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"If I forget you, Jerusalem..." - Psalm 137

 Written by Jaakov, B. Orban:

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. How shall we sing the LORD„s song in a strange land? 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. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art 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.

Psalm 137.

 

This part of Psalm 137 is recited during Jewish weddings under the baldachin (the tzoupa).

These words are even more relevant for us since the Body of the Messiah is also: a Bride…

However knowing the laws concerning Jewish weddings, it is necessary to specify one thing:

The term of being engaged, bride or wife does never relate to a revocable or cancelable kind of ”test” union between people nor in the Jewish wedding tradition, nor in the Bible. According to the Jewish tradition which comes directly from the Bible, so from God, the Bride, the wedding is the achievement of a final decision...

Today captivity is still the same, a foreign rule, a system of slavery, serfdom...

 

Verses 1 to 6 of psalm 137 are filled with laments...

- To remember Zion, the remote fatherland,

- to complain about their jailers who almost forced them to sing in their misery...

 

The answer to that is the remembering of God’s Promises, the words of devotion and faith...

 

They forced the slaves to sing...

This lament takes off the veil on the fact that they were mocking at the People of God and especially to the praises of God.

We can practically hear behind these words that:

- Now praise the Lord, in this situation...

- We even let you sing under our rule...

You are free in your slavery...

 

The current interpretation of these words is not difficult to guess either.

It does not matter, if your life is not under the reign of Yeshua HaMashiach, sings, dance and tear the ropes of your musical instrument as you wish... In place of the harps and lutes, the guitar will suit well, because in this psalm it is already question of this type of instrument.

Resign yourself to your situation, let’s be "a praise musician", do not want freedom...

Do not do anything, only sing, God will do everything... in your place...

 

The author of the psalms asks the following:

How could I do that?

How could I praise on a foreign land where idols are worshiped?

If only today’s Bride could also finally awake!

How can anybody live and praise in places that were not chosen and consequently not sanctified by God and where the Lord is something else like God?

 

I would prefer to choose God’s judgment:

I prefer to be handicapped and unable to speak and play instruments on foreign grounds rather than serve alien gods. Should my hands be handicapped rather than serve them!

 

After the verse 7, the psalm reminds God of the sins of Edom’s spirituality that fights against the Chosen People, the Temple and against God Himself.

 

... Judgment is asked and the Lord is praised because Babylon paid for all its sins.

 

Because all the bad things that the ”daughter of Babylon” did were  judged according to the promise of God.

The daughter of Edom (Lamentations 4:21), IS the daughter of Babylon (Revelation 17: 1-2).

The Jewish people do not regard as sin only the captivity of Babylon, but also the destruction of the Second Temple, as well as the Diaspora which followed this act made by the daughter of Edom, which is nothing else but Rome.

 

This is not accidental since these two spiritualities do not testify of a simple external resemblance, but one is the continuity of the other, which is still ruling after thousands of years.

 

When the psalmist promises the blessing of God which consists of slapping the little ones of Babylon against the rock, it is necessary to stop and think for a while...

 

The ancient Eastern people represented the young kings as children sitting on the knees of an adult, reigning and trampling the enemy...

Thus the following question arises.

Shouldn’t we restore the image of the Messiah born in Bethlehem and make it ”Mary-less”?

Isn’t it an idol called little "Jesus" which is ruling today sitting on the knees of his "Mary-mother" that is reigning on him?

The Queen of the Sky or other similar expressions sounds very Babylonian.

Isn’t this worship of the "god’s-mother or mother-goddess" the Queen "daughter" of Babylon, the false religion of the false little Jesus on her knees whose double worship and working includes all the elements of pagan and Hellenic spiritism?

 

I think that today still, it is still the daughter of Babylon which keeps the People of God and the Body of Christ in captivity, in slavery, and which allows and pushes people to praise God...

She makes fun of Christ by her "Baby Jesus" in a complete antichrist manner, and of God and His Promises in the manner of Edom?!

Under its imperial reign, it allows the praise of pagan gods...

You are allowed to be a Christian slave under pagan domination, a Christian slave who forgot the Word of God...

 

The contents of our praises must coincide with the content of this psalm:

 

In a foreign Empire, in slavery, in false ecumenism, we are waiting for the judgment of God.

 

We must bless and praise the Lord for His promised judgment, for His promise of gathering us and restoring the Temple: when the construction of the Body of the Messiah will be completed...

 

Then, however, we will praise and bless Him for ever...

 

Dear Bride, dear Wife!

 

When you entrusted your life to the Husband, you have not simply accepted the Promises of the Eternal and this eternal wedding, but you have also made a promise and an oath before God:

To belong only to Him...

Today you are perhaps living in a Babylonian world, sitting at the rivers of the dirty spiritual rivers of Babylon and you are remembering the Promises of God and you aspire to them...

 

However always remember your promise, remain faithful and keep the faith because the Lord of the world remembers your words and He will remind you.

He will remind you when your assimilation, your inaccuracy, your tolerance will push you into silence when you will not be praising the Lord any more.

Or when the work of your hands will be useless and your ministry unfruitful, when all that you undertake will fail...

When your silence or your paralysis grows day by day and that you will see, when you look around that...

Where anyone surrenders to Babylon, praise dies and there is no more blessing on our work. Distorted murmuring voices, useless and unfruitful ministries...

At the rivers of Babylon... Yesterday, today and tomorrow...

 

Translated from hungarian by Richard (Zeev Shlomo)

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