1 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.
2 On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
4 How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill!
6 Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!
7 Remember, O Lord, against the Edomites the day of Jerusalem, how they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”
8 O daughter of Babylon, doomed to be destroyed, blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
9 Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!
This psalm includes the Israelites’ lament of a lost homeland, foreign captivity, and religious persecution, as well as a plea for retribution upon their enemies. In this imprecatory psalm, the writer declares with raw language that evil doers will be destroyed! Sorrow and anger rise to the surface, reminding us that we, too, have dark recesses of our souls that God alone can see.
What does this psalm show you about God and about your relationship with Him? Where are you wrestling with sorrow and/or anger in your life today?
Spend time praying, crying out to God with the aches and joys in your life, trusting Him to one day right every wrong.