A Psalm for the Heartbroken and Homesick (Psalm 137:1–9)

There are many reasons to love the Psalms. They are beautiful, expressing eternal truth in elegant language. They are rich, offering more and more treasure the deeper one mines. And, perhaps most basically, they are emotional, showcasing that what we feel in this life the psalmists felt in theirs—lament and grief, fear and vulnerability, thanksgiving and anticipation, celebration and praise, wonder and humility, regret and restoration, empowerment and peace. But no tour of human emotion is complete without an acknowledgement of anger, without a consideration of fury fuelled by injustice, without a study of exasperation sparked by the sin in this world and in our own lives. There are times when God’s people should be filled with a righteous indignation for the evil we see, the wickedness we experience, and the sin with which we wrestle. Psalm 137 exemplifies such rage and the battle to keep it sinless.