This is one of those Psalms that is not on the ‘approved reading list’ for children in the church. It deals with intense anger, with this shocking image: “Happy is the one who takes your babies and dashes them against a rock.” Now, what’s the deal with that? Remember, the psalmist is not recommending murder, violence, or hatred; he is expressing the anger and rage he felt at that moment in his desire for revenge against his enemies, the Babylonians, who had murdered Israel’s own infant children. The psalms express real human emotion; anger, rage, and revenge are what we feel in the face of injustice, when we have been wronged, or when someone has been abused. It is clear from a total reading of the Bible and from the teachings of Jesus, that God’s way for us is forgiveness toward our enemies and not violence or revenge. But sometimes we have to be able to vent our feelings of anger and revenge to God so that we are then able to move on to a place of forgiveness. Lewis Smeads says about forgiveness, “It comes in four stages. (1) we hurt, (2) we hate, (3) we heal, and (4) we move on. It’s only when we are honest about what we really feel before God that God can truly begin to bring healing, peace, and forgiveness to our souls. –Dr. Tim Thompson
PSALM 137