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NASB | Psalm 137:9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Psalm 137:9 How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock. |
Subject: Baby Smashing? |
Bible Note: The violence of nationalism. Thanks for your great answer. There is much to think about there. Here's what I've been thinking about since I posted the question. I'm not certain about it (and its definately a different take than what you have offered) but I think it makes sense. I read this Psalm with great empathy, thinking of all that they have lost. Their whole sense of God's action in their midst was centred on the Temple and the promised land --- losing both must have been devastating. It seems to me that, while God can execute judgement, it is not our place to call out for the smashing of baby's heads. God is judge; we are to turn the other cheek and get hit again (Matt 5:39). Since violence begetts violence, God often uses the wicked to judge the wicked --- which doesn't leave much room for "Blessed"... To destroy the children for the parents' fault also goes against Ezekiel 18. So, what then to make of this verse? Certainly it is the human cry of anger and humilation, crying out for "justice." But, as we are prone to do, it is a vision of justice gone awry. Then, looking back up the Psalm, we see other distortions that lead the lament to this point. The identification with Jerusalem is stronger than the identification as God's people. Exile does not alienate them from being God's people --- in fact, exile is anticipated in the Mosaic covenant (Deut 29:28). But, due to their nationalism, they are unable to sing the Lord's song in a foreign land. "If I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy." (v 6) Only God should be their highest joy. Thus, their idolatry of national pride leads them to the brutality of the final verse. |