer not Jerusalem above
my chief joy. Surely here we see that the text
is a self-implication. The psalmist is praying that
God will even curse himself if he does not Remember Jerusalem
and prefer Jerusalem above his chief joy. Let my tongue, he
says, cleave to the root of my mouth. Those are strong words.
Those are strong words. And a modern commentator, I think
of H.C. Leupold, the evangelical Lutheran,
paraphrases the words like this, May my vocal cords suffer paralysis. May the ability to speak forsake
me. That's the strength of what the
Psalmist desires to fall upon himself if he does not prefer
Jerusalem and never forget God and the cause of God and truth. How God's people are always to
raise their voices in that cause, the cause of God, the cause of
truth. In Psalm 60 we read, how he has
given a banner to them that fear him, that it may be displayed
because of the truth. And coming to the New Testament,
think of what we read there in the little epistle of Jude, just
previous to the Revelation. There the Apostle Jude says,
I exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was
once delivered unto the saints. And so we have to ask ourselves
the question, is Jerusalem our chief joy? Is Jerusalem our chief
joy? Again, think of language that
we have previously in the 132nd Psalm. And there at verse 13,
the Lord hath chosen Zion. He hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest forever. Here
will I dwell, for I have desired it. For surely if the Lord himself
delights in Zion and Jerusalem, we also ought to do the same. Now what are we to understand
by these references to Zion and Jerusalem? We would like to think
in terms of the Old Testament and the nation of Israel and
their capital city there at Jerusalem. We're to remember that they were
a typical people, a type of God's spiritual Israel, the election
of grace. And so, when we read of Zion,
we think of God's spiritual Zion. We think of the church. And remember,
where there is no gathering, there is no church. In a sense,
I do believe that at this time we are in some way on church. We're on church. We are somewhat
like those who were in Babylon at this time. by the rivers of
Babylon. There we sat down, yea, we wept
when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof. For there they that carried us
away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. We
have to remember that those who were taken into the exile, those
who were in captivity, in Babylon, they were the true spiritual
remnant in Israel. That's evident in what we see
in the ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. He's ministering at
the time of the captivity. He's ministering to those who
were taken into exile. And in chapter 24 of Jeremiah,
we have the parable of the figs. And the interpretation of the
parable Well, you can read the chapter through, but let me just
read the closing part of that chapter and the interpretation.
He says at verse four, again, the word of the Lord came unto
me, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Like these
good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive
of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of
the Chaldeans for their good. for I will set mine eyes upon
them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and
I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them
and not pluck them up, and I will give them a heart to know me,
and I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their
God, for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. And as the evil figs, which cannot
be eaten, they are so evil. Surely, thus saith the Lord,
so will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and
the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them
that dwell in the land of Egypt, and I will deliver them up to
be removed into all the kingdom of the earth. For there hurts
to be a reproach, and a proverb, and a taunt, and a curse in all
places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword,
the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they be consumed
from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers. Ought to be those then who are
here represented by the good things, who feel something of
what the Lord has done in his dealings with us. But God's promise,
I will give them at heart, he says, to know mine. that I am
the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
For they shall return unto me with their whole heart. Ought
to be those then who desire that wholehearted returning unto the
Lord. What are some of the marks, then,
of God's true Israel? Well, God's true Israel contend
against any degrading of God's worship. They contend against the degrading
of God's worship. The words of verse three, the
context here, he speaks of those that had carried them away, requiring
a song. They that wasted us required
of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. The Babylonians were taunting
them and scoffing them. and wanting the Jews to praise
God simply for their own amusement. How solemn it is! How shall we
sing the Lord's song in a strange land? Oh, remember how solemn is the
true worship of God. The Lord Jesus himself reminds
us of that. The true worshipper shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to
worship him. They that worship God must worship
him in spirit and in truth. It is a serious matter to come
together to worship God. It's a solemn thing. That's brought
out, is it not, in the opening words of Ecclesiastes 5? It thy
foot when thou goest to the house of God, be more ready to hear
than to give the sacrifice of both. They consider not what
they do. But we're not to be rash in God's
presence. We are to recognize how important
our worship is. We're not then to cheapen our
worship. And there has been so much of
that as there not over recent years. I'm not saying that's
been the case with us personally, but we are aware that that is
so much of what goes for worship today. It has to be made something
attractive for the people of the world. How are we going to
get the worldlings to come in? Well, let's hate the world. Let's
follow the world's ways. Let's have entertainment evangelism.
And God, you see, doesn't wink at these things, and so judgment
comes. All we must recognize, you know,
how dangerous it is to have a cheap view of what the worship of God
amounts to. We have to remember the importance
of the regulative principle. The true worshipers are spiritual
worshipers. They worship in spirit, but they
also worship in truth. And it is the truth of God that
is to govern us in our worship. We are to contend, then, against
any degrading of the worship of God. And then, also, if we
are truly God's spiritual Israel, we must contend against any denials
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the language of the
Apostle John. That beloved apostle, that man
who seems to be a man of such a tender heart, such a compassionate
man. And yet look at the language
that John uses as he contends against those who are deniers
of the Lord Jesus in his first general epistle. And verse 22,
who is a liar, but he that denies that Jesus is the Christ. He
is antichrist that denies the Father and the Son. Whosoever
denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father, but he that acknowledgeth
the Son hath the Father also." Here he is speaking then against
those who deny the deity of Christ. Whosoever denieth the Son, the
same hath not the Father, he said. If there is no eternal
Some there can be no eternal father and he says that such
deniers are liars and antichrists. But then also when he comes to
others who were denying the reality of the Lord's sinless humanity. In his second epistle, verse
seven, many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver
and an antichrist. The strength of John's language
as he speaks against these heretics, he refers to them as liars and
deceivers and antichrists. It's strong language that the
apostle, the beloved John, uses. And recently my attention was
drawn to some words by Mr. Popham in one of his sermons
where he says this, when I read blasphemers or deniers of Christ's
deity and sacred humanity. The words of Psalm 139, 21 and
22 come into my heart. What are those words? Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate Thee? And am not I greed with those
that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. And Mr. Popham said this, I would
say the same. Or do we love the truth of the
doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and we hate those who deny that
precious doctrine? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember
thee, let my tongue cleave to the root of my mouth. If I prefer
not Jerusalem above my chief joy, or might we be those then
who who do indeed see that whilst there is much difficulty with
these imprecatory verses, yet surely there is a necessity that
we be those who would truly be contenders for the blessed truth
of the everlasting gospel and all the concerns of our Lord
Jesus Christ in his person, in his work, and in our worship
of him. May the Lord be pleased to bless
is word to us.