May 18

Psalm 137
In Psalm 135 we learned that God treasured His people, Jacob, Israel. In Psalm 137 His treasured people are in exile. This Psalm is written in the depths of despair by an exile. What had the exiles experienced? Their whole land was invaded. City after city was sacked and destroyed. Refugees, probably by the thousands fled to Jerusalem, the capital, for protection. The city was laid under siege for more than a year. Running out of food and strength, the king tried to make a break for it. It was unsuccessful. The city wall was breached. Many were raped, killed and pillaged. In ancient wars, it was not uncommon for even babies to be purposely killed. Many were taken on a 900 mile (500 as the crow flies) forced march to live the rest of their lives in in exile. Only the poor of the land were left in the land. I am sure that many were thinking, “If this is God treasuring us, I’d hate to see what He does to His enemies.”
In their day, the fate of the city was considered to be tied up in whether or not your god was stronger than the god of the invading army. The captors demanded songs of their captors in order to rub the noses of their captors in what they supposed to be the fact that their god was stronger than the captive’s god. How can you sing a song of praise to a god who is either impotent or does not treasure you? And so, this is the position in which the captives found themselves. How could they be anywhere but in the depths of despair?
This is where faith must step in. Faith is not a Pollyanna approach to life that colors the darkest of circumstances in rosy color hues. It recognizes the dark circumstances, but it refuses to believe the enemy’s lie that they are not treasured by God or that God is impotent. It looks beyond attendant circumstances. It trusts that God does indeed possess a reason for leading one through the horrible circumstances, and that reason is ultimately for my good and His glory. In the midst of those circumstances we must continually refuse the taunts of the enemy’s lies that he forces into our minds. We must take those thoughts captive by the power of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must tear down the strongholds of those taunts. He has given us weapons that are indeed powerful for tearing down those strongholds, but we must tear them down! That does not mean that He will change the circumstances. It means that He will change our mindset as we cooperate with Him! The exiles probably died in Babylon. Some of their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren returned to rebuild Jerusalem and see better circumstances, but for the most part, they died in Babylon.
Did God treasure the exiles? Yes He did, but He was seeking to cure them and their seed of their idolatry, and he was somewhat successful! Israel has had little problem with literal idolatry since then. The things that I treasure, I want to keep them clean and pure. He was seeking to make them clean and pure. In His goodness He designs circumstances of our lives to cure us of our spiritual idolatry. In the midst of those circumstances we must not allow ourselves to succumb to the lies of the enemy, but we must look beyond the circumstance to what He is trying to accomplish. Even when we do not know specifically what He is working to accomplish, we must cling to the truth that it is for our purification for the praise of the glory of His grace. Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john