A Brief Explication of the Last Fifty Psalms, Psalm 137
PSALME CXXXVII.
THis Psalme may be divided into three parts. In the first, is set down the lamentable condition wherein the Lords people were in their captivity in Babylon, ver. 1.2, 3. In the next, is their constancy in Religion, ver. 4, 5, 6. In the third, is their denouncing of judgement by way of imprecation against the instruments and chief authors of their calamity, ver. 7, 8, 9.
Ver. 1. BY the rivers of Babylon there we sate down, yea, we wept: when we remembred Zion.
In the first part, wherein the sorrowful condition of the captive Church of God is set down; Learn, 1. The people of God by their sins may procure the taking away of the face of a visible Church from them, and the taking away of their civil liberties also, and may procure banishment from their own countrey among idolaters, as the captivity of the Jewes in Babylon doth shew. 2. When men do not make use of the priviledges of Gods publick worship, it is righteousnesse with God to remove these abused favours, and to cast the abusers thereof out among idolaters, as here the Jewes were, who because they made not use of Ierusalem, the vision of peace, they are thrust out into Bab… lon, a place of all confusion. 3. When the Lords people provoke God against them, the wickedest wretches and vilest idolaters in the world may overcome them in a battel, and rule over them as over slaves: as the experience of the Jewes doth prove. 4. When desolation is brought upon Gods people, no wonder to see them remain in that condition for a time, and not to be delivered immediately out of it: By the rivers of Babylon there we sate down. 5. The publick miseries of the Church, are causes of heavinesse unto the true members thereof, and motives of mourning: There we sate, yea, we wept. 6. Comparison of a prosperous condition by-past, with adversity present, doth augaugment misery and increaseth grief, especially when by-past mercies abused are compared with just judgments inflicted in the palce thereof: We wept, when we remembred Sion. 7. They who will not esteem of the priviledges of Sion when they have them, will be forced to acknowledge the worth thereof with sorrow when they want them: We wept, when we remembred Sion.
Vers. 2. We hanged our harps upon the willowes, in the midst thereof.
The Lords people carried with them into their captivity their harps; first, as meanes of stirring up their affections, in their private worship of God. Secondly, in hope to have some use of them afterward in the Lords worship, in their own land. And thirdly, that thereby they might make profession before their oppressors of their Religion, and of their hope of restitution in Gods appointed time, albeit they could not frame their heart for the present to rejoyce as they were wont to do▪ Whence learn, 1. Means to help in private devotion must be the more made use of, that publick meanes are wanting: for the Jewes debarred from the Temple do carry their harps with them into their scattering and captivity▪ 2. In the midst of our calamity we ought both to have hope of deliverance out of our trouble▪ and to professe it before those that have us under their power; for so did the captive Jewes in their captivity, they carried their harps into Babylon. 3. There are times when the signes of our joy may be suppressed, and the signes of our sorrow expressed: We hanged our harps on the willowes. 4. The most lawfull and commendable sorrow, is that which is taken for the dishonour of God, and the desolation of the Church: When we remembered Sion, we hanged our harps. 5. No natural comfort, nor invitation unto carnall joy, can counterbalance the causes of spiritual grief, neither rivers, nor shadow of willowes, nor any thing else can stay the godly grief of Gods captived people: We hanged our harps upon the willowes, in the midst thereof.
Ver. 3. 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 Sion.
Their affliction was augmented by the insulting of the Babylonians over them, calling for a song from the Jewes, to feed their godlesse mirth. Whence learn, 1▪ Oft-times sorrowes do not go single, and alone, but one grief is joyned to another, one de…p calleth to another: as here, insultation of the Babylonians is joyned with the bondage and captivity of Gods people. 2. As the sorrow of the godly is the matter of the laughter and joy of their enemies and no sport to the wicked is so relishing, as a jest broken upon the true Religion: so no affliction unto the godly is so heavy, as to finde their own sinnes to draw not only misery on themselves, but also dishonour upon their Religion: as here we see, the Jewes hanged up their harps, and why? For 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 Sion. 3 Corrupt nature maketh no other use of spirituall things, then thereby to satisfie their sensual desires: as here it is mirth, and singing only, for which the Babylonians do seek to hear a Psalme sung: Sing us one of the songs of Sion.
Vers. 4. How shall we sing the LORDS song in a strange land?
5. If I forget thee, O Ierusalem: let my right hand forget her cunning.
6. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roofe of my mouth; if I preferre not Ierusalem above my chiefe joy.
In the second place, wherein the Jewes constant profession of their Religion is set down, and their refusing to satisfie their enemies desire, in prostituting the Lords worship to their ca…nal pleasure; Learn, 1. Albeit we be under the feet of our enemies and albeit we have drawn on our misery by our sinning, yet must we neither deny our Religion, nor any part thereof for fear of man, nor subject our Religion to mens pleasure, as men think good to direct us in it, whatsoever may be the danger; for so doth the example of the captive people of God teach us, refusing to sing Psalmes at the desire of the Babylonians: How shall we sing the Lords song in a strange land? 2. The place where God is not worshipped, should be a strang land unto us his people, and no place kindely or comfortable unto us, but where the Lords people may enjoy the liberty of Gods publick worship, and of the communion of Saints: How shall we sing the Lords Song in a strange land? 3. Whatsoever be our own private condition, worse or better, it must not take up the room in our affection, which is due to the Church; it must not make us forget the affliction of Ioseph, for that were to provoke God to make those benefits uselesse unto us, which did divert us from sympathy with the Church: If I forget thee, O Ierusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning, or if the Church of God, and the good of it be not preferred above our own private contentments, it shall be righteousnesse with God to turn the meanes of our private contentment, to be the means of our private grief: If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I preferre not Ierusalem to my chief joy. 4. To seek mens favour with the det…iment of any point of Religion, or to consent unto mens encroachment upon matters of Religion, that we may have their favour, or that we may be freed from their trouble, or sit at more ease under them, is to forget God and his Church, and our respects which we owe to God, and to his Church: as we are taught by the example of the Jewes, refusing to sing Psalmes at the Babylonians desire or direction, and expounding their obedience to the Babylonians in this point, to be nothing else but a forgetting of Ierusalem, and a denying of their Religion, if they should have yielded.
Vers. 7. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom, in the day of Ierusalem: who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.
8. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed: happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us.
9. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones agaenst the stones.
In the imprecation used against the enemies of the Church, and in particular against their false brethren the Edomites, who helped on their affliction, and against the Babylonians who were the chief oppressors of them; Learn, 1. False brethren are the chief instruments of persecution of the true members of the Church, whensoever they finde occasion, a… the Edomites, the posterity of Esau did prove in the destruction of Ierusalem: Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom. 2. Whosoever do delight in the Churches calamity, and do endeavour the Churches ruine by word or deed; by their stirring up of others to afflict them; or by any oppression which may tend to the Churches prejudice, when the Lord is visiting her, their sinne shall not be forgotten of God in the day, when the Lord judgeth his people, but shall be severely punished; Remember, O …ord, the children of Edom, in the day of Ierusalem. 3. No lesse will suffice the adversaries of the Church then the utter ruine, and rasing of it to the ground; Who said of Ierusalem, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. 4. The estate of the Church at the worst is better then the estate of Babylon, or any estate of her adversaries, how prosperous soever, at the best; for albeit the Church be in captivity and oppressed, yet she shall not be destroyed, but it is not so with her adversaries: but, O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, 5. Faith is neither blinded by the prosperity of the wicked, nor by the adversity of the Church, but doth see through the prospect of the Lords Word, both her approaching delivery of the Church, and the ruine of her enemies: for, O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed, doth shew unto the captive Jewes so much. 6. As the enemies of Gods Church have measured out unto the Lords people, so it shall be measured back again and more, for a reward unto her adversaries: Happy shall he be that rewardeth thee, as thou hast served us. 7. There is an happinesse, wherein blessednesse doth not consist, which neither is a part, or branch of blessednesse, nor a proper mark of blessednesse, but only signifieth some happinesse in the consequence of a mans work, tending to the glory of God and good of his Church; and such is the happinesse of the Medes, and Persians here spoken of, who, whatsoever were their corrupt intentions in their warre, did work, albeit not as religious servants, yet as Gods instruments, a good work of justice upon the oppressors of Gods people, and a good work of delivery of the Lords people: Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones. 8. Albeit it be a sinfull thing to satisfie our carnall affection in the misery of any man; yet it is lawfull in Gods cause to wish that God be glorified, albeit in the confusion of his enemies: and here great need is to have the heart well guarded with the fear of God, for wherwise to allow the dashing of little ones against the stones, might make a man guilty of savage cruelty.