S ~ O Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy is the one who pays you back for what you have done to us. Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks! Psalm 137:8-9
O ~ The people of Jerusalem were sitting in captivity, refusing to sing happy 'spiritual' songs, much like the black spirituals of slavery. There was anger - and even hatred towards their captors.
A ~ It is so hard to read verses like this.... IN THE BIBLE. God does not hate children, nor does He rejoice when babies are smashed against the rocks. It's hard when Moses and Company were instructed to wipe everyone out - women and children and pregnant women. There are casualties in war - innocents. But happy to smash children? I've looked at this verse in various translations - and they all say the same thing. I am stuck. I don't agree. Was this just the psalmists frustration? But how can you pick and choose how to interpret the psalms. One rule is to interpret the Bible with the Bible - to interpret this verse in the light of all scripture. In doing so, this verse doesn't fit with God. The only way through this is to see that the Psalmist is talking to the city, not the people. O Sodom, O Gomorrah, O Jerusalem, O Babylon. The city's children, not the people's children.
P ~ Lord, please help me to always rightly understand Your word - and find a way through difficult passages.
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